Who is your favorite "Columbo" villian?

[WI_DEM]

You would need to have been a fan of the classic 70's series to appreciate this thread.

[flamingyouth]

1. Ah, Jack Cassidy!

He was great.

[Itchinjim]

2. William! Shatner!

[johnnie]

3. Johnny

[Torgo Johnson]

4. Went for Shatner

Not for his appearance during the 70's but for the movie during the early 90's where he played a right-wing radio talk host. Especially during a scene where he had a politican on his show and then hired someone to call-in and falsely accuse the politican of sleeping with an unwed teenage mother.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Several good ones

1. Jackie Cooper as a candidate for the US Senate who murders his campaign manager. Columbo reads him his rights immediately after he he announces victory on election night.

2. Sebastian Cabot as a astrologer in financial difficulty who hires a thug to kidnap his wife and wall her, then, pretending diminished capacity, kills the thug in front of the police. The idea, of course, is to let his wife die. Columbo solves the case and gets a confession out of Cabot as in front of his intended victim.

3. Ross Martin as an art collector. About midway through the episode, Columbo had reached into portfolio containing the painting, not knowing exactly what was inside, but as it transpires Martin could only have been transporting the painting from the murder site. At the end, Columbo orders a painting that is a key piece of evidence dusted for fingerprints; Martin protests that his fingerprints would be all over it. However, Columbo is looking for his own fingerprints. Martin ties to charge that Columbo had just then planted his own fingerprints on the painting. Columbo pulls his hands out of his trench coat to reveal that he is wearing woolen gloves.

4. Robert Conrad as the owner of a chain of gymnasiums. He does in one of his associates who is wise to his embezzling his own business.

5. Janet Leigh as a faded film actress who kills her husband. The twist is that the character is dying from a brain disease that effects her short term memory so that she cannot remember committing the crime. In the end, Columbo elects not to arrest her and allows her to live what time she has left at home.

[Twenty3]

7. Janet Leigh!

I forgot all about her. That was a wonderful episode!

[Twenty3]

6. "Make Me a Perfect Murder"

Trish Vandevere (sp?) as the TV producer Kay Freestone.

But yeah, Johnny Cash, he was amazing too. And Jack Cassidy was always good. Roddy McDowell as the mad bomber... George Hamilton as the murdering shrink... OH OH and Susan Clarke as the brother-killing wannabe CEO!

All my favorites. I'm tickled there are still Colombo fans!

[LordshipLadyship]

8. Oscar Werner , Richard Basehart..

Helen Shaver, the one in which Columbo pretends he really was poisoned, and his wife is dead, there's just too many

Great series.

[WI_DEM]

9. The one with Dick Van Dyke

was pretty good too. As the photographer who kills his wife, it was different seeing Dick playing the heavy.