One of the funniest things about Columbo is that, despite the endless roster of illustrious guest-stars, you do tend to see the same actors again and again. I love this. It’s a hallmark of 20th century television… how many of the same actors popped into different Twilight Zone episodes, for crying out loud?
Still, because Columbo is a show where the main detective studies his suspects extremely carefully, it IS kind of funny that some of the people who kill look exactly like killers from previous cases. Now, some of these actors have a good two decades or so in between their appearances… but some take only a year or two before they return to kill again. I find this delightful.
So, assembled for your pleasure… the actors who have appeared on Columbo multiple times.
William Shatner
- KILLER: Ward Fowler
- EPISODE: Fade into Murder (1976)
- KILLER: Fielding Chase
- EPISODE: Butterfly in Shades of Grey (1994)
Patrick McGoohan
- KILLER: Colonel Lyle C. Rumford
- EPISODE: By Dawn’s Early Light (1974)
- KILLER: Nelson Brenner
- EPISODE: Identity Crisis (1975)
- KILLER: Oscar Finch
- EPISODE: Agenda for Murder (1990)
- KILLER: Eric Prince
- EPISODE: Ashes to Ashes (1998)
George Hamilton
- KILLER: Dr. Mark Collier
- EPISODE: A Deadly State of Mind (1975)
- KILLER: Wade Anders
- EPISODE: Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (1991)
Jack Cassidy
- KILLER: Ken Franklin
- EPISODE: Murder by the Book (1971)
- KILLER: Riley Greenleaf
- EPISODE: Publish or Perish (1974)
- KILLER: The Great Santini
- EPISODE: Now You See Him (1976)
Robert Culp
- KILLER: Investigator Carl Brimmer
- EPISODE: Death Lends a Hand (1971)
- KILLER: Paul Hanlon
- EPISODE: The Most Crucial Game (1972)
- KILLER: Dr. Bart Keppel
- EPISODE: Double Exposure (1973)
- NON-KILLER: Jordan Rowe
- EPISODE: Columbo Goes to College (1990)
And then we have THESE three cases, in which an actor who appears in a Columbo episode as a regular character comes back to play a villain in another episode:
Dabney Coleman
- NON-KILLER: Detective Murray
- EPISODE: Double Shock (1973)
- KILLER: Hugh Creighton
- EPISODE: Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star (1991)
Joyce Van Patten
- NON-KILLER: Sister of Mercy
- EPISODE: Negative Reaction (1974)
- KILLER: Ruth Lytton
- EPISODE: Old Fashioned Murder (1976)
Ed Begley Jr.
- NON-KILLER: Officer Stein
- EPISODE: How to Dial a Murder (1978)
- KILLER: Irving Krutch
- EPISODE: Undercover (1994)
