Peter Graves dies at 83: star of TV's 'Mission: Impossible'

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.

Born Peter Aurness in Minneapolis, he followed his older brother, James Arness of "Gunsmoke" fame, to Hollywood.
He played a Nazi mole in "Stalag 17" and went on to a number of roles in westerns, crime and science-fiction films. In 1955, Graves became a television-series regular as the star of "Fury," and played his most famous television character as Mr. Phelps in "Mission: Impossible," from 1967 to 1973 and reprising it from 1988 to 1990.