Actor Peter Graves of 'Mission Impossible' dies at age 83

Peter Graves, the cool spymaster of television's "Mission: Impossible" and the dignified host of the "Biography" series, who successfully spoofed his own gravitas in the "Airplane!" movie farces, died Sunday. He was 83.

He died of a heart attack at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., said Fred Barman, his business manager.

After decades of playing square he-men and straitlaced authority figures, Mr. Graves was perhaps best known to younger audiences for a deadpan line in "Airplane!" ("Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?") and one from a memorable Geico car- insurance commercial ("I was one lucky woman").

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.