Columbo Icon Peter Falk’s Daughter Jacqueline Dies at 60 — What We Know

Some tough news to share: Jacqueline Falk, one of Peter Falk's daughters, has died. She was 60.

What happened

• Date and place: Monday, April 27, at her home
• Official ruling: Suicide, per the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner
• Status: The case is still listed as an open investigation
• First reported by: TMZ

About Jacqueline and the Falk family

Jacqueline was one of two daughters Peter Falk adopted with his first wife, Alyce Mayo. The former couple, who met in college, also adopted Catherine. Jacqueline mostly stayed out of the public eye, though she did step onto a red carpet with her dad as his guest at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium back in 1988.

A quick Peter Falk refresher

Peter Falk is television royalty thanks to 'Columbo,' a role that earned him four Emmys and a permanent spot in TV history. Beyond the rumpled raincoat, he popped up in plenty of notable films, including 'Pocketful of Miracles,' 'Murder, Inc.,' and 'The Princess Bride.'

After splitting from Mayo in 1976, Peter married actor Shera Danese in 1977. They stayed together until his death in 2011 at 83, following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

After Peter's death: the family-law wrinkle

Following her father's passing, Catherine became outspoken about how tough it can be for adult children to maintain access to a parent when someone else controls medical and legal decisions. She has said she ran into roadblocks trying to see him while he was alive. Her nonprofit, the Catherine Falk Organization, also claims both she and Jacqueline only learned of their father's death through media reports and their attorney, not directly from family — a painful detail that helped drive Catherine to push for 'Peter Falk's Law.'

If you have not heard of it, that legislation is designed to protect visitation and communication rights for adult children when a parent is incapacitated. It is a very specific piece of policy born from a very public family's private struggle.

Remembering their dad

In a 2023 interview, Catherine shared a few warm, very Peter Falk anecdotes — including how he would swing his whole head to make eye contact because he only had vision in his left eye. She joked that sometimes this meant blowing a red light or hopping a curb, which sounds exactly like the kind of endearing chaos you would expect from the man behind TV's most persistent detective.

'My mom always told me my dad was Columbo long before Columbo found my dad.'

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