I wonder why Leonard Nimoy was not cast in any other Columbo. I think he would have been a great repeat murderer or even a secondary character. I've had this on my mind for a while. But when I watched A Stitch in Crime last night it reminded me that I wanted to bring that up here. Even good old Captain Kirk got 2appearances. ( even though the second one was real cheesy).
I don't know if they knew in advance about having the same actor playing different murderers, but they also pulled it off with Patrick Mcgoohan, Jack Cassidy, and Robert Culp. ( and all did a great job )