As for J. Cash I believe he was on drugs, that's what was wrong with his performance. There were a lot of scenes done with a double wearing a wig filmed from behind. J. Cash was just too out of it during the filming of this episode he was mono tone and moving in slow motion.

I could be reading too much into it but I feel like Peter was aggravated with having to work with J as an actor. I've watched this episode several times and haven't changed my opinion on this.

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For me the worst actor to ever play a villain in Columbo was George Wendt in Strange Bedfellows. His acting was very schizophrenic. In one scene he would be quite and timid, the next scene he would be forceful and demanding, and then he'd be wimpy and spoiled. He never became a character he just did independent scenes that were pasted together. He never seemed to shake his Cheer's character. I don't dislike George Went but for me this was just bad acting, and bad acting really stands out when Peter Falk is present.

I always found Roddy McDowall's performance to be uninteresting and irritating...and his British accent/soft voice seemed so out of place with the type of character he was portraying. Ray Milland's performance (in "Greenhouse") is also irritating and uninspired (to me). Richard Basehart was a little too hammy for me...I think Honor Blackman did a better job of incorporating the hammy, over-the-top nature of her character into her performance. I had similar issues with William Shatner (in "Fade"), although there were a few amusing moments, and I think he did a much better job in "Butterfly." These are the actors who, for me, stand out as being not quite up to par.

JWilt' what you suggest about Johnny Cash is entirely possible, although my own take has always been that, if he's not as emotive or subtle as (say) Richard Kiley, it's because Johnny Cash is no Richard Kiley and never, ever pretended to be -- Johnny was a hick singer who, while possessing a certain genius for Country music, was never any kind of actor, but who actually (most people think) acquitted himself quite well in this episode, as a non-actor pretending to be an actor. I admire his bravery, more than I would bemoan his weaknesses.

I would tell you, his performance is a lot better than most of us could do! Even if we think we did pretty good in that high school or college play, it's another matter to try to share the screen with a super-powered actor like Peter Falk. Any normal human would look like a total stiff on the screen, next to Peter or even a low-talent, ordinary professional actor -- this acting thing is not as easy as the pros make it look!

But I cannot reject your theory, knowing Johnny's unfortunate history. I saw him once in concert, around 1975 (also at Notre Dame, as I recently mentioned about Robert Goulet), and he was in awful shape -- shakily rushing to gulp down big cups of a clear liquid between songs, with an urgency that suggested it wasn't water. But hey, that's all part of the country music persona. (I say this as a guy from New Jersey, married to a Tennessee gal and now living in North Carolina, so I've been introduced to Country music gradually in stages. But even in New Jersey, Johnny was a star!)

Whether we think Johnny was doing his level best in "Swan Song," or was hobbled by substances, it's clear that Peter Falk helped to make him look good -- most observers, I think, have praised Johnny's performance. And as I said before, I think that for "Swan Song" Johnny had more to be proud of, as a non-actor, than to be ashamed of. His performance could have been a total disaster, but clearly was not -- to merely "hold his own" with Peter Falk, as I see it, was an extraordinary accomplishment.

Even though the above is the generous critical view (and my own), I think there is evidence to support what you've said, and that you've given us something serious to think about, the next time we watch this epoisode.

I don't think anyone I've seen was genuinely bad, though I have one little "qualifier," and that's that Roddy McDowall might have made his character seem just a little too casual (almost like he would have played the role in a Carol Burnett sketch about murder!). That doesn't include the great final scene, of course, and several others. I have one other problem, that has nothing at all to do with his acting. I'm actually the last one on earth to be embarrassed by seeing a trendy earlier hairstyle - in this case, a trendy early ' 70s one - but that one somehow didn't look quite right on Roddy McDowall! (But again, that's because of the individual, not the thing itself.)

I'd agree with George Wendt. He was very poor.

Also Greg Evigan as Harold McCain in Bird In The Hand which was a pretty dire Columbo.

Generally, though it's actually hard to pick the worst villain. Casting is usually good and the flaws usually lie in the script or the story rather than acting or casting.

I love Ian Buchanan's portrayal of the smarmy, "don't you just love me because of my chesire cat smile" murderer in "Columbo Cries Wolf". He was terrific in the role. He recently spent a year or so on my girlfriend's soap, "All My Children". You want to talk about acting?! He put the series' regulars to shame.

I love Johnny Cash as Tommy Brown. I never, never ever had any thought as to him being in anyway impaired during the episode. No, he's no Richard Kiley or Jack Cassidy, but I think he's great in the role.

I have in the past posted my negative opinion on George Wendt's murderer in "Strange Bedfellows". I kept expecting other characters to shout out, "Norm!" every time he entered a room. I've never seen him in another dramatic role, and I think there's obvious reason why.

I know that alot of you really like William Shatner but I have never thought he was a very good actor. In one episode he played a bad actor so he got away with it

I've always liked Johnny Cash as Tommy Brown too. Oddly enough, he got to play a slightly Columbo-like character, in a TV movie called "Murder in Cowetas (sp.) County," with Andy Griffith as the killer. I don't mean that Cash's detective was funny or eccentric, but there was this entertaining "civility" between him and Griffith, including the arrest, and that kind of thing in a detective story is enough to make me think of Columbo. Even my father - who loved Johnny Cash as a singer but definitely NOT as an actor - thought he was great in that role.

Ed Begley, JR. in "Undercover". Totally incompetent performance. Closely followed by Billy Connolly who marred his performance by playing high notes on the keyboard, when the audio was low notes.

I think Roddy McDowall was perfectly fitting for the time in which the episode was made, but it didn't age well. At the time it was probably considered well done. But unlike the timeless performances given by Robert Culp as Brimmer it just didn't stand the test of time. Overall not a bad episode though.....

What bothered me about this one was his relationship with Anne Francis, it didn't make sense from any angle. She didn't seem like the type to ever fall for Roddy, much less let him take "interesting" pictures of her. I don't the think casting and the writing were in sync on this.

.....but through all the comments here about roddy mcdowall, you gotta give the guy credit for wearing those insanely tight pants!!

I gotta give Roddy credit for acting like a complete ape and being so convincing at it. Actually, he was a chimpanzee and it wasn't "Columbo", but "Planet of the Apes". He sure was terrific in both. The concluding scene of "Short Fuse" is one my absolute favorites overall. I think he deserved an emmy nod for that scene.

One murderer I never cared for was that of "The Most Dangerous Match." The character is truly a jerk, sure. But I've never been overly convinced by the actor - whose name has completely escaped me right now, and I'm not going to go look as when I've done that sort of thing in the past, it has resulted in everything I've written so far to be erased. This same actor was cool in "Manchurian Candidate" though.

I went and looked. It's Laurence Harvey.

joyce van patten. i am always aware that she is acting, and the character never rings true for me.

As much as I like her as an actress, I've always felt partly the same way. Though in my case, the problem is with some of her actual lines.

Not read all postings but, William Shatner definately comes to mind.

What about Jack Cassidy,as Riley Greenleaf, what a name for starters, then as Ken Franklin and not forgeting "The Great Santini".He really did seem to be playing himself, didn;t he.
I don't quite know whether he's a good actor or not but what slimy charcater he was.