Peter Graves (actor)
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| Peter Graves | |||||||||||
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| Born | Peter Aurness March 18, 1926 Minneapolis, Minnesota |
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| Occupation | Actor | ||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Joan Endress (1950-present) | ||||||||||
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Peter Graves (born March 18, 1926)[1][2] is an American film and television actor. He is known for his starring role in the television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973 (and again from 1988 to 1990).
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Personal life
Graves was born Peter Aurness in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Ruth (née Duesler), a journalist, and Rolf Cirkler Aurness, who worked in business. Graves is a descendant of German, Norwegian and English immigrants. His brother is actor James Arness (Gunsmoke). Graves attended Southwest High School (Class of 1944) and the University of Minnesota, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.
Graves has been married to Joan Endress since 1950. They have three daughters: Kelly, Claudia and Amanda.
[edit] Career
Graves has appeared in more than seventy films, TV series and TV-movies. He is especially well known for the following roles:
- The rancher (Broken Wheel Ranch) and single father to a son played by child actor Bobby Diamond on the 1950s NBC television series Fury. The other costar was William Fawcett, who played the housekeeper and general ranch hand.
- Price, a German spy placed among allied POWs in Stalag 17
- A father on the run from the law in Night of the Hunter
- James (Jim) Phelps, the leader of the elite Impossible Missions Force in the iconic CBS television show, Mission: Impossible
- Captain Clarence Oveur in the comedies Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel
- Colonel John Camden on the WB's 7th Heaven
From 1960–1961, Graves started as (lead role) Christopher Cobb in 34 episodes of the TV series Whiplash as an American who arrived in Australia in the 1850s and set up the country's first stagecoach line. Cobb mainly used a bullwhip rather than a gun to fight the many cowboy crooks he came up against. The series also starred Anthony Wickert as Dan. He had previously starred as Jim Newton in a kids series called Fury about a horse. He also starred in Court Martial five years later as well as TV shows like 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 traveled to Australia to play a cameo-type support role in feature film Sidecar Racers which was released in 1975. Graves also made a guest appearance in 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 to that country for ongoing 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 who recruited civilians with special talents for secret missions.[3] The 1960s version of the pilot, according to Patrick White in The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier, is credited with winning Graves the role of Phelps; after Mission: Impossible ended in 1973, Graves filmed a second version of the pilot, but it did not sell as a series. The concept was later used in the 1980s series Masquerade.
Between series, Graves had laser treatment on his face to make himself look young by removing wrinkles which unfortunately gave his face an unnaturally smooth look and, as other stars found out later, made it difficult for him to show emotion.[citation needed] 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 Flight, It Conquered The World, Attack of the Eye Creatures, Beginning of the End, Parts: The Clonus Horror, and Killers from Space.
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 murdered three fellow IMF agents. Although Graves was reportedly offered the role, the character was played in the movie by Jon Voight. It is claimed that he did not want to appear in a version of Mission: Impossible that involved Phelps in a villainous role.
[edit] Awards
He won a Golden Globe award in 1971 for his role as Jim Phelps in the series. He also received nominations for Emmy awards and Golden Globe awards in other seasons.
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] References
- ^ "Peter Graves: Biography". Movies.Yahoo.com. Yahoo!. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ "Peter Graves Biography (1926-)". FilmReferences.com. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- ^ "Call to Danger (1973) (TV)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
