American actor Peter Graves has died a few days before his 84th birthday, apparently of natural causes following a family brunch. I'm not going to claim I was a keen follower of his career, but Airplane! is one of my favourite films and Graves' role as the genially peculiar Captain Oveur was a highlight. I'm too young to remember him as Jim Phelps in the Mission Impossible TV series, but I've often noticed him and his distinctive voice in many TV shows and movies through the years. Graves is survived by his brother James Arness, his wife Joan Endress, and their three daughters. You can read a great obituary at The Guardian here, and by way of a tribute, here are all his scenes from Airplane!:
