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: In 1955, he began recording for the Sun record label, and the following year released the million-selling single I Walk the Line. In 1958, he moved to Columbia Records, and although he continued to score hits, he would be dogged by drug and alcohol abuse for the next decade. In the late 1960s, he released two hugely successful live albums recorded in jails - Folsom Prison and San Quentin - and was given his own TV show. He branched into acting, but his music career appeared to be on the wane in the 1980s, until he teamed up with producer Rick Rubin for the acclaimed album American Recordings in 1994. He died on September 12, 2003.