Peter Graves 1926-2010, and how we remember

Actor Peter Graves dead of heart attack



The obituary at the above link said in part,

There's a slight error here -- the second film is more correctly titled "Beginning of the End." Both of these movies, though, ended up on
Mystery Science Theater 3000. (In addition, Peter Graves played a role in one of the early KTMA episodes of MST3K, as well as narrating the film in a fourth, "Attack of the Eye Creatures.")

Joe and I like to watch a movie featuring an actor the day we hear of that actor's passing. In Peter Graves' case, we opted for the "It Conquered the World" episode of MST3K.

Just a few days before, we watched the MST3K episode "Mitchell" in order to honor Merlin Olsen ... that film was made when Olsen was still a player for the Los Angeles Rams.

He definitely didn't seem to get defensive over his B-movie roles. And admittedly, the first thing I saw him in (if it wasn't It Conquered the World - I saw lots of bad scifi movies as a kid ) was, I think, Airplane.

But my childhood is going - Fess Parker, Peter Graves and Robert Culp all in a week or so.

Yeah, I think those of us born between 1945 and 1975 all lost a big chunk of our childhoods the last few weeks. It always seems to come in a rush, have never understood why that is.