PETER GRAVESActor Peter Graves, the star of classic TV series Mission: Impossible has died at home in Los Angeles, aged 83.He was best known as the special agent Jim Phelps in the popular TV series but later found fame in the disaster movie spoof Airplane!, as pilot Clarence Oveur.Peter starred in Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973, and in its revival, between 1988 and 1990, in which he led a squad of American government special agents battling evil conspirators.Another of his memorable roles was as a treacherous Nazi spy in Billy Wilder's 1953 prisoner-of-war drama Stalag 17. But he appeared in more than 70 films and television series, including Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Men in Black II, The Winds of War.He told the LA Times last year that he initially turned down the role for Airplane! because he thought it was in poor taste. But then respected actors Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and Leslie Nielsen signed on to the cast and he followed suit.Peter told the newspaper: "They say you are supposed to stretch as an actor, so let's go stretch it."When he died, his publicist Sandy Brokaw paid tribute, saying: "He had this statesmanlike quality. People were always encouraging him to run for office. But he said: 'I like acting. I like being around actors."'He was born as Peter Aurness in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where his mother was a journalist, and his father a businessman.He was a good athlete and an accomplished musician but turned to the entertainment industry as a radio announcer. He spent two years in the US Army Air Force and then, after studying drama at the University of Minnesota, he followed his older brother James Arness (Gunsmoke's Marshal Matt Dillon) into films with his debut in Rogue River (1951).Peter married Joan Endress in 1950 and together they had three daughters.
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