Pete Duel
Acting
Biography
Pete Duel was born in Rochester, New York, the eldest of three children born to Dr. Ellsworth and Lillian Deuel (née Ellstrom). He had a younger brother, Geoffrey, who also became an actor, and a sister, Pamela. He attended Penfield High School, where he worked on the yearbook staff, campaigned for student government, and was a member of the National Thespians Society. Moving to New York, Deuel landed a role in a touring production of the comedy Take Her, She's Mine. To find work in the movies, Deuel and his mother drove across the country to Hollywood, California in 1963, with only a tent to house them each night. In Hollywood, he found work in television. Deuel was quickly offered the starring role of Dave Willis, a newlywed apprentice architect, in a romantic comedy called Love on a Rooftop. Although the show earned good ratings, ABC decided not to bring it back after its first season. Deuel wished to move from sitcoms to more serious roles. Around 1970, he also changed his name, dropping the "r" from Peter and the first "e" from "Deuel". In 1970, Deuel was cast as the outlaw Hannibal Heyes, alias Joshua Smith, opposite Ben Murphy, in Alias Smith and Jones, a light-hearted western about the exploits of two outlaws trying to earn an amnesty. During the hiatus between the first and second seasons, he starred in the television production of Percy MacKaye’s 1908 play, The Scarecrow. Deuel became involved in politics during the primaries for the 1968 presidential election, campaigning for Eugene McCarthy, in opposition to the Vietnam War. He attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and witnessed the violence that erupted. In the early hours of December 31, 1971, Deuel died at his Hollywood Hills home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Deuel's girlfriend, Dianne Ray, was at his home at the time of his death and discovered his body. Ray later told police the two had watched Deuel's series Alias Smith and Jones the previous evening. She later went to sleep in another room while Deuel stayed up. Sometime after midnight, Deuel entered the bedroom, retrieved his revolver and told Ray, "I'll see you later." Ray then said she heard a gunshot from another room and discovered Deuel's body. According to police, Deuel's friends and family said he was depressed about his drinking problem. He had been arrested and pleaded guilty to a DUI accident that injured two people the previous June. Deuel's death was later ruled a suicide. Deuel's funeral was held at the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple on January 2, 1972, in Pacific Palisades. At the service, Deuel's girlfriend read a poem he wrote, titled "Love". An estimated 1,000 friends and fans attended. His body was flown to Penfield, New York, where he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery. After his death, his role in Alias Smith and Jones was taken over by Roger Davis who was previously the narrator over the opening theme of the show. The loss of Deuel proved too great for the series to be sustained; fans were slow to accept Davis, who looked too much like fellow actor Ben Murphy, and the series was cancelled in 1973.
Known For
Richard Kimble is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death penalty. En route to death row, Kimble's train derails and crashes, allowing him to escape and begin a cross-country search for the real killer, a "one-armed man". At the same time, Dr. Kimble is hounded by the authorities, most notably dogged by Police Lieutenant Philip Gerard.
The Fugitive
When an assassin's bullet confines him to a wheelchair for life ending his career as Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside becomes a consultant to the police department. Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and policewoman Eve Whitfield join with him to crack varied and fascinating cases. Ex-con Mark Sanger is employed by the chief as home help but eventually becomes a fully fledged member of the team also. Officer Whitfield leaves after 4 years service, and is replaced by Officer Fran Belding.
Ironside
Combat! is an American television program that originally aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967. The show covered the grim lives of a squad of American soldiers fighting the Germans in France during World War II. The program starred Rick Jason as platoon leader Second Lieutenant Gil Hanley and Vic Morrow as Sergeant "Chip" Saunders.
Combat!
The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series. Alcoa was co-sponsor of Season One only.
The F.B.I.
The Name of the Game is an American television series starring Tony Franciosa, Gene Barry, and Robert Stack that ran from 1968 to 1971 on NBC, totaling 76 episodes of 90 minutes. It was a pioneering wheel series, setting the stage for The Bold Ones and the NBC Mystery Movie in the 1970s. The show had an extremely large budget for a television series.
The Name of the Game
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. is an American situation comedy that originally aired on CBS from September 25, 1964, to May 2, 1969. The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, and the pilot was aired as the finale of the fourth season of The Andy Griffith Show on May 18, 1964. The show ran for five seasons and a total of 150 episodes. In 2006, CBS Home Entertainment began releasing the series on DVD. The final season was released in November 2008. The series was created by Aaron Ruben, who also produced the show with Sheldon Leonard and Ronald Jacobs. Filmed and set in California, it stars Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle, a naive but good-natured gas-station attendant from the town of Mayberry, North Carolina, who enlists in the United States Marine Corps. Frank Sutton plays Gomer's high-octane, short-fused Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter, and Ronnie Schell plays Gomer's friend Gilbert "Duke" Slater. Allan Melvin played in the recurring role of Gunnery Sergeant Carter's rival, Sergeant Charley Hacker. The series never discussed nor addressed the then-current Vietnam War, instead focusing on the relationship between Gomer and Sergeant Carter. The show retained high ratings throughout its run.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of cousin outlaws trying to reform. The governor offers them a conditional amnesty, as he wants to keep the pact under wraps for political reasons. The condition is that they will still be wanted— until the governor can claim they have reformed and warrant clemency.
Alias Smith and Jones
Gidget is an American sitcom about a surfing, boy-crazy teenager called "Gidget" and her widowed father Russ Lawrence, a UCLA professor. Sally Field stars as Gidget with Don Porter as father Russell Lawrence. The series was first broadcast on ABC from September 15, 1965 to April 21, 1966. Gidget was among the first regularly scheduled color programs on ABC, but did poorly in the Nielsen ratings and was cancelled at the end of its first season.
Gidget
Newlyweds Dave and Julie Willis struggle to survive in San Francisco on Dave's apprentice architect's salary of $85.37 a week. Matters are complicated by Julie's rich father, who doesn't approve of their less than luxurious lifestyle and often takes it upon himself to try to improve it, much to Dave's chagrin.
Love on a Rooftop
Mickey is an American situation comedy that aired on ABC from September 1964 to January 1965. Created and produced by Bob Fisher and Arthur Marx, the series stars Mickey Rooney, and was filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.
Mickey
In 1912, during the Mexican Revolution, the border between Texas and Mexico is on flames due to savage raids by Mexican bandits who call themselves freedom fighters, so the US government entrusts to General Pershing the capture of General Héctor Córdoba, the most notorious among them.
Cannon for Cordoba
Just before the Salem Witch Trials, an embittered old woman, who has learned witchcraft, teams up with the Devil, and brings a scarecrow to life as part of her diabolical revenge on the judge who was once her lover.
Scarecrow
The pilot film for the long-run series introduced the kindly small-town general practitioner who, following a mild coronary, grudgingly brings in an independent, motorcycling young associate to help share his workload. Welby's lady friend and his family, part of the plot of this movie, were written out of the subsequent series, with only his medical sidekick, Steven Kiley, and their secretary/nurse, Consuelo, remaining as regulars.
Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Matter of Humanities
In 1946 North Africa, two former US Air Force pilots are forced to work for an international smuggler to get money needed for their return to civilian life after fighting in World War II.
The Hell with Heroes
HOLLYWOOD. Tinseltown. Land of the stars. A city where an actor can reach the greatest heights overnight - and descend just as rapidly. What goes up must come down, and Hollywood's failing stars leave a legacy of sadness, pain and disappointment in their wake. Here, in graphic detail, are the shocking stories behind the deaths of the silver screen's most beloved celebrities, as well as it's lesser known players. Packed with stunning newsreel footage, and previously unrevealed facts, DEATH IN HOLLYWOOD documents many a celebrity's morbid demise due to suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, disease, and even murder. From the outrageous to the tragic, DEATH IN HOLLYWOOD leaves no tombstone unturned in it's quest to dig up the truth about Hollywood's dearly departed.
Death In Hollywood
Hayes visits con-artist Silky O'Sullivan at his San Francisco mansion and discovers that Kid Curry is on trial for murder in Colorado. Heyes rushes to the town and sees Curry in the audience; the man on trial is an impostor who didn't commit the murder he's accused of. Originally a longer duration episode of the TV series Alias Smith and Jones (1971). It occasionally appeared in syndication as a TV movie, under its own name, with the series title bluntly edited out of the regular series' opening credits.
The Day They Hanged Kid Curry
An adventurous young gambler searches for the owner of a mysterious fortune.
The Young Country
A hip psychiatrist teams up with an ex-addict to combat drug addiction in a small town in this pilot for "The Psychiatrist."
The Psychiatrist: God Bless the Children
Newlyweds shock the bride's father with plans for natural childbirth in a Greenwich Village loft.
Generation
Two pilots are hired to reclaim a stolen jet from the son of a South American dictator.