by Paul Donnelley; T.V. Babylon, 1997 To outsiders, it seemed that Pete Duel had everything to live for—a loving girlfriend, a nice home, money, and a hit T.V. series. Yet shortly after 1:25 am on 31 December 1971, this handsome and talented actor killed himself. Peter Ellstrom Deuel was born in Rochester, NY, on 24 February 1940, the eldest child of Dr. Elsworth Shault Deuel and Lillian Marcella Ellstrom, a Swedish American. Brother Geoffrey, born in 1942, and sister Pamela, born three years later, completed the family. Pete Deuel grew up wanting to be a pilot, but discovered that he had 20/30 ... Read More

by Melody Cecko; Peter Duel Remembrance Club, late 1980s or early 1990s When I looked up Dennis Fimple, I half expected Kyle Murtry. Dennis is no Kyle Murtry. Articulate and polite, he is very gracious in accepting compliments on his portrayal of Kyle. When be speaks of his work on AS&J, he is honest. Then I asked him what his favorite job was and it wasn't AS&J; it was his work on J.D. and the Saltflack Kid and Winterhawk. I hid my disappointment (I hope). Dennis has been very active since his days on AS&J; he has been in several feature ... Read More

16 Magazine, January 1972 Unlike most actors’ roles, “Joshua Smith”—the character Pete Duel portrays on TV—is not that different from the real-life guy who plays him. Pete, in real life, also loves the excitement of the old west. He enjoys the wilderness, the comfort of wearing old jeans, and cowboy boots. And like Joshua Smith, Pete Duel has an eye for the girls! His dimples, his warm, brown eyes, his sexy smile, attract girls like honey lures bees! The only trouble with his “honey” is that he’s not sweet all the time! Pete Duel loves like he lives—independently, and free, and slightly ... Read More

They’re Different As Night and Day—But Still Friends! by Susan Rogers; Screen Life, January 1972 It’s been said that one of the reasons for the great popularity of ABC-TV’s Alias Smith and Jones is the striking contrast between the two leading men, Ben Murphy and Peter Duel. Alias is a Western series about two young outlaws who are seeking amnesty from their criminal past in order to have a fighting chance at a future. Pete plays Hannibal Heyes, also known as Joshua Smith, and Ben plays Jed “Kid” Curry, alias Thaddeus Jones. The series, which deals with good and evil—with lots of comedy ... Read More

by Douglas Snauffer; Epi-log Journal, Spring 1994 Over the years, Larson has truly experienced the best and worst of his profession. The best things, he said, are the simple things. “I’m doing something I love. I’m creating. The first time someone answered the phone on the set and said, Battlestar Galactica—it was such a rush. It sent a chill up my back.” But there is the other end of the spectrum, and the worst times can be devastating. Twice, Larson has had to deal with the deaths of the leading men in his series. One afternoon in the fall of 1984, actor Jon-Erik ... Read More

by Brian Viner; The Independent In December 1971, when I was 10 years old, an American actor called Pete Duel killed himself. To my friends and me, the news came as a horrible blow. Duel played the outlaw Hannibal Heyes, alias Joshua Smith, in our favorite TV show, Alias Smith and Jones. Heyes and his partner Kid Curry, alias Thaddeus Jones, played by Ben Murphy, were icons in the Farnborough Road Junior School playground. They seemed to be able to cope, with unfailing good humor, with everything life threw at them. Yet Duel, it turned out, could not. On New Year’s Eve ... Read More

by Rona Barrett; Rona Barrett's Hollywood, May 1972 SAD GOODBYES.... Hollywood lost several of its brightest faces and names, to the distress of all who love good entertainment. I came back from a sunny vacation to find that not only the beloved MAURICE CHEVALIER had left us, but also a young star with a great future ahead, PETER DUEL. Slowly, in the days that followed PETER's death by self-inflicted gunshot, the details of his life began to be tied together. For instance, it was decided that PETER's part in his Alias Smith and Jones series would definitely be taken over by ROGER ... Read More

by Jeff Rovin, TV Babylon, Signet, New York, 1984, pp. 60-62 With a slight stretch of the imagination, the fate of some suicide victims, such as Brenda Benet, can be regarded as a happy ending. Not so the demise of Peter Duel. He wasn't a lost and saddened figure like Brenda, didn't have Nick Adams's bad luck, or Inger Stevens's fatal sense of isolation. He was simply a young man full of high ambition. Like so many actors before him, Duel's plan had always been to suffer through the TV pap [lacking in substance] in order to make a name for ... Read More

by Roma Wheaton; Forever Young (book), date unknown Success came easily to Peter Deuel (he later dropped the first e in his surname to avoid confusion), a dark-haired, handsome young man with an engaging personality. In the mid sixties, he could be found in nearly every successful American television series. For a short time, he even had his own sitcom, Love on a Rooftop. He cared passionately about every aspect of his life, his work and the quality of it, the world we live in and the way we abuse it. An ardent campaigner for political rights, he was a perfectionist, always ... Read More

Teen Life, January 1972 Pete Duel grew up in the small town of Penfield, New York, a suburb of Rochester. His dad was the town's only doctor and his mother was the nurse. Pete's whole family tree was filled with doctors, but he never really considered the medical profession himself. The one thing he wanted to do from the time he was two years old was become an airplane pilot. A MEMORABLE EVENT During Pete's early boyhood days, his dad introduced him to the wonders of the outdoors. Since Penfield was a rural town, there were plenty of woods and fields around for ... Read More

by Judith Evans, 1999 There would have been this gentle arc of the spirit, like a gossamer winged creature, that would have sprung from my heart and plunged headlong into the liquid, lustrous pools of those chestnut eyes; And your spirit would have leapt in entrechant and, blowing kisses as it crossed the path of my own, arms spread wide— A swan dive—and then hands coming together as it sliced cleanly, as hope does, into the clear, blue ocean of my eyes; And we would have resided there, the way salmon never return to the sea when once they leave its waters, And we would have been forever safe and joyous in each other’s hearts. And you would be here today. And I would be ... Read More