Peter Graves DEAD: Actor Found In Pacific Palisades Home: "Peter Graves has reportedly been found dead in his Los Angeles area home. The actor was 83.
A source told the Los Angeles Times that he apparently died of natural causes.
Graves stared in 'Mission: Impossible' and 'Airplane!'"
Hat tip to John Hall.
9 comments:
Sorry to hear about this. I remember when he took over on Mission: Impossible thinking, "Key, he used to be on Fury!"
That's Hey, not Key. wouldn't make sense the other way. I was young back then, but I had sense otherwise.
Still game and active recently. Hope it was painless for him.
Whenever I think of James Arness & his brother Peter Graves I remember the night on that corny tv show This is Your Life (?) where they surprise the guest by bringing a score of family and friends on stage to meet him. Ralph Edwards was the host. Graves was the star this night and the whole family from the Midwest showed up. Arness was in LA, though. Seems he couldn't make it. So they had him phone in. Ya know I luv ya bro etc and I;m sorry I couldn't be there but I had to, uh, wash my car--yeah, that's the ticket I HAD TO WASH MY CAR!!!!!" His excuse wasn't that lame but pretty close. I felt sorry for Graves.
I also like when he hosted A&E's "Biography." It was a finer series when he was at the helm.
Graves starred in the best giant grasshopper film ever.
Yeah, Graves put in his time with an admirably straight face against giant grasshoppers, aliens with ping-pong balls for eyes, and he even saved Earth from a giant beet in IT CONQUERED THE WORLD.
While his brother was a giant carrot in WHO GROWS THERE? Perhaps this was the source of the tension.
James Arness was well-known in his time for diligently avoiding interviews, talk shows, and other situations where he would have to be himself in public. Not long after they did Peter Graves, This Is Your Life did a show with Ken (Festus) Curtis - Arness didn't show for that either (while Milburn Stone, still recovering from recent heart surgery, did).So that means Graves was lucky to get the phone call - and knowing his brother better than any of us could, he didn't seem to mind. (Or at least that was my impression.)
Anyway, Peter Graves was an underrated actor who stayed active to the end. For that, all kudos to him.
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