George Peppard

George Peppard
Peppard in 1964
Born	George Peppard Jr. (1928-10-01)October 1, 1928 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Died	May 8, 1994(1994-05-08) (aged 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Northview Cemetery, Dearborn, Michigan
Alma mater	Pittsburgh Playhouse Carnegie Mellon University Purdue University
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1951–1994
Spouse(s)	Helen Davies ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1964)​ Elizabeth Ashley ​ ​ (m. 1966; div. 1972)​ Sherry Boucher ​ ​ (m. 1975; div. 1979)​ Alexis Adams ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 1986)​ Laura Taylor ​ (m. 1992⁠–⁠1994)​
Children	3

Linda Evans and Peppard in TV's Banacek (1974)

George Peppard Jr. (/pəˈpɑːrd/; October 1, 1928 – May 8, 1994) was an American film and television actor.

Peppard secured a major role when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and later portrayed a character based on Howard Hughes in The Carpetbaggers (1964). On television, he played the title role of millionaire insurance investigator and sleuth Thomas Banacek in the early-1970s mystery series Banacek. He played Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, the cigar-smoking leader of a renegade commando squad, in the hit 1980s action show The A-Team.

Early life

George Peppard, Jr. was born October 1, 1928, in Detroit, Michigan, the son of building contractor George Peppard, Sr. and opera singer and voice teacher Vernelle Rohrer. He was graduated from Dearborn High School in Dearborn, Michigan in 1946.

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.

During 1948 and 1949, he studied civil engineering at Purdue University where he was a member of the Purdue Playmakers theatre troupe and Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He then transferred to Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1955. He also trained at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

In addition to acting, Peppard was a pilot. He spent a portion of his 1966 honeymoon training to fly his Learjet in Wichita, Kansas.

Acting

Theatre

Peppard made his stage debut in 1949 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. After moving to New York City, Peppard enrolled in the Actors Studio, where he studied the Method with Lee Strasberg. He did a variety of jobs to pay his way during this time, such as working as a disc jockey, being a radio station engineer, teaching fencing, driving a taxi and being a mechanic in a motorcycle repair shop.

He worked in summer stock in New England and appeared at the open air Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon.

Television

His first work on Broadway led to his first television appearance, with Paul Newman, in The United States Steel Hour (1956), as the singing, guitar-playing baseball player Piney Woods in Bang the Drum Slowly, directed by Daniel Petrie.

He appeared in an episode of Kraft Theatre, "Flying Object at Three O'Clock High" (1956).

In April 1956 he appeared in a segment of an episode of "Cameras Three" performing from The Shoemaker's Holiday; the New York Times called his performance "beguiling".

In July 1956 he signed to make his film debut in The Strange One directed by Jack Garfein, based on the play End as a Man. It was the first film from Garfein as director and Calder Willingham as producer, plus for Peppard, Ben Gazzara, Geoffrey Horne, Pat Hingle, Arthur Storch and Clifton James. Filming took place in Florida. "I wouldn't say I was nervous," said Peppard, "just excited."

On his return to New York he did "Out to Kill" on TV for Kraft. In September he joined the cast of The Girls of Summer directed by Jack Garfein with Shelley Winters, Storch and Hingle, plus a title song by Steven Sondheim. This reached Broadway in November. Brooks Atkinson said Peppard "expertly plays a sly, malicious dance teacher." It only had a short run.

The bulk of his work around this stage was for television: The Kaiser Aluminum Hour ("A Real Fine Cutting Edge", directed by George Roy Hill), Studio One in Hollywood ("A Walk in the Forest"), The Alcoa Hour ("The Big Build-Up" with E.G. Marshall), Matinee Theatre ("End of the Rope" with John Drew Barrymore, "Thread That Runs So True", "Aftermath"), Kraft Theatre ("The Long Flight"), Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("The Diplomatic Corpse", with Peter Lorre directed by Paul Henreid), and Suspicion ("The Eye of Truth" with Joseph Cotten based on a script by Eric Ambler). The Strange One came out in April 1957 but despite some strong reviews - the New York Times called Peppard "resolute" - it was not a financial success.

Peppard played a key role in Little Moon of Alban (1958) alongside Christopher Plummer for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. The Los Angeles Times called him "excellent".

In May, Peppard played his second film role, a support part in the Korean War movie Pork Chop Hill (1959) directed by Lewis Milestone.

MGM

Peppard had signed to play a role on Broadway in The Pleasure of His Company (1958) starring Cyril Rithchard when he auditioned successfully for MGM's Home from the Hill (1960). He ended up appearing in Pleasure of His Company from October 1958 to June 1959 when he left the cast to make Home from the Hill. Part of the arrangement of the latter involved signing with MGM for a long term contract.

Home from the Hill was a prestigious film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Robert Mitchum, who played Peppard's father, and George Hamilton as Peppard's brother. It was a success at the box office, although the film's high cost meant that it was not profitable.

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.

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" afterwards.

Peppard 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 superior 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. This 1961 role boosted him briefly to a major film star.

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. 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). He starred in The Carpetbaggers, a 150-minute saga of a ruthless, Hughes-like aviation and film mogul based on a best-selling novel by Harold Robbins. It turned out to be one of the biggest box-office hits of 1964.

"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.

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." He was cast as the lead in Sands of the Kalahari (1965) but walked off the set after only a few days of filming and had to be replaced by Stuart Whitman.

Peppard starred in a thriller, The Third Day (1965) with Elizabeth Ashley who became his second wife.

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.

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."

Decline

Peppard played a German Jew fighting for the Allies in Tobruk (1967) alongside Rock Hudson. It was only a mild box office success. It was made at Universal, as was Rough Night in Jericho (1967), a Western with Dean Martin, P.J. (1968), a private eye film directed by Guillermin, What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968), a comedy directed by George Seaton with Mary Tyler Moore, and House of Cards (1968) a thriller directed by Guillermin shot in Europe. None of these films were particularly successful at the box office.

In 1968 he announced he had co-written a script Watch Them Die, which he planned to direct, but not play a starring role. It was never made.

He did a thriller, Pendulum (1969), directed by George Schaefer with Jean Seberg, and went to England to make The Executioner (1970) with Joan Collins.

In Cannon for Cordoba (1970) he played the steely Captain Rod Douglas, who has been put in charge of gathering a group of soldiers on a dangerous mission into Mexico. It was not a success. Neither was One More Train to Rob (1971) another Western.

Television

Peppard spent most of the 1970s focusing on television. He starred in a Western TV movie The Bravos (1972) with Pernell Roberts. He returned to features with The Groundstar Conspiracy (1972) co starring Michael Sarrazin then had a notable success with Banacek (1972–1974), part of The NBC Mystery Movie series, starring in 90-minute whodunits as a wealthy Boston playboy who solves thefts for insurance companies for a finder's fee. Sixteen regular episodes were produced over two seasons. Peppard also did some second unit directing.

Peppard starred in Newman's Law (1974), an action film, then made some TV movies, One of Our Own (1975), a medical drama, and Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case (1975), as Sam Sheppard.

Peppard appeared in the short-lived (half a season) Doctors' Hospital (1975) which lasted 15 episodes.

He starred in the science-fiction film Damnation Alley (1977), which has gone on to attain a substantial cult following. Peppard's role in the film was reportedly turned down by Steve McQueen because of salary issues. With fewer interesting roles coming his way, he acted in, directed and produced the drama Five Days from Home in 1979.

Low point

Peppard later said the low point of his career came over a three-year period around the time of Five Days from Home. "It was a bad time", he said in 1983. "I was heavily in debt. My career seemed to be going nowhere. Not much work over a three-year period. Every morning I'd wake up and realize I was getting deeper and deeper into debt".

He had to sell his car and take out a second mortgage on his home to finance Five Days from Home. Eventually, he got his money back and was able to concentrate on his career.

He had the lead in the TV moviea Crisis in Mid-air (1979) and Torn Between Two Lovers (1979) and went to Europe for From Hell to Victory (1979).

In a rare game show appearance, Peppard did a week of shows on Password Plus in 1979, in which he could often be seen smoking cigarettes while filming. Out of five shows, the first was never broadcast on NBC, but aired much later on GSN and Buzzr, because of on-camera comments made by Peppard regarding personal dissatisfaction he felt related to his treatment by the NBC officials who supervised the production of Password Plus.

Dynasty

In 1980, Peppard was offered, and accepted, the role of Blake Carrington in the television series Dynasty. During the filming of the pilot episode, which also featured Linda Evans and Bo Hopkins, Peppard repeatedly clashed with the show's producers, Richard and Esther Shapiro; among other things, he felt that his role was too similar to that of J. R. Ewing in the series Dallas. Three weeks later, before filming was to begin on additional episodes, Peppard was fired and the part was offered to John Forsythe; the scenes with Peppard were re-shot and Forsythe became the permanent star of the show.

"It was a big blow," Peppard noted subsequently, adding he felt Forsythe ultimately did "a better job (as Blake Carrington) than I could have done." Ironically, this led to him being available to be cast in NBC's The A-Team, the number one rated television show in its first season in 1982.

Before then he had an excellent part as a cowboy in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), a popular science fiction film. He travelled to Canada to make Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid (1981) with Richard Harris, to New Zealand for Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1982) and Spain for Hit Man (1982).

The A-Team

In 1982, Peppard auditioned for and won the role of Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith in the television action adventure series The A-Team, acting alongside Mr. T, Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz. In the series, the A-Team was a team of renegade commandos on the run from the military for "a crime they did not commit" while serving in the Vietnam War. The A-Team members made their collective living as soldiers of fortune, but they helped only people who came to them with justified grievances.

As "Hannibal" Smith, Peppard played the leader of the A-Team, distinguished by his cigar smoking, confident smirk, black leather gloves, disguises, and distinctive catch phrase, "I love it when a plan comes together." The show ran five seasons on NBC from 1983 to 1987, made Peppard known to a new generation and is arguably his best-known role. It has been reported that the role was originally written with James Coburn in mind, but Coburn declined, and thus it went to Peppard. Peppard was reportedly annoyed by Mr. T upstaging him in his public image, and at one point in their relationship, refused to speak directly to Mr. T. Instead he sent messages through intermediaries (including at times fellow cast members, particularly Dirk Benedict), and for this, Peppard was occasionally portrayed by the press as not a team player.

During the series' run Peppard guest starred on the Tales of the Unexpected episode "The Dirty Detail" (1983).

Later career

Peppard's last series was an intended occasional series of television movie features entitled Man Against the Mob (1988) set in the 1940s. In these TV detective films, Peppard played Los Angeles Police Detective Sgt. Frank Doakey. The second film Man Against the Mob: The Chinatown Murders was broadcast in December 1989. A third film in this series was planned, but Peppard died before it was filmed.

In his later years Peppard appeared in several stage productions. In 1988 he portrayed Ernest Hemingway in the play PAPA, which played a number of cities including Boise, Idaho; Atlanta, Georgia; and San Francisco. Peppard financed it, and played in it.

He appeared in Silence Like Glass (1989) and Night of the Fox (1990).

In 1992 he toured in The Lion in Winter, in which he played Henry II to Susan Clark's Eleanor of Aquitaine.

His last television role was guest starring in "The PI" and episode of Matlock.

Personal life

Peppard was married five times and was the father of three children.

• Helen Davies (1954–1964): two children, Bradford and Julie. Ms. Davies never remarried. She appeared in one movie.
• Elizabeth Ashley (1966–1972), his co-star in The Carpetbaggers and The Third Day: one son, Christian. As per their 1972 divorce settlement, Peppard paid Ashley $2000 a month in alimony for four years, up to $400 a month for psychiatric care, and $350 a month in child support for their son Christian Peppard. Ashley's two awards were nullified in 1975 when Ashley married James McCarthy, later divorced (1975-1981).
• Sherry Boucher (1975–1979), a realtor from Springhill, Louisiana, who remarried John Lytle.
• Alexis Adams (1984–1986), also known as Joyce Ann Furbee, a bit part TV actress, who never remarried.
• Laura Taylor (1992-1994)

Peppard resided in a Greek revival-style white cottage in Hollywood Hills, California with elegant porches on three sides and a guest house in the back. He was living there at the time of his death. Later owned by designer Brenda Antin who spent a year renovating it, the small home was purchased by writer/actress Lena Dunham in 2015 for 2.699 million dollars.

Peppard, born and raised in Dearborn, Michigan, Dearborn's most famous resident after Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and legendary long serving Congressman John Dingell, wanted to go home, and George is buried simply and plainly with his mother and father in the local Northview Cemetery in Dearborn. In April 2017, Peppard's name resurfaced in the media after the cemetery was vandalized for the third time and 37 stones overturned. The Peppard family stone was not damaged. The cemetery was subsequently restored.

Later years and death

Peppard overcame a serious alcohol problem in 1978; subsequently then became deeply involved in helping other alcoholics. He had smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for most of his life until he quit after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1992, having part of one lung removed in an operation shortly after the formal diagnosis.

Despite health problems in his later years he continued acting. In 1994, shortly before his death, Peppard completed a pilot with Tracy Nelson for a new series called The P.I. It aired as an episode of Matlock and was to be spun off into a new television series with Peppard playing an aging detective and Nelson his daughter/sidekick.

While battling lung cancer Peppard died on May 8, 1994 in Los Angeles from pneumonia. He was buried in Northview Cemetery, Dearborn, Michigan.

Critical appraisal

David Shipman published this appraisal of Peppard in 1972:

"George Peppard's screen presence has some agreeable anomalies. He is tough, assured and insolent — in a way that recalls late Dick Powell rather than early Bogart; but his bright blue eyes and blond hair, his boyish face suggest the all-American athlete, perhaps going to seed. The sophistication is surface deep: you can imagine him in Times Square on a Saturday night, sulky, defiant, out of his depth, not quite certain how he wants to spend the evening."

Awards

• 1960 NBR Award (National Board of Review of Motion Pictures) for Home from the Hill as Best Supporting Actor
• 1961 British Academy Film Award nomination, Category: Most Promising Newcomer To Leading Film Roles for Home From The Hill
• Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (Category Motion Pictures, 6675 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles)

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	The United States Steel Hour	Piney Woods	TV: Bang the Drum Slowly
1956–1957	Kraft Television Theatre		TV: The Long Flight Flying Object at Three O'Clock High
1957	The Kaiser Aluminum Hour	Lynch	TV: A Real Fine Cutting Edge
1957	Studio One		TV: A Walk in the Forest
1957	The Alcoa Hour	Eddie Pierce	TV: The Big Build-Up
1957	The Strange One	Cadet Robert Marquales	Film debut
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Evan Wallace	TV: The Diplomatic Corpse
1957–1958	Matinee Theatre		TV: End of the Rope, Part 1 End of the Rope, Part 2 Aftermath
1958	Suspicion	Lee	TV: The Eye of Truth
1958	Hallmark Hall of Fame	Dennis Walsh	TV: Little Moon of Alban
1959	Pork Chop Hill	Cpl. Chuck Fedderson
1960	Home from the Hill	Raphael "Rafe" Copley
1960	Startime	Pat Lawrence	TV: Incident at a Corner
1960	The Subterraneans	Leo Percepied
1961	Breakfast at Tiffany's	Paul Varjak
1962	How the West Was Won	Zeb Rawlings
1963	The Victors	Cpl. Frank Chase
1964	The Carpetbaggers	Jonas Cord
1964	Theatre of Stars	Buddy Wren	TV: The Game with Glass Pieces
1965	Operation Crossbow	Lt. John Curtis
1965	The Third Day	Steve Mallory
1966	The Blue Max	Lt. Bruno Stachel
1967	Tobruk	Capt. Kurt Bergman
1967	Rough Night in Jericho	Dolan
1968	P.J.	P.J. Detweiler
1968	What's So Bad About Feeling Good?	Pete
1968	House of Cards	Reno Davis
1969	Pendulum	Capt. Frank Matthews
1970	The Executioner	John Shay
1970	Cannon for Cordoba	Capt. Red Douglas
1971	One More Train to Rob	Harker Fleet
1972	The Bravos	Major John David Harkness	Television film
1972	The Groundstar Conspiracy	Tuxan
1972–1974	Banacek	Thomas Banacek	TV series
1974	Newman's Law	Vince Newman
1975	The Week of Fear	Dr. Jake Goodwin	Television film
1975	Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case	Dr. Samuel Sheppard	Television film
1975–1976	Doctors' Hospital	Dr. Jake Goodwin
1977	Damnation Alley	Maj. Eugene Denton
1979	Five Days from Home	T.M. Pryor	also director and producer
1979	Crisis in Mid-Air	Nick Culver	Television film
1979	From Hell to Victory	Brett Rosson
1979	Torn Between Two Lovers	Paul Rasmussen	Television film
1979	An Almost Perfect Affair	Himself	Uncredited
1980	Battle Beyond the Stars	Cowboy
1981	Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid	Jim Daley
1981	Race for the Yankee Zephyr	Theo Brown
1982	Twilight Theatre		Television film
1982	Hit Man	McFadden
1983–1987	The A-Team	Col. John "Hannibal" Smith	TV series
1984	Tales of the Unexpected	Sgt. Guedo	TV: The Dirty Detail
1988	Man Against the Mob	Frank Doakey	Television film
1989	Zwei Frauen	Mr. Martin
1989	Man Against the Mob: The Chinatown Murders	Frank Doakey	Television film
1990	Night of the Fox	Col. Harry Martineau/Max Vogel	Television film
1992	The Tigress	Sid Slaughter	Final film role
1994	Matlock	Max Morgan	TV: The P.I., (final appearance)

Select theatre credits

• Girls of Summer (1956–1957)
• The Pleasure of His Company (1958–1959)
• The Sound of Music (1982)
• Papa (1988)
• The Lion in Winter (1991–1992)

External links

• George Peppard at IMDb
• George Peppard at the TCM Movie Database
• George Peppard at the Internet Broadway Database
• George Peppard at the University of Wisconsin's Actors Studio audio collection
• Ooh Yummy George Peppard Fan site
• Template:Worldcat id
• George Peppard at Find a Grave