American actor (1926?2010)
Peter Graves
(born
Peter Duesler Aurness
; March 18, 1926 ? March 14, 2010) was an American actor who portrayed
Jim Phelps
in the television series
Mission: Impossible
from 1967 to 1973 and in its revival from 1988 to 1990. His elder brother was actor
James Arness
. Graves also played airline pilot Captain Clarence Oveur in the 1980 comedy film
Airplane!
and its 1982 sequel
Airplane II: The Sequel
.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Peter Graves was born Peter Duesler Aurness on March 18, 1926, in
Minneapolis, Minnesota
,
[3]
[4]
the younger son of Rolf Cirkler Aurness (1894?1982), a businessman, and his wife, Ruth (
nee
Duesler, died 1986), a
journalist
.
Graves's ancestry was
Norwegian
,
German
, and
English
. He used the stage name Graves, a maternal family name,
[5]
to honor his mother's family, and also so as to not be confused with the stage name of his elder brother
James Arness
, star of the television series
Gunsmoke
.
Graves graduated from
Southwest High School
in 1944.
[6]
He served in the
United States Army Air Forces
during
World War II
from 1944 to 1945,
[1]
reaching the rank of
corporal
, and was awarded the
American Campaign Medal
and the
World War II Victory Medal
.
[2]
After demobilization, Graves enrolled at the
University of Minnesota
on the
G.I. Bill
, and was a member of
Phi Kappa Psi
fraternity.
Career
[
edit
]
Graves appeared in more than 70 films, television shows, and television movies during his career. He was featured in a key role in the 1953 World War II film,
Stalag 17
.
[7]
In 1955, Graves joined the
NBC
television series
Fury
, as the
rancher
and adoptive single father, Jim Newton.
[8]
From 1960 to 1961, Graves starred as Christopher Cobb in 34 episodes of the British/Australian TV series
Whiplash
.
[7]
In the storyline, Cobb is an American who arrives in
Australia
in the 1850s to establish the country's first stagecoach line, using a
bullwhip
rather than a gun to fight the crooks he encounters. The series also starred Anthony Wickert. Graves also starred in the British ITC series
Court Martial
, playing U.S. Army lawyer Major Frank Whittaker (one of the series' two American leads starring opposite Bradford Dillman's Captain David Young), as well as guest roles in such series as
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
,
[7]
Cimarron City
,
Route 66
, and
The Invaders
(episode "Moonshot").
In 1967, Graves was recruited by
Desilu Studios
to replace
Steven Hill
as the lead actor on
Mission: Impossible
. Graves portrayed the iconic character of Jim Phelps, the sometimes-gruff director of the
Impossible Missions Force
, for the six following seasons of the series.
[8]
After the series ended in 1973, Graves played a cameo-type support role in the feature film
Sidecar Racers
in Australia which was released in 1975. Graves also made a guest appearance in the teen
soap opera
Class of 74
in mid-1974, playing himself.
[7]
Graves was cast as Palmer Kirby in the 1983
ABC
miniseries
The Winds of War
.
[9]
He played opposite
Robert Mitchum
,
Jan Michael Vincent
,
Deborah Winters
and
Ali MacGraw
in what became in 1983, the second-most watched miniseries of all time (after
Roots
)
.
[8]
[10]
He reprised the role for the 1988 sequel miniseries,
War and Remembrance
. During this time, he became the host of
PBS
's
Discover: The World of Science
,
[11]
based on
Discover Magazine
.
After playing mainly serious roles in the 1970s, he appeared as Captain Clarence Oveur in the early 1980s comedies
Airplane!
and
Airplane II: The Sequel
.
[8]
[12]
In 1988, a
Hollywood
writers' strike resulted in a
new
Mission: Impossible
series
being commissioned. Graves was the only cast member from the original series to return as a regular, reprising his role as Jim Phelps, though others (most notably
Greg Morris
, whose son
Phil
was a regular in this version) made guest appearances. The series was filmed in Australia, and Graves made his third journey there for acting work. The new version of
Mission: Impossible
lasted for two seasons, ending in 1990. Bookending his work on
Mission: Impossible
, Graves starred in two
pilot films
, both called
Call to Danger
, which were attempts to create a
Mission: Impossible
?style series. In the first of these (1968), Graves played a government agent (the Bureau of National Resources) who recruited civilians with special talents for secret missions.
[13]
In
the second
Call To Danger
, he portrayed an investigator for the Justice Department.
[14]
The 1960s version of the pilot, according to Patrick White in
The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier
(which White reports was actually the second such pilot, but Graves was not involved in the first), is credited with winning Graves the role of Phelps; after
Mission: Impossible
ended in 1973, Graves filmed a third version of the pilot (this one structured as a
made-for-TV movie
), but it did not sell as a series. The concept was later used in the brief 1980s adventure series
Masquerade
.
During the 1990s, he hosted and narrated the documentary series
Biography
on
A&E
. He also acted in a number of films featured on
Mystery Science Theater 3000
, which subsequently featured running jokes about Graves'
Biography
work and presumed sibling rivalry with Arness. The films that have been featured on
Mystery Science Theater 3000
include
SST: Death Flight
,
It Conquered the World
,
Beginning of the End
,
[15]
and
Parts: The Clonus Horror
. The film
Killers from Space
was featured in
The Film Crew
,
Michael J. Nelson's
follow-up to
MST3K
. Graves himself
parodied
his
Biography
work in the film
Men in Black II
, hosting an expose television show. He also played Colonel John Camden in the television series
7th Heaven
.
Graves refused to reprise the role of Jim Phelps (played by
Jon Voight
) in the
first 1996 theatrical film
of
Mission: Impossible
, after the character was revealed to be a traitor and the villain of the film. In the film, Phelps murders three fellow IMF agents, and is killed in a helicopter crash at the end, a decision that disappointed Graves and fellow cast members, and upset many fans of the original series.
[12]
On October 30, 2009, Graves was honoured with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6667 Hollywood Blvd.
[12]
AirTran Airways
featured Graves in a series of web-only "Internetiquette" videos in 2009 in which Graves appeared in a pilot's uniform and references classic
Airplane!
lines.
[16]
The videos were part of an AirTran Airways campaign to promote their in-flight wireless internet access.
[16]
In the summer of 2009, Graves signed on as a spokesman for
reverse mortgage
lender
American Advisors Group
.
[17]
Graves' final project was narrating the computer game epic
Darkstar: The Interactive Movie
,
[18]
released November 5, 2010.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Graves was a devout
Methodist
[19]
of immigrant German
Lutheran
descent.
[20]
He was married to Joan Endress Graves for 60 years from 1950 until his death.
[4]
On March 6, 1984, Graves was hospitalized at Tahoe Forest Hospital for a fractured jaw among other injuries sustained from a fall on an icy Lake Tahoe road the previous weekend. He received 100 stitches to his lower lip during his stay.
[21]
Graves and his wife Joan had three daughters: Amanda, Kelly, and Claudia.
Graves was a registered
Republican
.
[19]
Controversially, Graves helped organize a Los Angeles city ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.
[22]
Death
[
edit
]
After returning from brunch on March 14, 2010, with his wife and children, Graves collapsed and died of a
heart attack
just outside his home, four days before his 84th birthday.
[23]
Awards
[
edit
]
Graves was awarded a
Golden Globe Award
in 1971 for his role as Jim Phelps in the series
Mission: Impossible
.
[24]
In 1972, he received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement
.
[25]
He also received nominations for an
Emmy Award
[26]
and Golden Globe awards
[27]
in other seasons of that show. Graves also won a
Primetime Emmy Award
for outstanding informational series in 1997 as host of
Biography
.
[24]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
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]
Partial television credits
[
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]
Video games
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Peter Graves, ‘Mission: Impossible’ Star, Dies at 83.
The New York Times
via
Internet Archive
. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
- ^
a
b
"Graves, Peter, Cpl"
. www.airforce.togetherweserved.com
. Retrieved
February 8,
2017
.
- ^
"Peter Graves: Biography"
.
Yahoo! Movies
. Retrieved
2008-02-06
.
- ^
a
b
"Peter Graves Biography"
.
Film Reference
. Retrieved
2008-02-06
.
- ^
James Arness, James E. Wise Jr. (2001)
James Arness: an Autobiography
,
ISBN
0-7864-1221-6
, McFarland & Company Inc., accessed March 15, 2010
- ^
Bawden, James; Miller, Ron (13 August 2019).
Conversations with Legendary Television Stars: Interviews from the First Fifty Years
. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 179?.
ISBN
978-0-8131-7766-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Turner Classic Movies
(Peter Graves)
[1]
- ^
a
b
c
d
"AmericaMovie Biographies
(Peter Graves)
"
. Archived from
the original
on 2018-04-03
. Retrieved
2018-12-25
.
- ^
The Winds of War
at the Turner Classic Movie Database
[2]
- ^
"Top 15 Miniseries of all Time"
.
Listverse
. 28 September 2010
. Retrieved
3 March
2015
.
- ^
Profile
, Chedd-Angier.com. Accessed June 16, 2023.
- ^
a
b
c
"
'Mission: Impossible' actor Peter Graves dead at 83"
.
CNN
. 15 March 2010
. Retrieved
2010-03-15
.
- ^
Call to Danger (1968) (TV)
at
IMDb
- ^
Call to Danger (1973) (TV)
at
IMDb
- ^
Beaulieu, Trace (1996)
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide
. p.103
- ^
a
b
"Internetiquette"
AirTran Airways
. Retrieved 2010-03-15.
- ^
"aargreverse.com"
. aargreverse.com. Archived from
the original
on 2012-03-04
. Retrieved
2012-08-03
.
- ^
"Peter Graves"
. FamousDEAD. Archived from
the original
on 2012-09-08
. Retrieved
2012-08-03
.
- ^
a
b
An Interview with Peter Graves, Skip E. Lowe, 1996
- ^
Bergan, Ronald
(15 March 2010).
"Peter Graves obituary"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
3 March
2015
.
- ^
"Actor Peter Graves was hospitalized Tuesday in intensive care..."
UPI. March 6, 1984.
- ^
Purdum, Todd S. (7 January 1998).
"Los Angeles Journal; Ban on Leaf Blowers Is Voted, and Noise Ensues..."
The New York Times
. Retrieved
20 July
2023
.
- ^
My-Thuan Tran (March 15, 2010).
"Peter Graves dies at 83; star of TV's 'Mission: Impossible"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Retrieved
2010-03-15
.
- ^
a
b
Pollak, Michael (March 15, 2010).
"Peter Graves, 'Mission: Impossible' Star, Dies at 83"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
2010-03-14
.
- ^
"Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement"
.
www.achievement.org
.
American Academy of Achievement
.
- ^
"Emmy Awards 1969"
.
IMDb
. Retrieved
2010-03-15
.
- ^
"Mission: Impossible"
.
Golden Globe awards
. Archived from
the original
on 2010-05-07
. Retrieved
2010-03-15
.
External links
[
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]
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