Peter Duesler Aurness, known professionally as Peter Graves, was an
American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in
the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973 and from
1988 to 1990. His elder brother was actor James Arness. Graves was also
known for his portrayal of airplane pilot Captain Clarence Oveur in the 1980
comedy film Airplane! and its 1982 sequel Airplane II: The Sequel.
Early life Peter Graves was born Peter Duesler
Aurness on March 18, 1926, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Rolf
Cirkler Aurness, a businessman, and his wife Ruth, a journalist. Graves'
ancestry was Norwegian, German, and English. The family name originally was
"Aursnes," but when Rolf's Norwegian father, Peter Aursnes, immigrated to New
York City in 1887, he changed the spelling. Peter used the stage name
"Graves", a maternal family name, to honor his mother's family, and also so
as to not be confused with his older brother, James Arness, the star of the
television series Gunsmoke. Graves graduated from Southwest High
School in 1944, and spent two years in the United States Army Air Forces near
the end of World War II. He then enrolled at the University of Minnesota
on the G.I. Bill, and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
Career Graves appeared in more than seventy
films, television shows, and television movies during his career. In 1955,
Graves joined the NBC television series Fury, as the rancher and adoptive single
father, Jim Newton. Graves also was featured in the 1953 World War II film,
Stalag 17. From 1960-61 Graves starred as leading
character Christopher Cobb in 34 episodes of the TV series Whiplash. In
the story line Cobb is an American who arrives in Australia in the 1850s to
establish the country's first stagecoach line, using a bullwhip rather than a gun
to fight the crooks that he encounters. The series also starred Anthony Wickert.
Graves also starred in the British made ITC series Court Martial playing U.S.
Army Lawyer Major Frank Whittaker as well as guest roles in such series as
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Cimarron City, Route 66 and The
Invaders,(episode; 'Moonshot') In 1967, Graves was recruited by Desilu Studios
to replace Steven Hill as the lead actor on Mission: Impossible. Graves portrayed
the iconic character of James Phelps, the sometimes-gruff director of the
Impossible Missions Force or IMF, for the six following seasons of the series.
After the series ended in 1973, Graves played a cameo-type support role in the
feature film Sidecar Racers in Australia which was released in 1975. Graves also
made a guest appearance in the teen soap opera Class of 74 in mid-1974, playing
himself. Graves was cast as Palmer Kirby in the
1983 ABC miniseries, The Winds of War. He played opposite Robert Mitchum, Jan
Michael Vincent, Deborah Winters and Ali MacGraw in what became in '83, the
second most watched miniseries of all time.
After playing mainly serious roles in the 1970s, he appeared as Captain
Clarence Oveur in the early 80s comedies Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel.
In 1988 a Hollywood writers' strike resulted in a new Mission: Impossible
series being commissioned. Graves was the only cast member from the original
series to return as a regular, reprising his role as James Phelps, though others
made guest appearances. The series was filmed in Australia, and Graves made his
third journey there for 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. 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 third version of the pilot, but it did not sell as a
series. The concept was later used in the brief 1980s adventure series
Masquerade. During the 1990s, he hosted and narrated
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's 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, Beginning of the End, Parts:
The Clonus Horror, and an uncredited voiceover in The Eye Creatures. The film
Killers from Space was featured in The Film Crew, Michael J. Nelson's follow-up
to MST3K. Graves himself parodied his Biography work in the film Men in Black
II, hosting an exposé television show. He also played Colonel John Camden on
the television series 7th Heaven. In 1995, Graves starred with Charlton
Heston, Mickey Rooney and Deborah Winters in the Warren Chaney docudrama,
America: A Call to Greatness. In the 1996 film update of Mission:
Impossible, the character of Phelps was re-imagined as a traitor who murders
three fellow IMF agents only to be killed himself at the end of the film, a
decision that disappointed Graves, as well as many fans of the original
series. On October 30, 2009, Graves was honored
with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
AirTran Airways featured Graves in a series of web-only "Internetiquette"
videos in 2009 in which Graves appeared in a pilot's uniform and references
classic Airplane! lines. The videos were part of an AirTran Airways campaign to
promote their in-flight wireless Internet access.
In the summer of 2009 Graves signed on as a spokesman for reverse mortgage
lender American Advisors Group. Graves appeared in a national commercial in
which he marketed reverse mortgages. Graves' final project was narrating the
computer game epic Darkstar: The Interactive Movie, released November 5,
2010. Personal life
Graves was a devout Christian. He was married to Joan Endress Graves from 1950
until his death. Death
After returning from a brunch on March 14, 2010, Graves collapsed and died of a
heart attack at the age of 83, four days before his 84th birthday.
Awards Graves was awarded a Golden Globe Award
in 1971 for his role as Jim Phelps in the series Mission: Impossible. He also
received nominations for an Emmy Award and Golden Globe awards in other seasons
of that show. Graves also won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding
informational series in 1997 as host of Biography.
Filmography References
External links Peter Graves at the Internet Movie
Database Peter Graves at the TCM Movie Database
Peter Graves at AllMovie Biography and filmography at Brian's
Drive-In Theater Peter Graves at The New York Times