RIP Mr. Phelps

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.