Jack Cassidy is one of those rare gems that became extinct in the 1970's. Smooth, slick, and cheesy all at once, Jack Cassidy turned plaid suits, thin cigarillos, and polyester ascots into monolithic fashion statements. Perhaps better known as the father of David and Sean Cassidy, and one of the husbands of Shirley Jones (aka "Mrs. Partridge"), Jack Cassidy is at his 70's best in his role as "The Great Santini" - a secret ex-Nazi living under an assumed name in America and master magician whose silky arrogance and ego is his ultimate undoing. In one pivotal scene, Santini frees himself from a pair of specially rigged handcuffs that Columbo had made - only a professional lock-picker would be able to get out of these cuffs - and a picked lock was a key clue in the murder; Santini would sooner implicate himself than be seen as a mediocre magician.<br /><br />The tension builds to a slow boil as Columbo, in his patented persistence, unravels Santini, eventually beating him at his own game. Jack Cassidy died not long after this episode was released; he died in bed when his cigarette caught his mattress on fire - a very 70's way to die compared to today's peanut-allergic world. Oh Jack, we hardly knew ye! Even though he didn't live to see his 50th birthday, he still looked like someone my father would have played bridge and drank gin with at the Tarratine Club in Bangor, Maine in the mid-70's.