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Peter Graves

March 15, 2010 by · Comments Off on Peter Graves 

Peter GravesPeter Graves:Peter Graves has passed away at the age of 83, just shy of his 84th birthday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he went out to brunch on Sunday with his wife and kids, and upon returning to the house, collapsed before he could get inside, passing away from an apparent heart attack.

Graves’ career started in 1942, with an uncredited role as a bombardier in the Oscar-nominated documentary short Winning Your Wings. And that was only the beginning. Over the next 68 years, he acted in 130 more projects, ending with voice work on this year’s video game, Darkstar. His first memorable role came in 1953, when he played Price in the war comedy Stalag 17, but it was his iconic role 14 years later that made him a star — IMF leader Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible. But of course, for some of us, there’s no better memory of Graves’ work than remembering the irreplaceable 1980 spoof Airplane!, where he played the man of strange questions, Captain Clarence Oveur.

THR writes that Graves’ stardom never reached that of his brother, Gunsmoke star James Arness. To me, however, the exact opposite is true. While he didn’t have a 20-year-long hit show to make him super-popular, his fame transcended a single genre and one major role. He was white-haired man with the match, the goof in the cockpit (hit the jump for his most memorable lines), and I can’t imagine Hollywood without him.

Rest in peace, Peter Graves.

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