Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor who portrayed Jim Phelps in the television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973 and in its revival from 1988 to 1990. His elder brother was actor James Arness. Graves also played airline pilot Captain Clarence Oveur in the 1980 comedy film Airplane! and its 1982 sequel Airplane II: The Sequel.
Early life and education Peter Graves was born Peter Duesler Aurness on March 18, 1926, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the younger son of Rolf Cirkler Aurness (1894–1982), a businessman, and his wife, Ruth (née Duesler, died 1986), a journalist.
Graves's ancestry was Norwegian, German, and English. He used the stage name Graves, a maternal family name,James Arness, James E. Wise Jr. (2001) James Arness: an Autobiography, , McFarland & Company Inc., accessed March 15, 2010 to honor his mother's family, and also so as to not be confused with the stage name of his elder brother James Arness, star of the television series Gunsmoke.
Graves graduated from Southwest High School in 1944. He was a two-time Minnesota state track champion in the 120 yard high hurdles at Southwest. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II from 1944 to 1945, reaching the rank of corporal, and was awarded the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. After demobilization, Graves 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 70 films, television shows, and television movies during his career. He was featured in a key role in the 1953 World War II film, Stalag 17. In 1955, Graves joined the NBC television series Fury, as the rancher and adoptive single father, Jim Newton.
From 1960 to 1961, Graves starred as Christopher Cobb in 34 episodes of the British/Australian TV series Whiplash. In the storyline, 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 he encounters. The series also starred Anthony Wickert. Graves also starred in the British 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 Jim Phelps, the sometimes-gruff director of the Impossible Missions Force, 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.The Winds of War at the Turner Classic Movie Database He played opposite Robert Mitchum, Jan Michael Vincent, Deborah Winters and Ali MacGraw in what became in 1983 the second-most watched miniseries of all time (after Roots). He reprised the role for the 1988 sequel miniseries, War and Remembrance. During this time, he became the host of PBS's Discover: The World of Science.Profile, Chedd-Angier.com. Accessed June 16, 2023.
After playing mainly serious roles in the 1970s, he appeared as Captain Clarence Oveur in the early 1980s 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 Jim Phelps, though others (most notably Greg Morris, whose son Phil was a regular in this version) 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, both called Call to Danger, which were attempts to create a Mission: Impossible–style series. In the first of these (1968), Graves played a government agent (the Bureau of National Resources) who recruited civilians with special talents for secret missions. In the second Call to Danger, he portrayed an investigator for the Justice Department.
The 1960s version of the pilot, according to Patrick White in The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier (which White reports was actually the second such pilot, but Graves was not involved in the first), is credited with winning Graves the role of Phelps; after Mission: Impossible ended in 1973, Graves filmed a third version of the pilot (this one structured as a made-for-TV movie), 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' 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,Beaulieu, Trace (1996) The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. p.103 and Parts: The Clonus Horror. 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 in the television series 7th Heaven.
Graves refused to reprise the role of Jim Phelps (played by Jon Voight) in the first 1996 theatrical film of Mission: Impossible, after the character was revealed to be a traitor and the villain of the film. In the film, Phelps murders three fellow IMF agents, and is killed in a helicopter crash at the end, a decision that disappointed Graves and fellow cast members, and upset many fans of the original series.
On October 30, 2009, Graves was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6667 Hollywood Blvd.
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."Internetiquette" AirTran Airways. Retrieved 2010-03-15. 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' final project was narrating the computer game epic Darkstar: The Interactive Movie, released November 5, 2010.
Personal life
Graves was a devout Methodist
of immigrant German descent. He was married to Joan Endress Graves (1929-2011) for 60 years from 1950 until his death.
On March 6, 1984, Graves was hospitalized at Tahoe Forest Hospital for a fractured jaw among other injuries sustained from a fall on an icy Lake Tahoe road the previous weekend. He received 100 stitches to his lower lip during his stay.
Graves and his wife Joan had three daughters.
Graves helped organize a Los Angeles city ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.
A Republican, he was supportive of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon.
Death On March 14, 2010, after returning from brunch with his family, Graves suffered a heart attack outside his Los Angeles home. His daughter attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but he was pronounced dead, aged 83.
Awards Graves was awarded a Golden Globe Award in 1971 for his role as Jim Phelps in the series Mission: Impossible. In 1972, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. 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
Film Year Title Role Notes 1951 Rogue River Pete Dandridge 1951 Up Front Military Policeman Uncredited 1951 Angels in the Outfield Radio Announcer Uncredited 1951 Fort Defiance Ned Tallon 1952 The Congregation Produced by the Protestant Film Commission. 1952 Red Planet Mars Chris Cronyn 1953 Stalag 17 Sgt. Frank Price 1953 War Paint Trooper Tolson 1953 East of Sumatra Cowboy 1953 Beneath the 12-Mile Reef Arnold Dix 1954 Killers from Space Doug Paul Martin 1954 The Yellow Tomahawk Walt Sawyer 1954 The Raid Capt. Frank Dwyer 1954 A Man of Many Ideas John Wanamaker TV movie 1954 Black Tuesday Peter Manning 1955 The Long Gray Line Cpl. Rudolph Heinz 1955 The Man Who Tore Down the Wall James Ewing TV movie 1955 Robbers' Roost Heesman 1955 Wichita Morgan Earp 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 Capt. Bob Elliott 1956 It Conquered the World Paul Nelson 1956 Hold Back the Night Lt. Lee Couzens 1956 Canyon River Bob Andrews 1957 Bayou Martin Davis 1957 Beginning of the End Ed Wainwright 1957 Death in Small Doses Agent / Tom Kaylor 1958 Wolf Larsen Van Weyden 1959 A Stranger in My Arms Donald Ashton Beasley 1961 Las Vegas Beat Bill Ballin TV movie 1964 Mr. Kingston TV movie 1965 A Rage to Live Jack Hollister 1965 Attack of the Eye Creatures Narrator of USAF Briefing Film TV movie, Uncredited 1966 Texas Across the River Capt. Stimpson 1967 Valley of Mystery Ben Barstow TV movie 1967 The Ballad of Josie Jason Meredith 1968 Sergeant Ryker Maj. Whitaker Uses archive footage. The film was first shown as a two-part episode of NBC's Kraft Suspense Theatre, which spawned the series Court Martial. It was then recut and shown in cinemas 1968 Call to Danger Jim Kingsley TV movie 1969 The Five Man Army Dutchman 1969 Mission: Impossible vs. the Mob Jim Phelps Compilation of both parts of the two-part Mission: Impossible episode "The Council" re-edited and released to European theaters 1973 Call to Danger Doug Warfield TV movie 1973 The President's Plane Is Missing Mark Jones TV movie 1974 Scream of the Wolf John Wetherby TV movie 1974 The Underground Man Lew Archer TV movie 1974 Where Have All The People Gone? Steven Anders TV movie 1975 Sidecar Racers Carson 1975 Dead Man on the Run Jim Gideon TV movie 1976 The Mysterious Monsters Himself Documentary narrator 1977 SST: Death Flight Paul Whitley TV movie 1977 High Seas Hijack Elliott Rhoades English Version 1978 The Gift of the Magi O. Henry TV movie 1979 Missile X: The Neutron Bomb Incident Alec Franklin Also known as The Tehran Incident and Cruise Missile 1979 Spree Kandaris Also known as Survival Run 1979 The Rebels George Washington 1979 Parts: The Clonus Horror Jeff Knight 1979 Death Car on the Freeway Lieutenant Haller TV movie 1980 The Memory of Eva Ryker Mike Rogers 1980 Airplane! Captain Clarence Oveur 1981 300 Miles for Stephanie Captain McIntyre TV movie 1981 Best of Friends Nick Adams TV movie 1981 The Guns and the Fury Mark Janser 1982 Savannah Smiles Harland Dobbs 1982 Airplane II: The Sequel Captain Clarence Oveur 1984 Aces Go Places 3 Tom Collins Cameo role in a Hong Kong movie 1987 Number One with a Bullet Capt. Ferris 1987 If It's Tuesday, It Still Must Be Belgium Mr. Wainwright TV movie 1993 Addams Family Values Host 1999 House on Haunted Hill Himself 2001 These Old Broads Bill TV movie 2002 Men in Black II Himself 2003 Looney Tunes: Back in Action Host of Civil Defense Film Uncredited 2003 With You in SpiritHal Whitman TV movie 2010 Jack's Family Adventure Uncle George Vickery TV movie
Partial television credits