Peter Graves

Peter Graves (March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor.

Peter Graves
Born	Peter Duesler Aurness March 18, 1926 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	March 14, 2010 (aged 83) Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart attack
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1951-2010
Spouse(s)	Joan Endress (m. 1950-2010, his death)
Children	3 daughters
Parent(s)	Rolf Aurness Ruth (née Duesler)
Relatives	James Arness (brother, dead)

Early life

His mother was of German ancestry; his father of Norwegian.

Career

In the early years of his career he starred in sci fi movies such as Red Planet Mars (1952), Killers from Space (1954), and some low-budget western movies, including Fort Defiance (1951) and Fort Yuma (1955). He played Morgan Earp, in Wichita (1955), with Joel McCrea and directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Peter Graves won the role of traitor prisoner Sgt. Price in the movie Stalag 17 (1953), directed by Billy Wilder and starring William Holden. Another of his movies was The Night of the Hunter (1955), with Robert Mitchum.

Other movies include Texas Across the River (1966), with Dean Martin, The Ballad of Josie (1967), The Five Man Army (1969), where he leads a group of mercenaries in Mexico.

In 1980s he plays a crazy pilot, in the comedy movie Airplane! (1980) and Airplane II: The Sequel (1982).

His last movie was Addams Family Values (1993).

Television

In 1967 Graves replaced Steven Hill in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible. He played the role Jim Phelps leader of a group of spies. He worked on the series from 1967 until 1973. He returned later to make Mission: Impossible 1988.

He also had a relative success in the series Fury (1955-1960), Whiplash (1961), and Court Martial (1965-1966).

Her performances include specials such as Hallmark Hall of Fame, Fireside Theatre, Celebrity Playhouse, Matinee Theatre, Cavalcade of America, Disneylandia, The Red Skelton Show.

Filmography

Film

Year	Títle	Rol	Notes
1951	Rogue River	Pete Dandridge
1951	Fort Defiance	Ned Tallon
1952	Red Planet Mars	Chris Cronyn
1953	Stalag 17	Sgt. Price
1953	War Paint	Trooper Tolson
1953	East of Sumatra	Cowboy
1953	Beneath the 12-Mile Reef	Arnold Dix
1954	Killers from Space	Dr. Doug Paul Martin
1954	The Yellow Tomahawk	Sawyer
1954	The Raid	Capt. Frank Dwyer
1954	Black Tuesday	Peter Manning
1955/1960	Fury	Jim Newton	TV series
1955	Robbers' Roost	Heesman
1955	Wichita	Morgan
1955	The Night of the Hunter	Ben Harper
1955	The Naked Street	Joe McFarland
1955	Fort Yuma	Lt. Ben Keegan
1955	The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
1956	It Conquered the World	Dr. Paul Nelson
1956	Hold Back the Night	Lt. Lee Couzens
1956	Canyon River	Bob Andrews
1957	Beginning of the End	Dr. Ed Wainwright
1957	Bayou	Martin Davis
1957	Death in Small Doses	Agent/Tom Kaylor
1958	Wolf Larsen	Van Weyden
1959	A Stranger in My Arms	Donald Ashton Beasley
1961	Whiplash	Christopher Cobb	TV series
1965	Sergeant Ryker	Maj. Whitaker
1965/1966	Court Martial	Maj. Frank Whittaker	TV series
1966	Texas Across the River	Capt. Rodney Stimpson
1967/1973	Mission Impossible	James Phelps	TV series
1967	The Ballad of Josie	Jason Meredith
1969	The 5 Man Army!	Dutchman
1975	Sidecar Racers	Carson
1978	Missile X - Geheimauftrag Neutronenbombe	Alec Franklin
1978	High Seas Hijack	Elliott Rhoades
1979	Survival Run	Kandaris
1979	The Clonus Horror	Jeffrey Knight
1980	Airplane!	Captain Clarence Oveur
1981	The Guns and the Fury	Mark Janser
1982	Savannah Smiles	Harland Dobbs
1982	Airplane II: The Sequel	Capt. Clarence Oveur
1984	Zuijia paidang zhi nuhuang miling	Tom Collins
1987	Number One with a Bullet	Capt. Ferris
1988/1990	Mission: Impossible	Jim Phelps	TV series
1993	Addams Family Values	Host
2010	Jack's Family Adventure	George Vickery	TV film

References

• Peter Graves on IMDb
• Peter Graves at the TCM Movie Database
• Peter Graves at AllMovie
• Peter Graves at Find a Grave
• Biography and filmography at Brian's Drive-In Theater
• Peter Graves at The New York Times