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
NNDB profile

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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

[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!