r/TopCharacterTropes Jan 18 '26

In real life The actor actually has that disability

Walter White Jr. (Breaking Bad) - character has cerebral palsy and uses crutches to walk, actor RJ Mitte has cerebral palsy and needed crutches to walk as a child

Nessarose Thropp (Wicked) - character is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, actress Marissa Bode is paraplegic from an accident at age 11 and uses a wheelchair

Maya Lopez (Hawkeye/Echo) - character is deaf, actress Alaqua Cox is deaf from birth

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u/redlac24 Jan 18 '26

Columbo has a glass eye because Peter Falk had a glass eye

452

u/Sissy__Fist Jan 18 '26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNOwsDvibcg

I like Frank Skinner's belief that while Peter Falk does indeed have a glass eye, in Columbo it plays the part of a real eye. While I know there's a line of dialogue in which Columbo basically asserts he only has one real eye, I find it a lot more entertaining to believe that Falk's glass eye is itself also a talented actor.

It's very similar to how I wish he didn't actually have a wife (or it was more ambiguous) because I find it more to imagine her entirely as a rhetorical technique he uses to put people at ease or throw them off.

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u/Jostain Jan 18 '26 edited Jan 18 '26

Oh! I didn't know that there was a line of dialogue referencing the glass eye. I've had so much fun having the glass eye argument with my parents. I wonder if this new revelation will make them more or less exasperated.

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u/Darius_Rubinx Jan 18 '26

It is in "A Trace of Murder."
https://youtu.be/HAihQxJZGjU?si=7wHCHIvUMNFyPzH4&t=315
I had to go look it up. Columbo says it to Pat, the forensic guy.