My picks for the sexiest would be:
1. Peter Falk
2. Jack Cassidy (yum)
3. Robert Conrad
4. Johnny Cash
5. Leonard Nimoy
6. Oskar Werner

1. Gena Rowland (the last scene of her in her wheelchair, her eyes so shocked, always moves me to tears)
2. Mariette Hartley (especially in Try & Cath Me, her wonderful belly-dancing scene)
3. Trish Van Devere
4. Tisha Sterling
5. Gretchen Corbett
6. Samantha Eggar

We had a big thread on this just a week ago, but what the heck it's so fun there's no harm revisiting it again and repeating our selections for the benefit of newcomers. :)

#1-Janet Leigh (Forgotten Lady)
#2-Mariette Hartley (Try And Catch Me)
#3-Barbara Rhoades (Identity Crisis)
#4-Gretchen Corbett (An Exercise In Fatality)
#5-Joanna Cameron (Negative Reaction)

you might disagree with me but here are my top five for the sexiest women of columbo
1. Gena Rowland
2. Ruth Gordon
3. Trish Van Devere
4. Tisha Sterling
5. Samantha Eggar

You're going to need to explain Ruth Gordon a bit more I think!

Certainly Gretchen Corbett. And Barbara Rhoades. That darkroom scene in Identity Crisis is about the closest thing to all-out titillation on Columbo. How Peter Falk / Columbo managed to keep staring at that photo is hard to imagine. As far as tiny (uncredited)roles, there's Anitra Ford (the Price Is Right model) in Murder By The Book.

I don't know how I left out Samantha Eggar. And also Nita Talbot. (Hardly anyone has combined funny and "hot" quite the way she has in her career.)

holy hell eric!!!

but darnit...she is a beauty in a mature and elfish kind of way!!

Anne Francis
Anne Francis
Anne Francis
Anne Francis
Anne Francis

the dog trainer in "How to Dial a Murder" was just plain yum-cha. And a good actress, I really believed she was a dog trainer. Anyone know what happened to her?

Here's her imdb listing. Still acting.

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0642078/

Helen Shaver (Vivian Dimitri) in
Rest In Peace Mrs. Columbo.

Too fun to pass up!

I can't believe no one has mentioned Robert Culp in Double Exposure yet. So suave and handsome, he gets my vote for sexiest. I also find McGoohan in Identity Crisis strangely appealing, in an off-beat, intriguing sort of way. Complexity can be very sexy! Their voices and diction also add to the appeal.

As for women, I can certainly understand why men would consider the sultry Trish Van Devere in Make Me a Perfect Murder sexy. Attractive and confident yet still emotionally vulnerable, she is one of the most complex Columbo characters ever. A great performance by Van Devere. I hope she's still acting!

Thanks Eric, looked it up and you're right, she's still out there and has amassed quite a resume. Tricia O'Neil is her name I believe.

Tricia O'Neil can give me the KISS command anytime.

Somehow I left out nearly the most obvious one of all -Arline Martel as Gloria West. In that role, she practically defined words like adorable. (The Tony character must have truly been mad about his wife, if he really visited Gloria "just to talk.")