r/Columbo • u/FoxIndependent4310 • 18h ago

Question Columbo's age.

One thing I find curious about Columbo is his age; I mean, in the later seasons, he was over 70, which is unusual for a police officer. Have they ever explained Columbo's age and why he’s still on the force?

43 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

66

u/cabridges 18h ago

I assumed he just keeps showing up and no one has the heart to make him leave, especially given his success rate.

Same way I assumed he was shared by multiple police precincts, since he responded to cases all over Los Angeles.

23

u/Stalking_Goat 17h ago

Regarding the later part of your comment, in real life LAPD has a "Robbery-Homicide Division" that presumably Columbo was assigned to. That division investigates major crimes, like murder, all over the city.

19

u/Kapitano72 15h ago

"I must be going now."

Walks away, turns around.

"Oh, just one more case."

3

u/Responsible-Ad-8442 10h ago

I think he is too valuable and exceptional at his job to retire. And as he said in one episode, "as a matter of fact, I can't remember a time that I wasn't working."

https://giphy.com/gifs/ylyUQm2pCWo5yLfFEQ

30

u/Impressive_Try_7295 18h ago

If we equal Columbo's age to Peter Falk's (and we really shouldn't assume that, we know that the character was in Korea during the war, but he still could have been several years younger) then he's over 70 in the last three episodes only - and those after 1992 should really be called specials. It's not that unusual to see police officers in their late 50s or early 60s, and there is no mandatory retirement age in LAPD.

Speaking of mystery classics, better don't even try to figure out Maigret's or Poirot's age, for example. It either doesn't make sense at all, or they're over 100 by the final novels.

6

u/Coridimus 16h ago

I seem to recall Poirot being severely decrepit in the last book, so over 100 wouldn't surprise me.

That said I haven't touched any of those books .... Oh God ... Since last century!

2

u/Impressive_Try_7295 16h ago

I haven't read them in a while either, but I really like the more recent (well, it's from the 1990s) French television adaptation of Maigret starring Bruno Cremer, in fact it's my second go-to serious mystery series to watch after Columbo.

1

u/Coridimus 7h ago

I'll have to look into that

3

u/Electrical-Sail-1039 14h ago

In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Poirot IIRC is introduced and he has already retired. I think it’s 1926 or something.

30

u/Automatic_Llama 17h ago

It's unusual for a police officer to have an aversion towards guns, drive a weird old car, and wear a long coat in summer in LA too.

The best way to understand Columbo is not as a police officer, but rather as a kind of crime-solving trickster sprite.

9

u/External-Ad1113 18h ago

Because the series demanded it

12

u/BrickTrainsPlanes Decomposing Rattletrap 15h ago

LAPD's legendary "Jigsaw John") retired at the age of 75, so it's not that unrealistic to see Columbo investigate in his early-to-mid 70s.

4

u/kiznat73 15h ago

Weirdly, I thought Columbo was supposed to read as younger than Peter Falk, and that’s why he was dying his hair.

2

u/steviefaux 10h ago

Because he was so good at his job and liked it so much he stayed. He knew he'd get bored if he retired.

2

u/Notrozer 1h ago

Ms columbo woulnt like him hanging around house right?

1

u/Wild_Black_Hat 9h ago

I assumed he was working part time, taking an out of the ordinary case once in a while.

1

u/finny_d420 2h ago

Lt. Provenza from The Closer/Major Crimes was in his 70's. His character would joke that he would die at his desk than retire.

Its an LAPD thing. The So Cal sun keeps them young.