Peter Falk family tragedy deepens after Jacqueline dies at 60

Peter Falk’s adopted daughter Jacqueline died in her Los Angeles home on Monday, April 27, at 60. The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner found her dead from an apparent hanging, and her manner of death was ruled a suicide.

Peter Falk and Alyce Mayo

Jacqueline was one of two daughters Peter Falk and Alyce Mayo adopted after marrying in 1960. Falk died in 2011 at 83, and his career as Lieutenant Columbo on Columbo ran from 1968 to 2003.

He earned 4 Emmys and a Golden Globe Award for the role, then received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013. That long public record makes Jacqueline’s death part of a family history that has mostly stayed out of view.

Jacqueline and Catherine

Catherine also became part of the family story in 2009, when she filed a lawsuit seeking conservatorship over Falk’s estate after he was diagnosed with Dementia and Alzheimer's. She said Shera Danese was preventing her from visiting him, and the dispute later led to Peter Falk’s law in multiple states.

For readers following the Falk family, the clearest fact now is the one that changed on Monday: Jacqueline is gone at 60, and the official ruling leaves no ambiguity about the cause. The public memory may still rest on Columbo, but this death closes the account on a private branch of that family history.