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George Peppard 1928 - 1994

George Peppard was born on October 1, 1928 in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan United States, and died at age 65 years old on May 8, 1994 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. George Peppard was buried at Northview Cemetery in Dearborn, Wayne County, MI.

George Peppard

George Peppard, Jr.

October 1, 1928

Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, United States

May 8, 1994

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States

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George Peppard George Peppard (1928 - 1994)

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George Peppard's History: 1928 - 1994

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Introduction

George Peppard was an actor, an X-Marine, a pilot, and a television star. He is buried with his parents in Dearborn, Michigan. I met him when he was very young and before he became a household name. He was very handsome and happy to be asked for his autograph because he was surrounded by stars who had already been famous for years: Cyril Ritchard, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Charles Ruggles, Dolores Hart, and Judith Anderson. It was a great day for me. later I interviewed Dolores Hart when she was in another show. She was beautiful and sweet. Today she is "MOTHER DOLORES" the Mother Superior in a convent in Bethlehem Connecticut.
10/1

1928

Birthday

October 1, 1928

Birthdate

Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan United States

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Actor
Nationality & Locations

United States
Early Life & Education

Dearborn High School, Purdue University, Carnegie Institute Of Technology, Pittsburgh Playhouse
Military Service

Peppard enlisted in the United States Marine Corps July 8, 1946, and rose to the rank of corporal, leaving the Corps at the end of his enlistment in January 1948.
Professional Career

MGM In October 1958 Peppard appeared on Broadway in The Pleasure of His Company (1958) starring Cyril Ritchard, who also directed. Peppard played the boyfriend who wants to marry Dolores Hart who was Ritchard's daughter; The New York Times called Peppard "admirable". The play was a hit and ran for a year. During the show's run Peppard auditioned successfully for MGM's Home from the Hill (1960) and the studio signed him to a long-term contract - which he had not wanted to do but was a condition for the film. In February 1959, Hedda Hopper announced Peppard would leave Company to make two films for MGM. Home from the Hill and The Subterraneans. Home from the Hill was a prestigious film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Robert Mitchum, who played Peppard's father. It featured several young actors MGM was hoping to develop, including Peppard, George Hamilton, and Luana Patten. During filming Peppard said "Brando is a dead talent - I saw him in The Young Lions” but said Peck is "a man of integrity as a star and a person. Lee Strasberg is the only person I know who is brilliant." "I want to be an actor and proud of my craft," said Peppard. "I would like to be an actor who is starred but being a star is something you can't count on whereas acting is something I can work on." It was a success at the box office, although the film's high cost meant that it was not profitable. Peppard's next film for MGM was The Subterraneans, an adaptation of the 1958 novel by Jack Kerouac co-starring Leslie Caron. It flopped and Peppard said "I couldn't get arrested" afterward. He had meant to follow The Subterraneans by returning to Broadway with Julie Harris in The Warm Peninsular but this did not happen. In April 1959 Hedda Hopper said he would be in Chautauqua but that was not made until a decade later, starring Elvis Presley, as The Trouble with Girls (1969). At the end of 1959, Hopper predicted Peppard would be a big star saying "he has great emotional power, is a fine athlete, and does offbeat characters such as James Dean excelled in." Sol Siegel announced he would play the lead in Two Weeks in Another Town. (Kirk Douglas ended up playing it.) He was also announced for the role of Arthur Blake in a film about the first Olympics called And Seven from America which was never made. Peppard returned to television to star in an episode of the anthology series Startime, "Incident at a Corner" (1960) under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock alongside Vera Miles. He played Teddy Roosevelt on television in an episode of Our American Heritage, "The Invincible Teddy" (1961). Film stardom George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) His good looks, elegant manner, and acting skills landed Peppard his most famous film role as Paul Varjak in Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn, based on a story by Truman Capote. Director Blake Edwards had not wanted Peppard but was overruled by the producers. He was cast in July 1960. During filming Peppard did not get along with Hepburn or Patricia Neal, the latter calling him "cold and conceited." In November 1961, a newspaper article dubbed him "the next big thing". Peppard said he had turned down two TV series and was "concentrating on big screen roles." His contract with MGM was for two pictures a year, allowing for one outside film and six TV appearances a year, plus the right to star in a play every second year. "In a series, you don't have time to develop a character," he said. "There's no build-up; in the first segment you're already established." He was meant to appear in Unarmed in Paradise which was not made. He bought a script by Robert Blees called Baby Talk but it was also unmade. Instead, MGM cast him in the lead of their epic western How the West Was Won in 1962 (his character spanned three sections of the episodic Cinerama extravaganza). It was a massive hit. He followed this with a war story for Carl Foreman, The Victors (1963), made in Europe. He was offered $200,000 to appear in The Long Ships but did not want to go to Yugoslavia for six months. He was going to do Next Time We Love with Ross Hunter but it was never made. He starred in The Carpetbaggers, a 150-minute saga of a ruthless, Hughes-like aviation and film mogul based on a best-selling novel of the same name by Harold Robbins. The cast included Elizabeth Ashley, who had an affair with Peppard during filming and later married him. She described him as "some kind of Nordic god – six feet tall with beautiful blond hair, blue eyes, and a body out of every high school cheerleader's teenage lust fantasy." Ashley claimed Peppard "was never late on set and he had nothing but scorn for actors who weren't professional enough to keep that together." She added that Peppard: Never was one of those actors who believes his job is to take the money, hit the mark, and say the lines and let it go at that. He felt that as an above-the-title star, he had the responsibility to use his muscle and power to try and make it better and that has never stopped him. He was unrelenting about it, to the point where a lot of executives and directors came to feel he was a pain in the a**. But the really talented people loved working with him because of all his wonderful creative energy. "My performances bore me", said Peppard in a 1964 interview, adding that his ambition was to deliver "one great performance. And I must say I feel a little presumptuous to shoot for that. But that's the goal, like a hockey goal. I figure I've got a choice ... not of the outcome but of the objective. And my objective is that one performance." Peppard returned to television to do Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, "The Game with Glass Pieces". For MGM he appeared in Operation Crossbow (1965), a war film with Sophia Loren. It was the first film he made under a new contract with MGM to do one movie a year for three years. He was meant to follow this with an adaptation of the play Merrily We Roll Along but it was never made. "I'm an actor, not a star," he said around this time, adding that he looked for "three things" in a film, "a good director, a good part, and a good script. If I get two out of three of those I'm satisfied." Peppard starred in a thriller, The Third Day (1965) with Ashley who had become his second wife. The film was directed by Jack Smight who claimed Warner Bros only agreed to finance it because they had a deal with Peppard. Peppard said when he made the film "I wasn't just broke I was up to my ears in debt." He was announced for The Last Night of Don Juan for Michael Gordon but it was not made. He was cast as the lead in Sands of the Kalahari (1965) at a fee of $200,000 but walked off the set after only a few days of filming in March 1965 and had to be replaced by Stuart Whitman. Paramount sued Peppard for $930,555 in damages and he countersued. Ashley later wrote: What tormented George so badly was that he was caught between being an actor and a movie star. He did not start off as an untalented pretty nothing who had to be grateful for any piece of meat that was thrown his way. He was intelligent and talented but because he was six foot tall with blond hair and blue eyes he had been put in the slot of being a movie star at a time when the movie studios were still very powerful and expected you to play the game by their rules... I don't think it was possible to be a male movie star who looked like he did and got hot when he did and not be trapped by it. He had a huge hit with The Blue Max (1966), playing a German World War One ace, alongside James Mason and Ursula Andress, directed by John Guillermin. "He could carry these big films," said Filmink. Film critic David Shipman writes of this stage in his career: "With his cool, blond baby-face looks and a touch of menace, of meanness, he had established a screen persona as strong as any of the time. He might have been the Alan Ladd or the Richard Widmark of the sixties: but the sixties didn't want a new Alan Ladd. Peppard began appearing in a series of action movies, predictably as a tough guy, but there were much tougher guys around — like Cagney, Bogart, and Robinson, whose films had now become television staples." Peppard played a German Jew fighting for the Allies in Tobruk (1967) alongside Rock Hudson. "It's a big mistake to think I'm making a lot of money and turning out a lot of c***," he said in a 1966 interview.
Personal Life & Family

Actor, he is best remembered for his breakthrough role of 'Paul “Fred” Varjak' in the motion picture “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961), and for his role of 'Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith' in the action television series “The A-Team” (1983 to 1986). Born in Detroit, Michigan, he graduated from Dearborn High School in nearby Dearborn, Michigan, and attended Purdue University, where he studied Engineering, later transferring to Carnegie Mellon University. He took an interest in acting, and joined The Actor’s Studio, where he studied acting. He enlisted into the United States Marine Corps, and rose to the rank of Sergeant in the Artillery, but saw no interest in a military career, and left as soon as his military obligation was up, to return to acting. Blue-eyed, blonde, fair, and handsome, he was quick to find roles for himself in the Hollywood machine. His first movie role was as a Cadet in “The Strange One” (1957), and he again played military roles in such films as “Pork Chop Hill” (1959), “The Victors” (1963), “Operation Crossbow” (1965), “Tobruk” (1967), and a series of other movies. His best military role was perhaps as German pilot Bruno Stachel, an obsessively competitive officer pilot from humble beginnings who challenges the Prussian aristocracy in World War I in “The Blue Max” (1966). Drifting between movies and television, he accepted roles in both mediums, and appeared in such television roles as a doctor in “Doctors’ Hospital” (1975) and as a detective in “Banacek” (1972). His success also led to the typical Hollywood excesses, and for years, he became alcoholic. In 1978, he finally conquered a serious drinking problem, and would spend many of his later years helping alcoholics to break the habit. He was married five times, and had three children with two of his wives. In his later years, he found acting less interesting, and turned more to producing and directing, but with less success, so he continued to act. In the mid-1980s, he found acting success again, as Colonel Hannibal Smith, the leader of “The A-Team” (1983-1986). A heavy smoker, in 1992 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and had part of his lung removed. He died of pneumonia on May 8, 1994, in Los Angeles, due to complications from his lung cancer. Realistic about himself and his problems, he would state in an interview that “I was my own worst enemy” and that “Mine isn’t a string of victories. It’s no golden past. I am no George Peppard fan.” Bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson
05/8

1994

Death

May 8, 1994

Death date

pneumonia

Cause of death

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California United States
Death location

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Gravesite & Burial

mm/dd/yyyy
Funeral date
Northview Cemetery in Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan 48124, United States
Burial location
Obituary

Obituary: George Peppard David Shipman Tuesday 10 May 1994 00:02 George Peppard, actor, director, producer: born Detroit 1 October 1928; six times married (two sons, one daughter); died Los Angeles 8 May 1994. BREAKFAST at Tiffany's seemed a sophisticated piece when it came out in 1961, directed by Blake Edwards and written by George Axelrod from the novella by Truman Capote. The sexually ambiguous 'I' of the story, the struggling writer based on Capote himself, had become a full-blooded practicing heterosexual - involved with a lady known only as '2E' (played by Patricia Neal), who leaves him dollars 300 on the bedside table after their rendezvous. To the strains of 'Moon River', he gives her up for Holly Golightly, who is played by Audrey Hepburn. George Peppard played the role, that of the all-American boy gone to seed who rediscovers Real Values when he finds True Love. Peppard himself had no difficulty in hinting at the decadence of the character, and indeed in his first film he had played a first-year student at a military academy which was a hotbed of perversion and corruption - The Strange One (1957), adapted from Calder Willingham's novel End as a Man. Peppard played a victim, but there was a glint in the eye, a flick of the tongue, which suggested that he could not wait to be the next school bully. He continued to be promising in his next few films, and something more than that in Home from the Hill (1959), as the hero's illegitimate brother, investing his scenes with warmth and humour. Breakfast at Tiffany's made Peppard a star, and he appeared in a number of important pictures over the next few years, eventually achieving billing over such names as James Mason, Sophia Loren and Alan Ladd. The titles included How the West was Won (1962), The Victors (1963) and Operation Crossbow (1965). In The Carpetbaggers (1964), he played an unscrupulous playboy modeled on Howard Hughes, as first written up by Harold Robbins in his bestseller of the same title. Peppard had his best screen chance in John Guillerman's The Blue Max (1966), as an ambitious working-class member of a crack German officer corps, despised by his aristocratic colleagues and determined to prove, by fair means or foul, that he is better than any of them. It was his last major film, which is doubly curious because, like The Carpetbaggers, it was a very big movie at the box-office. With a couple of hits like these, an actor can coast for two or three years, but after Rough Night in Jericho (1967), a western with Jean Simmons and Dean Martin, Peppard was offered little of interest. This was partly his own fault. In 1965 he was making Sands of the Kalahari for Cy Endfield and Stanley Baker, who expected it to rival the popularity of their earlier Zulu. Peppard walked out during filming, to be replaced by Stuart Whitman. The film not only failed, but the industry looked askance at Peppard, never trusting or liking any actor who causes shooting to begin all over again. With his cool, blond baby-face looks and a touch of menace, of meanness, he had established a screen persona as strong as any of the time. He might have been the Alan Ladd or the Richard Widmark of the Sixties: but the Sixties didn't want a new Alan Ladd. Peppard began appearing in a series of action movies, predictably as a tough guy, but there were much tougher guys around - like Cagney, Bogart and Robinson, whose films had now become television staples. John Guillerman, making his first two Hollywood films, cast Peppard in the thrillers New Face in Hell (1967) and House of Cards (1968). In the second of these he was an expatriate American caught up in the dirty tricks of the French political right, and in the first a down-at-heel private eye. Peppard's private eye brought him an offer to play another, in a television series, Banacek. It ran from 1972 to 1974 and brought renewed acclaim to Peppard and several movie offers. He chose to play a busted cop who sets out to clear his name in Newman's Law (1974). He himself produced, directed and starred in Five Days from Home (1978), playing another ex-lawman, one who this time has been convicted of the manslaughter of his wife's lover; the film went direct to television. When Peppard returned to that medium, it was as Hannibal, the grinning, cigar-chomping leader of The A-Team, an NBC series which ran from 1983 to 1986. Righting wrongs, correcting or uncovering injustices, the A-Team went about their work with rare good-humour and a considerable amount of violence, explosive if not bloody. They were very popular, particularly with children, but the show was expensive to produce and needed the injection of new ingredients to hold its audience; and the producers preferred to put it into syndication. More recently, Peppard had returned to the stage, and was in London briefly in 1990 in the two-hand play Love Letters, opposite Elaine Stritch. In 1992 he embarked on a tour of The Lion in Winter with Susan Clark.

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George Peppard lived 9 years shorter than the average family member when died at the age of 65.

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