Iconic actor Peter Graves died on Sunday.
CNN reported that he fell outside his Los Angeles home, where his daughter performed CPR without success.
He was most famous for his role as James Phelps, the leader of a team of nearly invincible spies in "Mission Impossible," a CBS television series.
The opening of the show, in which James Phelps gets his assignment via a self destructing tape, became a cultural touchstone. The opening phrase, “Your mission, should you decide to accept it,” remains an American idiom.
The show aired on CBS from 1967-1973 and on ABC from 1988-1990. Graves won a Golden Globe in 1971 for his role on the show.
After many roles in B movies, Graves’s breakthrough came in Stalag 17 in 1953, in which he played a German spy. He starred with Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters in Night of the Hunter, as a man so desperate to provide for his family during the depression that he steals a fortune.
His early work was often lampooned on the series Mystery Science Theater 3000, in which bad movies are mocked. He mocked his own dignified image when he played Captain Clarence Oveur in the two Airplane movies, broadly comic parodies of disaster films.
He performed in many movies, television series, and mini-series through a long and honored career. He was noted for his rich voice.
Graves’s brother was James Arness, also a television star. Graves changed his last name to distinguish himself from his brother.
Graves was born on March 26, 1925.
