From the NYT:
Peter Graves, ‘Mission: Impossible’ Star, Dies at 83
By MICHAEL POLLAK
Peter Graves, the cool spymaster of television’s “Mission: Impossible” and the dignified host of the “Biography” series, who successfully spoofed his own gravitas in the “Airplane!” movie farces, died on Sunday. He was 83.
He died of a heart attack at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., said Fred Barman, his business manager.
It was a testament to Mr. Graves’s earnest, unhammy ability to make fun of himself that after decades of playing square he-men and straitlaced authority figures, he was perhaps best known to younger audiences for a deadpan line in “Airplane!” (“Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”) and one from a memorable Geico car insurance commercial (“I was one lucky woman”).
Born Peter Aurness in Minneapolis, the blond, 6-foot-2 Mr. Graves served in the Army Air Forces in 1944 and ’45, studied drama at the University of Minnesota under the G.I. Bill of Rights and played the clarinet in local bands before following his older brother, James Arness, to Hollywood.
...
I did not know until I read his obit that Peter Graves was James Arness' brother, although in retrospect I guess the similarities are hard to miss.
I did know that Graves was the only guy who ever made Sans-a-Belt slacks look cool...and made America believe that a career in middle management could be terrifically rewarding if only you put together the right team, and got to blow things up occasionally.
Of course, given his long and impressive career, some people forget that Mr. Graves played many interesting minor roles in his earlier years, such as was captured here, in this rarely-before seen film clip from 1957. That year, as a promotional gimmick for a long-forgotten brand of beer, Mr. Graves was made the honorary Master of Ceremonies of the Chicago's famous St. Patrick's Day Parade.
But as the footage shows, things quickly went horribly, horribly wrong.
RIP, Mr. Graves.
3 comments:
I'm mildly surprised a walking pop culture encyclopedia like yourself would have been unaware that Peter Graves was James Arness' little brother.
I was an avid fan of Mission Improbable, when I was a kid back in the 60s. But when I think of Peter Graves, it's his first movie roles in the 1950s which always come to mind. Funny how he bounced between small-but-pivotal parts in classics like Night of the Hunter and Stalag 17 and playing the lead in MST3K-fodder by the likes of Bert I. Gordon and Roger Corman. (Though Joel/Mike and the Bots fortunately were never subjected to the absolute worst of this phase of Graves' career: Killers from Space.)
Trust you to bid Peter an affectionate farewell, by capping his obit with a joke utilizing a clip from TBotE. (Missus Fate and I always get a chuckle when we see the signs for Rantoul and luckless Ludlow -- first to be devoured by Bert's giant grasshopppers -- as we're driving up I-57 on our way to visit her family in the North.)
Larger than life creatures continue to terrorize Chicago. Using many of the same illusions and trickery shown in the BotE documentary. That's why so many Chicagoans cling desperately to their Capone-era Thompson submachine guns. Ya never knows...
There is still a corridor in the Pentagon devoted to dropping an atom bomb on da city wat woiks.
Well played Grasshopper.
Mr. Phelp's body of work deserves no less of a marathon retro-spective than has been assembled for far less deserving fops and sots. Stallone, Swarztenneger, Snipes, Cruise...
Hell, you could launch a 24/7 Peter Graves channel. Or at minimum pre-empt the SMMC for a few preciously entertaining Friedmans. Using his B-reel stuff who'd know the difference?
Fucking crickets.
Post a Comment