I was sorry to hear this news:
Peter Graves, the Minneapolis-born actor who dared to take on
impossible missions, died Sunday, four days short of his 84th birthday.
Graves, who was celebrating his 60th year in show business and a
recent induction into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, appeared to have had a
heart attack outside his Pacific Palisades, Calif., home shortly after
brunch, according to the Associated Press.
My condolences to his family and friends. By all accounts he was a good man.
I always felt a stronger attachment to Peter Graves and older brother James Arness than some other actors, since they too grew up in south Minneapolis. I remember watching both of them on TV as a kid and they seemed to epitomize the roles they played during that time in the late sixties. The Jim Phelps character seemed real though, since the cold war and the Iron Curtain were looming over us at the time. He played the cool and professional secret agent role perfectly and as a kid that role was something of a comfort, because it meant guys like Jim Phelps were on our side. Not that silly for a kid at that time.
That image was important a decade or so later when he appeared in Airplane! and spoke such immortal lines as:
Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?"
...I damn near fell out of my seat in shock. Not that it wasn't funny, the whole bit was hilarious, but because that was Peter Graves doing that schtick! Without his, and the other "serious" actors' reputations, I don't think that movie would have worked nearly as well.
Graves hesitated before accepting the part:
On the one hand, he said, he considered the role a
challenge, "but it also scared me.""I thought I could lose a whole long acting
career," he recalled.
Now, Airplane! is not exactly one of those movies that one goes to for life lessons, of course, but there was one there in Graves(and the others) agreeing to be in it. It was kind of a risk. Would anyone take him seriously again?
Well, he pulled it off and people did still take him seriously. I, for one, appreciated his acting ability in a whole new way. The little lessons for me at that stage was that you shouldn't pigeon-hole people, because they may just surprise you, and don't be afraid to take a risk and have some fun once in a while.
RIP, Peter.
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