Peter Duesler Aurness (March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010), known professionally as Peter Graves, was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973 (original) and from 1988 to 1990 (revival). His elder brother was actor James Arness (1923–2011). Graves was also known for his portrayal of airplane pilot Captain Clarence Oveur in the 1980 comedy film Airplane! and its 1982 sequel Airplane II: The Sequel. Graves was born Peter Duesler Aurness in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a son of Methodist[5] parents Rolf Cirkler Aurness (1894–1982), a businessman, and his wife Ruth (née Duesler, died 1986), a journalist. Graves ancestry was Norwegian, German, and English. The family name originally was Aursnes, but when Rolfs Norwegian father, Peter Aursnes, immigrated to New York City in 1887, he changed the spelling. Peter used the stage name Graves, a maternal family name. He used the name Graves to honor his mothers family, and also so as to not be confused with his older brother, James Arness, who was the star of the television series Gunsmoke. Graves graduated from Southwest High School in 1944, and spent two years in the United States Army Air Forces near the end of World War II. He then enrolled at the University of Minnesota on the G.I. Bill, and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Throughout Graves career he appeared in more than seventy films, television shows, and television movies. In the 1950s, Graves joined the NBC television series Fury, as the rancher and adoptive single father, Jim Newton. Graves also was featured in the 1953 World War II film, Stalag 17. From 1960-61 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 countrys first stagecoach line, using a bullwhip rather than a gun to fight the crooks that he encounters.[8] The series also starred Anthony Wickert. Graves also starred in the British made ITC series Court Martial playing U.S. Army Lawyer Major Frank Whittaker (one of the series two American Leads starring opposite Bradford Dillmans Captain David Young ) as well as guest roles in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 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 acted out the character of James Phelps, the sometimes-gruff director 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. Graves was cast as Palmer Kirby in the 1983 ABC miniseries, The Winds of War. He played opposite Robert Mitchum, Jan Michael Vincent, Deborah Winters and Ali MacGraw in what became in 83, the second most watched miniseries of all time (after Roots). After playing mainly serious roles in the 1970s, he appeared as Captain Clarence Oveur in the early 80s comedies Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel. 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, reprising his role as James Phelps, though other original cast members (most notably Greg Morris, whose son Phil was a regular in this version) made guest appearances.[8] 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. In the 1996 film update of Mission: Impossible, the character of Phelps (played by Jon Voight, Graves had refused to play the role) was re-imagined as a traitor who murders three fellow IMF agents only to be killed himself at the end of the film, a decision that disappointed Graves, as well as many fans of the original series. Some of these fans refused to believe that Voights Phelps was the real James Phelps, and instead considered him an impostor who had deceptively assumed—and hence stolen—the real Phelpss identity. On October 30, 2009, Graves was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Graves was a devout Christian. He was married to Joan Endress Graves from 1950 until his death. After returning from a brunch on March 14, 2010, Graves collapsed and died of a heart attack at the age of 83, four days before his 84th birthday. It was reported that one of his daughters attempted to revive him, but was unsuccessful.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 04:13:20 +0000
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