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Strange Bedfellows is the tenth episode of the tenth season of Columbo and the sixty-fifth episode overall. It first aired on May 8, 1995 and was directed by Vincent McEveety from a screenplay by "Lawrence Vail". In addition to Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, the episode stars George Wendt, Rod Steiger and Bruce Kirby in his final appearance on the show.

In Strange Bedfellows, Columbo is forced to team up with a mob boss in order to catch a stable owner who killed his own brother.

Cast[]

  • Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo.
  • George Wendt as Graham McVeigh, a thoroughbred horse ranch owner who murders his brother, frames a mob bookie and then kills the bookie. He didn't plan on the entire weight of the Mafia coming down on him.
  • Rod Steiger as Vincenzo Fortelli, a notorious mob godfather who wants to get his own back on McVeigh after the death of Bruno.
  • Jeff Yagher as Teddy McVeigh, Graham's gambling addicted brother who owes a serious amount of money to Bruno. Sick of constantly bailing him out, Graham decides to cut his losses and kill Teddy, making it look like the work of gangsters.
  • Jay Acovone as Bruno Romano, a restaurant owner and mob bookie who takes bad bets from Teddy, resulting in Teddy getting into serious debt. McVeigh frames him for Teddy's murder and guns him down, making it look like self-defence.
  • Bruce Kirby as Sergeant Phil Brindle, Columbo's assistant on the McVeigh case. He may or may not have been Sergeant George Kramer in a previous life.
  • Linda Gehringer as Lorraine Buchinsky, a waitress at Bruno's Riostorante. The fact that she was in bed with him at the time of Teddy's murder gives him an alibi.
  • Don Calfa as Rudy, bartender at Bruno's.
  • William Bogert as Randall Thurston, a friend of McVeigh's who wants to buy his prize horse Dixie Daisy.
  • Shani Wallis as Gwen Thurston, Randall's wife.
  • John Finnegan as Barney, the owner of Columbo's favourite chili haunt. Finnegan reprises his role from It's All in the Game.
  • Gerry Gibson as Pat O'Connor, McVeigh's distinctly Irish stablehand.
  • Justin Lord as Lieutenant Albert Schiffer, Columbo's colleague who responds to the scene of Bruno's shooting.
  • Karen Mayo-Chandler as Tiffany Keene, Teddy's English girlfriend.
  • Alex Henteloff plays the pawnbroker who sells McVeigh the gun in the opening scene.
Columbo (season 10)
1."Columbo Goes to College" 2."Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health" 3."Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star" 4."Death Hits the Jackpot" 5."No Time to Die" 6."A Bird in the Hand..." 7."It's All in the Game" 8."Butterfly in Shades of Grey" 9."Undercover" 10."Strange Bedfellows" 11."A Trace of Murder" 12."Ashes to Ashes" 13."Murder with Too Many Notes" 14."Columbo Likes the Nightlife"
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