At the age of 83, just days before his 84th birthday, actor Peter Graves has died, probably of a heart attack. His daughter tried to revive him, but was unsuccessful.
He was known by most from two very different roles he played, among many in his long, distinguished career.
Airplane
First he was the captain of the ill fated ‘Airplane’ movies, eating bad fish for dinner and being unable to complete the flight. His motives towards small boys was meant to be humorous and may not get past censors these days, but his toying with perfect comic timing with his fellow pilot team will be remembered and replayed for years. How many of us don’t remember the classic call signs of ‘Roger’ and ‘Over’, particularly confusing as his co pilot was called Roger and the captain himself was Oveur.
Mission Impossible
Secondly, he will be remembered for his role as Agent Jim Phelps in Mission Impossible. It was he who started the cassette tape (remember them?) each episode for the team to get their instructions for the next impossible mission. We’ll all remember the tape destroying itself as soon as it was finished.
He won a Golden Globe in 1971 for his part in the series.
Peter Graves appeared in roughly 130 film and TV shows during his career.
His first television series was the 1950s children’s Saturday morning show Fury, about an orphan and an untamed black stallion.
Early in his career, he also turned in a memorable performance as a Nazi spy in the 1953 prisoner-of-war drama Stalag 17.
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