“Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?”
That is one of our favorite lines in any movie. More specifically it’s mentioned by the usually serious actor Peter Graves in the 1980 movie “Airplane.”
That crazy movie is full of great quotes ranging from Leslie Nelson’s “Don’t call me Shirley” to the jive talk of June Cleaver.
Sadly, the captain of that crazy Airplane, Peter Graves, has passed away. The stoic actor and voice-over talent was known for his many roles on television including the original “Mission: Impossible” and the more modern A&E series “Biography.”
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 on Sunday. He was 83.
He died of a heart attack at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., said Fred Barman, his business manager.
It was a testament to Mr. Graves’s earnest, unhammy ability to make fun of himself that after decades of playing square he-men and straitlaced authority figures, he 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”). (…continue reading…)
