Connection Clues: Which Film Detective Are You Most Closely Connected To?

+16 votes
1.6k views

This week's Example Profile of the Week is Peter Falk, often remembered as TV detective Colombo, born on September 16, 1927. Featured alongside him are others who have played film and TV sleuths:

Who are you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 20,390,000 of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can also check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them?

Let us know below!

P.S. You can help choose and improve profiles for next week's feature on master composers.

WikiTree profile: Peter Falk
in The Tree House by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (730k points)
edited by Chris Whitten

27 Answers

+9 votes

Basil Rathbone is 25 Degrees from Sandra Vines

12th cousins twice removed
by Sandra Vines G2G6 Pilot (135k points)
+9 votes
Suprisingly, Telly Savalas--24 degrees.
by Nelda Spires G2G6 Pilot (560k points)

You beat me.  My closest is John Thaw (which pleases me as I worked hard to get him connected) and Basil Rathbone who draw at 26.

28 degrees from Peter Falk, 33 degrees from John Ryan, 31 degrees from Aristotelis Savalas, 28 degrees from Raymond Burr, 26 degrees from John Thaw, 30 degrees from Margaret Rutherford, 29 degrees from Jean Poiret, 26 degrees from Basil Rathbone, 38 degrees from Piet Römer

Melanie, that is super that John Thaw is one of your closest connections! You did a wonderful job on getting everything done for him to be included among this week's exemplary profiles.
+8 votes
I am most closely connected to Basil Rathbone at 25 degrees.
by Samantha Thomson G2G6 Pilot (258k points)
+10 votes
Perry Mason is 34 steps away from me. Teddy Savallas and Miss Marple are 36.

Yes I use the names I know. As I am not that much into movies and such stuff I often know the role names better than the names of the actors and actresses.
by Jelena Eckstädt G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+8 votes
Can I cheat and include Humphrey Bogart (roles include Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe)?  Then I could claim 18 degrees, connecting through new "New Netherlands Settlers" in New York.  He's also an 8th cousin once removed.

From the provided list I can only get as close as 20, with Raymond Burr.
by Steve Ryan G2G6 Mach 8 (81.9k points)
Humphrey is a blood relative of mine, so he turns out to be 17 degrees from me.
+9 votes

25 degrees from Peter Falk, 26 degrees from John Ryan, 22 degrees from Aristotelis Savalas, 24 degrees from Raymond Burr, 28 degrees from John Thaw, 25 degrees from Margaret Rutherford, 31 degrees from Jean Poiret, 24 degrees from Basil Rathbone, 33 degrees from Piet Römer

Basil Rathbone is my 16th cousin, 4x removed, MRCA Sir Randal Mainwaring b1367 Mainwaring-11

by Mike Wells G2G6 Pilot (135k points)
+8 votes
I am 21 degrees from Raymond Burr.
by Carolyn Martin G2G6 Pilot (283k points)
+9 votes

Burr - 29
Savalas - 35
Rathbone - 35
Falk - 36
Rutherford - 37
Ryan - 38
Thaw - 39
Poiret - 42
Romer - 45

by John McLean G2G Crew (470 points)
+8 votes
Raymond Burr - 9th cousin, 3X removed.  Interesting....
by Cheryl Skordahl G2G6 Pilot (288k points)
+7 votes
22 from Raymond Burr. Although I am also 23 and 24 from 3 others, but he's the closest.
by Scott Fulkerson G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+8 votes
Raymond Burr is my closest connection, at 18 steps, and the only one who is a blood relative within 15 generations.
by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
+8 votes
Raymond Burr. 18 degrees. 9th cousin.

Also checked Cheryl because she was similar with Raymond Burr. She is my 8th cousin twice removed and we are 14 degrees.
by Kay Knight G2G6 Pilot (597k points)
+8 votes

Prob'ly Stana Katic who played Kate Beckett in Castle, seeing that she is Serbo-Canadian like myself.

But since I recently learned that my father's paternal grandmother's male ancestors carried the haplogroup I1-P109 (a fairly recent Balkanic offshoot from mere 900-1100 years ago), maybe some Danish or Norwegian actor who played police inspectors.

by Miodrag Kojadinović G2G Crew (980 points)
+9 votes
Not surprising since he is Canadian Raymond Burr is the closest for myself at 22 degrees
by Brian Nash G2G6 Mach 3 (33.6k points)
+8 votes

My connections to detectives:

While Basil Rathbone and I are 25 degrees, we are in actuality 19th cousins. There are no relationships with the other detectives, or with Terri Swift. On the other hand, my brother is a real-life County Sheriff (retired).

by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
+7 votes
No Adam West? Surely Batman counts as a detective!! Do we have a profile for Adam West?
by Chris Ferraiolo G2G6 Pilot (764k points)
The Dark Knight Detective! - Of course, that's why he stars in DETECTIVE COMICS once a month...
And yes, there's a profile for Adam West.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Anderson-12595
Nice work, old chum.

I am compiling a list of deceased actors who played comic characters. Chadwick Boseman still hurts, yo.
I started that once on a Free Space page, but lost track of it... let me see if I can find it again.
Here you go - I don't think it's been touched for awhile and was more of a start than anything else. You may have a completely different approach.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Superhero_Movies
That's a start. Thanks, Scott! And thanks for including voice actors. Kevin Conroy will always be the voice of Batman. =D
+7 votes
My closest is 23 Degrees from Raymond Burr - which is good because I LOVED the Perry Mason books.

All the others are between 25 and 30 degrees away from me...

And NONE of of them are through my Canadian spouse - which is interesting...
by Robynne Lozier G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
+5 votes
Raymond Burr and John Thaw, both 23 degrees.
by Kenneth Evans G2G6 Pilot (247k points)
+6 votes

21 degrees from Basil Rathbone is my closest. I grew up on Quincy and Frost though.

by Rachel N G2G5 (5.8k points)
+5 votes
by Janet Clifton G2G6 Mach 6 (62.6k points)
Frank is 22 degrees from Peter Falk, 27 degrees from John Ryan, 22 degrees from Aristotelis Savalas, 22 degrees from Raymond Burr, 30 degrees from John Thaw, 26 Degrees from Margaret Rutherford, 28 degrees from Jean Poiret, 25 degrees from Basil Rathbone, and 34 degrees from Piet Romer.

He is also Basil Rathbone's 17th cousin twice removed,

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