In Memoriam -- Peter Graves

[vanillafluffy]

Peter Graves
1926 -- 2010
RIP
***




The death of Peter Graves makes me sad. I have vast quantities of childhood nostalgia for him from Mission: Impossible*. For years, my Saturday evenings were religiously spent parked in front of the TV at 9PM, quivering with excitement as the dynamic Lalo Schifrin theme signaled the beginning of a new mission. Yet despite his memorable performance as the clever spymaster Jim Phelps, Peter Graves's talent was enough that he wasn't pidgeon-holed as ONLY Jim Phelps. He had a well-rounded career before M:I, such as Robert Mitchum's cellmate in Night of the Hunter and westerns like Fury---which was before my time, but as a horse-crazy kid, I would've been all over that, too. After the IMF had carried out its final mission, he continued to develop with work as a narrator-host and a comedian. A few years ago, he showed up on House MD as a philandering husband in search of Viagra! Clearly, he had a sense of humor and didn't take himself too seriously.

Good night, Mr. Phelps....

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Yahoo obit
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* The original series. The 80s remake was tolerable, but the films were rubbish, IMO. Okay as action movies, IF you like Tom Cruise, but not a patch on the version I grew up with.
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Comments

[jdsgirlbev.livejournal.com]

I can not even BEGIN to tell you how totally I was pissed when they made Jim Phelps the baddie in the first M:I movie. Like you I adored the original TV show, and the mere thought of Jim betraying his team! Just...URGH!

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I was disgusted that they'd betray an icon like that. I'm not a Tom Cruise fan anyway, and Ving Rhames wasn't enough to save it for me. Blergh!

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

I remember being astonished to find Peter Graves being funny - really funny - in Airplane!. I had a crush on him from M:I, so seeing him in Airplane! was like finding out the good-looking boy in school was also the class clown. In the very best possible way, that is.

And I was annoyed that they made him the villain of the first M:I movie, too.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Definitely lots of talent for a variety of genres.

I've wondered if the reason they got Jon Voight for the role was because Peter refused to do that in the name of the character. If so, good for him!

[socialhermit.livejournal.com]

He definitely had a sense of humor, both intentional (Airplane!) and unintentional (Parts: The Clonus Horror). *grin*

And let's not forget, younger brother of James Arness. WOOT!

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Not forgotten, but it's rather soul-sucking, always to be So-and-so's younger brother....

[socialhermit.livejournal.com]

Agreed. And I always thought Peter was the better actor, anyway!

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

I think it's a shame how many people haven't seen the original original Mission Impossible, especially given the great chemistry he had with Martin Landau and especially with Leonard Nimoy. (I remember one episode where Nimoy had to say "Jim!" in exactly the same tone he would use on Star Trek and it totally wigged me out.)

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

One of the digital cable channels shows the original series intermittantly, so I had a chance to remember why I loved it so much. Of course, now I recognize how VERY "shot on the backlot" it was, reuse of sets, etc. Plus, the "high-tech" of 1960-something is amusingly retro. But yes, such wonderful chemistry! (I saw at least one ep where that happened...one of which involved a corpse, and I wished in vain for "He's dead, Jim."...but smirked anyway.)