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Peter Graves - Source: Reuters
Actor Peter Graves, who starred in the 1960s TV show Mission:
Impossible and the Airplane! movies, was found dead of apparent
natural causes at his home on Monday. He was 83.
Police said Los Angeles officials were not investigating the death
and there was no sign of foul play.
A representative for Graves told media the actor died of a heart
attack.
The younger brother of Gunsmoke actor Jim Arness, Graves gained
widespread recognition in 1967, when he took the role as leader of
the Impossible Missions Force on popular TV spy drama Mission:
Impossible.
He portrayed Jim Phelps, who would receive his team's next mission
instructions on a tape that would self-destruct in a puff of smoke.
Graves stayed on the US series until it was cancelled in 1973, then
later reprised the role in a TV revival from 1988-1990.
Graves is perhaps better known to modern audiences for his deadpan
comedic role in 1980 comedy spoof Airplane! in which he famously
played the not-so-subtle paedophile pilot of a seemingly doomed
jetliner.
The actor had long told a story that he initially wanted to turn
down the role, but was talked into it after being convinced by the
filmmakers that his dry and deadpan delivery was exactly what was
needed to make the spoof work.
Graves appeared in about 130 films and television shows.
In recent years, he hosted US cable TV series, including the
A&E Network's long-running historical series, Biography.
Born Peter Aurness on March 18, 1926, in Minneapolis, Graves worked
at a local radio station as a teenager and later attended the
University of Minnesota, where he majored in drama.
He made his film debut in the 1951 crime drama Rogue River, and two
years later won acclaim portraying a German spy placed among allied
prisoners of war in Stalag 17.
In one of his early TV credits, Graves portrayed Jim Newton on the
1950s-era Saturday morning kids' show Fury, about a horse and the
boy who loved him.
Graves won a Golden Globe Award in 1971 for his work in Mission:
Impossible, and he and Biography won a Emmy Award for outstanding
informational series in 1997.
He is survived by his wife, Joan, and three daughters.
