October 1: Happy Birthday George Peppard

[TMC]

https://lebeauleblog.com/2017/10/01/...alter-matthau/

George Peppard (1928-1994) was studying engineering at Purdue when he became involved in a campus theater group. He then transferred to and graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, performed at the Pittsburgh Playhouse while completing his degree, and studied with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1956, and his feature film debut a year later in The Strange One. He then landed major roles in Pork Chop Hill and Home from the Hill, before appearing in his most famous film role in 1961.


Breakfast at Tiffany’s launched Peppard into a brief period as a major star. He was part of the ensemble cast of How the West was Won, starred in an adaptation of Harold Robbins’ The Carpetbaggers (a big hit), and played a variety of tough military types in films like Operation Crossbow and Tobruk.

By the late sixties Peppard’s star was fading; the actor’s alcoholism may have been a factor. He starred as the title character of NBC’s Banacek for two seasons in the early seventies, but for several years after than, his only memorable roles were in a couple of films with cult classic credibility, Damnation Alley and Battle Beyond the Stars (as Space Cowboy). He rebounded in the 1980s, starring as Col. John “Hannibal” Smith, who loved it when a plan came together on The A-Team.