Career: While working in Hartford, Falk joined a local theatre group called the Mark Twain Masquers. He also took acting classes at the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut. In 1956, he moved to New York to pursue an acting career. He made his professional stage debut in an Off-Broadway production of Moliere's Dom Juan - it closed after just one performance. He had better luck with other Broadway roles. After a number of small film parts, Falk was praised for his supporting role in Murder, Inc. (1960), for which he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. In 1961, he starred in Frank Capra's final film, Pocketful of Miracles and earned his second Academy Award nomination. Falk continued to make films and make guest appearances on TV shows. He is best known as the star of the TV detective series Columbo, which he first played in the 1968 TV movie Prescription: Murder. He went on to play the crumpled detective on and off on TV between 1971 until 2003. Falk died at his Beverly Hills home on June 23, 2011 at the age of 83.

Career: Flanagan's acting breakthrough in Ireland was in the Irish language play An Triail. She made her Broadway debut in 1968 in Brian Friel's Lovers. Flanagan is known for her interpretations of works by the author James Joyce, having played Gerty McDowell in the film version of Ulysses (1967), all six main female roles in the film adaptation of James Joyce's Women (1985) and theatrical productions of Ulysses in Nighttown and Women. Flanagan has appeared on many American TV shows and TV films, including The Ewok Adventure (1984), How the West Was Won, Murder, She Wrote and Rich Man, Poor Man. She has made a number of big screen appearances, including in The Others (2001), Four Brothers (2005), Transamerica (2005), Yes Man (2008) and The Invention of Lying (2009). Between 2006 and 2008, she played Rose Caffee in the American TV drama Brotherhood. More recently, she appeared in the spin-off of EastEnders, Redwater.