10 Famous Directors Who Made Columbo Episodes
4. Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme started his career working for B-movie legend Roger Corman before achieving widespread acclaim for many of his own films including Silence of the Lambs with Anthony Hopkins, Philadelphia with Tom Hanks and Rachel Getting Married with Anne Hathaway. Silence of the Lambs earned him the Academy Award for Best Director in 1991 and is still regularly cited as one of the best films of all time.
Interestingly, Demme also helped produce (and made a small cameo appearance in) That Thing You Do which was written and directed by none other than Tom Hanks who won an Oscar for his performance in Demme's Philadelphia just a few years earlier. If you haven't seen it, give it a watch as it's a bit of a hidden gem with a fantastic soundtrack.
Over a decade before those lofty achievements, Demme directed a single episode of Columbo, Season 7's "Murder Under Glass", a fairly forgettable episode that provides little insight into his later successes.