This Woman Was Not Allowed to Visit Sick Star Dad Was Banned from His Funeral by Stepmom

• Learning of her father’s passing was devastating, but discovering it through a news broadcast compounded the tragedy.
• This woman faced such a harsh reality, as her stepmother intentionally isolated her from her father.
• She was not only prevented from visiting him during his last moments but also excluded from attending his funeral.

He was a talented actor, loved by many for his personality and acting talent. He had a successful career, and when he died, the acting world shuddered. News quickly spread as it does these days, and before long, everyone was talking about it.

That was how his daughter discovered that he was dead. Why? Because as the actor’s health declined, his wife intentionally distanced him from his daughter.

Her stepmom not only denied her the chance to be with her father as he neared the end. She also made sure she was not invited to the funeral or notified of his death.

She was devastated, not just because of her loss, but also because of the way she found out. “How would you feel if you had to hear from the media, or hear from an attorney that your dad passed away?” she asked.

In the days following her father’s passing and funeral, she dealt with unimaginable grief. She said, “I’ve been filled with so many different emotions, so much anger, so much sadness, so much pain. I am in a state of shock.”

Her dad was married twice. His first marriage was to Alice Mayo, with whom she adopted Catherine and her sister, Jackie. Their parents were married for about 16 years before they went their separate ways in 1976.

Shortly after, Peter Falk met his second wife, Shera Danese, who had appeared as a guest star on “Columbo,” the show that brought him fame. In 1977, the pair tied the knot.

The relationship between father and daughter was strained at times. In 1992, Catherine took her father to court because he stopped paying her college fees. However, they eventually settled the matter privately.

Some may have felt a bit irritated at Catherine for dragging her dad to court like that. Shera, who had already been married to her dad for years when it happened, could easily have been one of them. This strained relationship between her husband and stepdaughter could have influenced her actions in later years.

Perhaps it’s why in his later years, while he battled Alzheimer’s disease, she started making it difficult for Catherine to see her father. Catherine did not take kindly to that, so she filed court documents asking to become his conservator and legal guardian.

She revealed that her dad had once lost control of his car and crashed into an office building, suffering a head injury. The documents claimed he was “unable to manage his financial resources or to resist fraud or undue influence” and could “easily be deceived into transferring away property.”

Catherine claimed that the actor, at 81, was no longer able to make informed decisions or communicate his desires. Her concern grew when she saw a news report of her father causing a commotion in Beverly Hills, looking unkempt and distressed.

Catherine, reflecting on her father’s life and her efforts to protect his legacy, said, “To us, he wasn’t ‘Columbo.’ He was dad.” While she and her had disagreed, mostly because her stepmom tried to drive them apart, they had also been able to put ill feelings aside to get closer.

“I think that most people feel that I am this money-grubbing daughter, that I’m just going after my dad to get money,” Catherine would say. But she blamed their problems on Shera, who she said constantly sought to divide them.

“My father was married to a woman that made it really difficult for my father to feel free. We weren’t allowed to go to his house,” she commented.

Catherine’s love for her father drove her to fight for his well-being. She was determined to ensure he received proper care, leading to a costly and lengthy legal battle with Shera. Sadly, Shera seemed to have the final say, as Catherine lost.

Because of all she went through, she decided to create an organization to advocate for the rights of adult kids to see their sick parents.

She was eventually given a visitation order from a court, but that did not stop Catherine from pushing for a reverse of the laws that make it hard for adult kids to see their sick parents, especially when they are being denied by second or third spouses.

Despite Catherine’s attempts, Shera seemingly had the last laugh. Her dad died in June 2011 on a Thursday night at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 83.

News of his demise was broadcasted in a statement from Larry Larson, a longtime friend and the lawyer for the late actor’s wife, Shera. When he died, not only was Catherine separated from him, but she was also not notified.

She got to know from the media, and when her lawyer Troy Martin repeatedly requested to know when and where the funeral would happen, he was denied. The response stated that “Peter’s final resting place is only about Peter, not Catherine, his estranged adopted daughter.”

Peter was laid to rest in Westwood Memorial Park, alongside stars such as Caroll O’Connor and Jack Lemmon. Catherine eventually found calmness and closure, but it only eased some of the pain of being banned from his funeral.

Peter Falk was born in Manhattan on September 16, 1927. He lived for some time in the Bronx, near Yankee Stadium, but spent most of his childhood in Ossining, N.Y, where his dad ran a clothing store.

One of his eyes had to be taken out and replaced by a glass one when he was three, but that did not bother Peter. In fact, despite his missing eye, he was an athlete in high school.

One story he enjoyed telling was about how he removed his fake eye and handed it to the umpire when he was called out at third base during a baseball game. “You’ll do better with this,” he said.

From high school, Peter enrolled in Hamilton College, but it was only briefly. He dropped out and joined the Merchant Marine as a cook. He returned to school later, earning a degree in political science from the New School for Social Research before attending Syracuse University, where he received a master’s degree in public administration.

Peter started acting in Connecticut, where he joined an amateur troupe called the Mark Twain Masquers. He took classes from Eva Le Gallienne at the White Barn Theater in Westport, and then when he was 29, he returned to New York, his sights set on acting.

He made his professional debut in 1956 in an Off-Broadway production of Molière’s “Don Juan.” The following year he landed the role of a bartender in the Circle in the Square revival of “The Iceman Cometh,” directed by José Quintero and starring Jason Robards.

His screen debut came in 1960, earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He played other roles as well, but his life was completely changed in 1967 when he was cast as Lieutenant Columbo in the television film “Prescription: Murder.”

Peter embodied the character so completely that the lines between actor and role often blurred. He insisted on using his own raincoat and chose the Peugeot from the studio motor pool, saying it “even matched the raincoat.”

They had the same oddities, including an informal mode of speech, an obsession with detail, and an irrepressible absent-mindedness. He put so much into the role and lived the rest of his life, reminded by everyone of that.

While Catherine Falk felt deep sadness from being excluded from her father’s final farewell, she held onto the warm memories they created together. These memories brought her solace and kept her father’s love alive in her heart.

Catherine fondly recalled, “He wasn’t in character. He was the character. He was genuinely this bumbling, goofy, absent-minded guy who was so funny and loved his family.” She laughed as she remembered how he would forget Christmas presents in the trunk of his car until the next Christmas.