Peter Graves

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Peter Graves (2009)

Peter Graves (born March 18, 1926 in Minneapolis , Minnesota , USA , † March 14, 2010 in Los Angeles , California ; actually Peter Duesler Aurness ) was an American actor who, among other things, through his leading role as secret agent Jim Phelps in the TV series Cobra, Take Over became known.

Life

In his youth, Graves was a talented athlete and saxophonist . At the age of 16 he worked as an announcer for the radio station WMIN in Minneapolis. After two years in the US Air Force , Graves studied drama at the University of Minnesota . After graduating, he went to Hollywood and after his first roles for television , he made his film debut in 1951 in Rogue River . Several films followed, especially in the Western genre. He also played a brief role as a bank robber in the only film directed by actor Charles Laughton , The Night of the Hunter ( The Night of the Hunter , 1955).

Above all, work for television made Graves known. The impersonation of Jim Phelps in the 171 episodes produced from 1966 to 1973 and comprising 171 episodes of the agents series Kobra, you take over (at times also broadcast under the German title Impossible Mission ; English Mission: Impossible ) made him widely known. For each episode of the television series in which Graves took part from 1967 onwards, he received up to 7,500 US dollars . In 1971 he was honored with the Golden Globe for Best Television Actor for the role . He also played the character of Jim Phelps in the continuation of the series, which was produced between 1988 and 1990 and broadcast in German-speaking countries under the title In Secret Mission . In total, Graves played in more than 70 cinema and television films as well as many television series, including a. in the children's series Fury (from 1955 to 1960).

Graves was also popularized by portraying the flight captain Oveur in the film comedies The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Plane ( Airplane ! , 1980) by the screenwriting team Zucker - Abrahams - Zucker and The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Spaceship ( Airplane II - The Sequel , 1982). Initially, Graves did not want to play the role because he saw the contents of the script as "the biggest garbage" he had ever read - as Graves himself admitted in a 2000 newspaper interview . It was only after meeting the team of authors that he changed his mind.

The German voices of Peter Graves include the voice actors Joachim Cadenbach , Hartmut Reck , Rüdiger Joswig , Klaus Kindler , Norbert Gastell ( Men in Black II ) and Niels Clausnitzer , who spoke him in the series Fury and repeated this in the radio play records for the series.

In recent years, Peter Graves has had a recurring role in the television series A Heavenly Family as well as individual guest appearances on television series such as Dr. House and Cold Case - No victim is ever forgotten .

Peter Graves was married to Joan Endress from 1950, with whom he had three daughters. His brother was the American actor James Arness (best known for his role as Marshal Matt Dillon in the American western series Smoking Guns ). On March 14, 2010, Graves died at his home in Los Angeles of complications from a heart attack .

Filmography (selection)

Feature films

TV Shows

Web links

Commons : Peter Graves  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Graves is dead on spiegel.de, March 15, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Graves, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aurness, Peter (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Minneapolis , Minnesota , USA
DATE OF DEATH March 14, 2010
Place of death Los Angeles , California , USA