Peter Graves, RIP

[Jim_Thomas]

Good night, Mr. Phelps.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/14/obit.peter.graves/index.html?hpt=T1

[HGervais]

<sigh> Another TV hero from my childhood gone. RIP.

[TuK]

Do you like movies about gladiators?

[Paul Kile]

So Long, Jim Newton
Back to the Broken Wheel Ranch

[thepegsdave]

Mission: Impossible is one of my favorite TV shows of all-time and Airplane! is a hilarious movie.

Peter Graves was one of the greatest.

RIP Peter Graves

[Kenneth Morgan]

He learned almost too late that man is a feeling creature... and because of it, the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. And when men seek such perfection... they find only death... fire... loss... disillusionment... the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought an end to the toil and misery, but it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from Man himself.
-Graves' closing lines from "It Conquered the World". Could anyone else have delivered them better?

R.I.P.

[Dunnyman]

Well, well, Scraps is a boy dog, isn't he?

[the5thghostbuster]

God be with his family and may he rest in peace.

Perhaps tonight is a good night to watch MST3K's "PArts: The Clonus Horror" episode....

[ccb]

God be with his family and may he rest in peace.

Perhaps tonight is a good night to watch MST3K's "PArts: The Clonus Horror" episode....

and "Beginning of the End."

[Paul Kile]

God be with his family and may he rest in peace.

Perhaps tonight is a good night to watch MST3K's "PArts: The Clonus Horror" episode....

and "Beginning of the End."

And "Killers from Space" to make it a triple feature...

[Polynikes]

According to the obituary in the paper today, Peter Graves was appalled by the script for "Airplane" when he first read it, and he told his agent to turn it down, suggesting a comedian should play the part instead. Thank goodness he was persuaded to take it after all, as it is his deadpan delivery which makes it funny. A would-be funny man (e.g. think an earlier version of Jim Carrey) trying to be predatory or camp would have killed the joke stone dead.

Strange to think that "Mission Impossible" and the "Airplane" films were his only popular successes in a career of over 50 years. I shall remember him with a smile. Now was it Oveur under Under, or was Under under Oveur, or was Under over Dunn......?

[Paul Kile]

Strange to think that "Mission Impossible" and the "Airplane" films were his only popular successes in a career of over 50 years.

I guess you're not old enough to remember - there are legions of Baby Boomers out there who spent their Saturday mornings watching him play Joey Newton's Dad on Fury ("The story of a horse and the boy who loves him"). I must admit that when I first heard about his death, the first thing that popped into my mind before any of his movie roles was this great old kid's show.

Another memorable role was "Security" Price in the unforgettable WWII prison camp movie Stalag 17. I won't spoil the plot if you haven't seen the movie - go rent it!

[the5thghostbuster]

And let us not forget BIOGRAPHY!

[Polynikes]

Strange to think that "Mission Impossible" and the "Airplane" films were his only popular successes in a career of over 50 years.

I guess you're not old enough to remember - there are legions of Baby Boomers out there who spent their Saturday mornings watching him play Joey Newton's Dad on Fury ("The story of a horse and the boy who loves him"). I must admit that when I first heard about his death, the first thing that popped into my mind before any of his movie roles was this great old kid's show.

Another memorable role was "Security" Price in the unforgettable WWII prison camp movie Stalag 17. I won't spoil the plot if you haven't seen the movie - go rent it!

Thank you for thinking me too young, but I fear it may be a reflection of the fact I am British and we imported very little children's TV from the USA to the UK in the 1960s when I was growing up. I don't remember seeing or hearing about a programme called "Fury". However, "Mission Impossible" was very popular over here in the 1960s/1970s.

I have seen "Stalag 17". I think it may (unfairly?) be less well known or feted in Great Britain, because it is about Amercian WW2 prisoners, and i don't think there is any British interest if I remember the film correctly . In Britain, if people are asked about WW2 PoW films, then they tend to think more quickly of those which focus mainly on British PoWs -"Bridge Over the River Kwai", "The Wooden Horse", "The Colditz Story", or "The Great Escape".

[Paul Kile]

Sorry about that, Polynikes, didn't notice you were from the UK. There were a whole bunch of 1/2 hour B&W "adventure" TV shows aimed at children that were aired in the 1950s and early 1960s in the US, for example:

The aforementioned Fury, about a boy and his horse - sort of an equine Lassie where the horse would alert Joey and his Dad of some crisis, and end up being instrumental in the resolution of said crisis.

My personal favorite, Sky King about a pilot with an orphaned teenage niece (Penny) and nephew (Clipper) living with him, at the "Flying Crown Ranch". He flew a Cessna T-50 "bamboo bomber" (later an ultra cool Cessna 210B) nicknamed the "Songbird". Aviation related adventures, with the kids (who were also pilots, but inexperienced) usually creating the crisis, which was neatly sewed up by the end of the 30-minute show. One episode stands out in my mind, where Penny started one of the plane's engines and stood behind the wing, using the propwash to dry her long blonde hair!

Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, about a Canadian "Mountie" who would "always get his man".

My Friend Flicka, another boy and his horse show set in Canada in the early 20th Century.

So we had a lot to keep us glued to the TV set on Saturday mornings, but I would have also liked to see some of those cool old Doctor Who shows with William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and John Pertwee that you folks across the pond got, but we pretty much missed out on.

And The Great Escape has got to be in my pantheon of the 10 best films. It is particularly memorable to me in that my Dad bought me the book by Paul Brickhill soon after we saw the movie, and I read it from cover to cover in one day (I was 10 at the time). I was hooked on history from then on.