Dead Celebrity Alert

March 18, 1926–March 14, 2010

Peter Graves, the rugged actor who starred in the hit TV series “Mission: Impossible” and whose career took a comic turn in the disaster spoof “Airplane!” has died. He was 83.

Graves was found dead Sunday afternoon in front of his Pacific Palisades home from apparent natural causes, said Officer Karen Rayner of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Graves had just returned from brunch with his family to celebrate his upcoming 84th birthday. He collapsed on the driveway before he could reach his house, said Sandy Brokaw, his publicist. One of Graves’ daughters administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation but was unable to revive him, Brokaw said.

Graves starred in more than 70 television series and feature films, typically playing the straight-laced hero. One of his first major roles was in the 1953 classic, “Stalag 17,” in which he played an undercover Nazi spy placed among American POWs in a German camp. Read Full Obituary

Filed under Television