TWO FOR TUESDAY - LESLIE NIELSEN IN "COLUMBO", TWICE OVER

‘COLUMBO’
“LADY IN WAITING”

Peter Hamilton was a lawyer working with the Chadwick advertising agency, one of the largest on the West Coast.  Soon after joining, he began dating Beth Chadwick, the sister of the company’s chairman, Bryce Chadwick.  But it was a clandestine relationship because Beth knew that Bryce and their mother would not approve of her suitor.

Bryce still found out however, and threatened to fire Hamilton if he didn’t end his relationship with his sister.  This led to the death of Bryce Chadwick and a transformation in the life of his sister.

Peter Hamilton came from a well-established banking family which had been founded by John Hamilton, the president of the North Fork Bank in New Mexico during the 1880s.  I’ve written about Mr. Hamilton in the past:

THE HAMILTON BANK & “MacMILLAN & WIFE”

THE HAMILTON BANK & “BARNEY MILLER”

But Peter Hamilton didn’t stay in the family business, not even in his capacity as a lawyer.  His twin brother didn’t either.

Oh, you’ve seen this ‘Columbo’ episode and don’t remember Peter Hamilton having a twin brother?  Well, remember – this is Toobworld.  We never limit ourselves to just one episode of a show; we don’t even respect the borders between TV series!

But in this case, we are sticking to the ‘Columbo’ bailiwick.  Leslie Nielsen played Peter Hamilton, but he returned a few seasons later as a spy known by the alias of AJ Henderson and the code name of “Geronimo”.  (The real AJ Henderson actually was in the advertising business and traveled the world as part of his job.  This made him a perfect mark for Geronimo to steal his identity.)

The full name for Geronimo’s true identity isn’t known, but I’m going to assert that his surname was Hamilton, making him Peter Hamilton’s twin brother.  This “splains” away at least his visage reappearing a second time on ‘Columbo’.  But this splainin certainly wouldn’t work for all the characters played by Vito Scotti (six) and Mike Lally (28!)  Having sextuplets and putting them all up for adoption might work for the mother of the Scotti characters, but having 28 kids - even if they weren’t all from the same zygote! - would surely have killed the poor mother of all those Lally boys!

Just one more thing....

One of their cousins in the Hamilton family line also was a lawyer, but he may have still had a hand in the family banking business.  And even though he didn’t share in the established family surname – his name was Paul Williams – it’s O’Bvious that Williams was descended from John Hamilton.  The telegenetics were strong in that one.

Paul Williams could also be found in a ‘Columbo’ episode.  In fact, he was in the second pilot for the series, “Ransom For A Dead Man”.  Paul Williams was the leading attorney in a law firm which he established with his second wife, Lesley Williams (who was the one who killed him.)

And unfortunately for him, Paul Williams had the distinction of being the second murder victim seen in the series.  (And unfortunately for the actor, Harlan Warde, he didn’t have a single line of dialogue!)

So there’s my theory of relateeveety for three characters from ‘Columbo’, linking them all back to ‘The Rifleman’.

BCnU!