Sunday, March 21, 2010

Peter Graves Died

Graves died of a heart attack on March 14, 2010, four days prior to his 84th birthday. The actor had just returned from brunch with his wife and children, collapsing before he could enter the house. Although one of his daughters administered CPR, she could not revive him.


From 1960 to 1961, Graves starred as leading character Christopher Cobb in 34 episodes of the TV series Whiplash. In the story line, Cobb is an American who arrives in Australia in the 1850s to establish the country's first stagecoach line, using a bull whip rather than a gun to fight the crooks that he encounters. The series also starred Anthony Wickert. Graves also starred in Court Martial as well as guest roles in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Route 66.

In 1967, Graves was recruited by Desilu Studios to replace Steven Hill as the lead actor on Mission: Impossible. Graves played Jim Phelps, the sometimes gruff leader of the Impossible Missions Force or IMF, for the remaining six seasons of the series.
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.
In 1988, a Hollywood writers' strike resulted in a new Mission: Impossible series being commissioned. Graves was the only original cast member to return as a regular (although others 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 called Call to Danger, which were an attempt to create a Mission: Impossible-style series in which Graves played a government agent (the Bureau of National Resources) who recruited civilians with special talents for secret missions.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.

Handprints of Peter Graves in front ofHollywood Hills Amphitheater at the Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park
During the 1990s, he hosted 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 FlightIt Conquered the WorldBeginning of the EndParts: The Clonus Horror, and an uncredited voiceover in Attack of the the Eye Creatures. The movie Killers from Space was featured in The Film CrewMichael J. Nelson's follow-up to MST3K. Graves himself parodied his Biography work in the film Men in Black II, hosting an exposé television show.
In the 1996 film update of Mission: Impossible, the character of Phelps was reimagined as a traitor who murders three fellow IMF agents, a decision that disappointed Graves. Jon Voight was cast as Phelps.
On October 30, 2009 Graves was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2009, AirTran Airways featured Graves in a series of web-only "Internetiquette" videos in which Graves appeared in a pilot's uniform and references classic Airplane! lines. The videos were part of an AirTran Airways campaign to promote their in-flight wireless Internet access.
In the summer of 2009, Graves signed on as a spokesperson for reverse mortgage lender American Advisors Group (AAG). Graves appeared in a national commercial in which he educated seniors about the benefits of reverse mortgages.












Peter Graves






Graves in October 2009
Born
Peter Aurness
March 18, 1926
Minneapolis, Minnesota,
United States
Died
March 14, 2010 (aged 83)
Los Angeles, California,
United States
OccupationActor
Years active1942–2010
Spouse(s)Joan Endress (1950–2010)







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