by Fenton Bresler; Pageant, January 1975
On the night of December 30th, 1971, handsome, 31-year-old Pete Duel left his girlfriend in bed, walked naked into the front room of his house--and blew out his brains. "Cerebral destruction," are the grim words of the police report that I read in the office of the local coroner. Why did he do it? Why did the star of the highly successful television series, Alias Smith and Jones, a top success on both sides of the Atlantic, destroy himself in the early hours of that December morning?
It could only happen in Hollywood. "I don't know ... Read More
Pete Duel News Archive: 1972 and Later
December 1, 2011Laura
Penfield Post Republican, January 6, 1972
"He was home on vacation between filming schedules of Love on a Rooftop, a TV series he was doing about four years ago, and what impressed me was that he was more concerned with people and with causes than he was with his own career." Former Penfield Post Republican reporter and now public information relation officer for Penfield Schools, Mrs. Michael Fonte was reminiscing over an interview she had with the late actor Peter Duel, 31, who died Friday in his home in Hollywood Hills.
His death followed by a gunshot wound which police believe to ... Read More
December 1, 2011Laura
Rochester Times Union, January 6, 1972
Downstairs at First Baptist Church of Penfield, where actor Peter Duel was eulogized, a knot of Penfield boys traded reasons why he appealed to them. "He was like a con man — trying to get amnesty. He was perfect for the part," said Bill Palmer, 14, of 2154 Five Mile Line Road.
Duel, 31, played Hannibal Heyes in the television series Alias Smith and Jones.
"He was like a man's man; went after the chicks," added Palmer.
"He always caught people cheating at cards," said Paul Banks, 14, of 12 Fosbourne Road.
"They'd put him in jail and he'd ... Read More
December 1, 2011Laura
By Joan E. Vadeboncoeur; Syracuse Herald Journal, January 7, 1972
It looked as if wild acclaim from the teenyboppers was only the matter of one record when Pete Duel died last week of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Hollywood Hills home. The actor spoke of it last summer while lunching with TV editors in the executive dining room of Universal where his Alias Smith and Jones series was shooting for ABC.
He had signed a three-year contract with the studio, "enticed by the inclusion of a feature film," as he put it, "which, in fact, I did." The movie was [Cannon ... Read More
December 1, 2011Laura
Time Magazine, January 10, 1972
Died, Peter Duel, 31, co-star of ABC's popular cowboy comedy series Alias Smith & Jones, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound; in Hollywood. An alumnus of Manhattan's American Theater Wing, Duel went to Hollywood five years ago. There he was in demand on such network television shows as Name of the GAme, Combat!, The Fugitive, and The Bold Ones. He starred opposite Judy Carne in the series Love on a Rooftop before taking the role of Hannibal Heyes (alias Joshua Smith), one of two not quite reformed desperadoes in search of vocational guidance.
December 1, 2011Laura
The Penfield Press, January 13, 1972; To the Editor
The following poem was written and sent to us by a dear friend, Jo Fonte, and because it says so beautifully what is in our hearts we would like to share it with you, as a memoriam to our son, Peter.
GOOD NIGHT, SWEET PRINCE
I came to interview a man called Peter
Poised on the threshold
Of what the world calls stardom...
And I forgot
The first rule of journalism:
Be objective.
How [to] be objective
When confronted with a spirit
So deeply bound to Everyman?
Whose brethren's pain became his own heartache
Whose burden he took
Upon his own ... Read More
December 1, 2011Laura
Lecturas, January 14, 1972
At present the police have offered no comment. All that is known is that Pete Duel was found dead by the door of his house in the Hollywood Hills. Pete was covered in blood and next to him they found the gun which caused his death. Was it murder or suicide? In view of the fact that the gun was close by and there were no other footprints except his leads one to think that he intended to commit suicide.
But Pete had no apparent motive for wanting to die.
Duel, who was not yet thirty years old, ... Read More
December 1, 2011Laura
By Cecil Smith (Column Writer); Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1972
It was a dark and terrible thing to come home to. I had been communing in the white serenity of the Colorado mountains above Snowmass-at-Aspen, walking in "velvet shoes," as Elinor Wylie put it, glorying in the purity of that place, the grandeur of those massive mountains that seemed in their august dignity disdainful of the skiers clustered like flies on their slopes. Then home and Pete Duel's death.
It was "Richard Cory," in fact. Pete fluttered pulses when he said, "Good morning." And he glittered when he walked. And as ... Read More
December 1, 2011Laura
Transcript; January 5, 1972
Snow covered the Nulton Funeral Home in Penfield this morning. It covered the physical traces of those who came last night to pay their last respects to the town boy who became a successful Hollywood star. Over two thousand persons came to sadly renew acquaintances with family and friends.
In a strange way they remembered two Peter Deuels. As most, they remembered Pete Duel the TV star. His very successful current series Alias Smith and Jones. A character with which friends identified because of the close association with his own personality — carefree, quick-witted, and almost always bearing ... Read More
December 1, 2011Laura
Dallas Morning News; January 4, 1972
Surprising was the death of Pete Duel of ABC's Alias Smith and Jones. In several interview sessions I had with Duel over the years, he seemed a happy-go-lucky fellow on the surface, but I got a feeling that he felt that fate had been less than fair to him. Gidget and Love on a Rooftop gave him TV exposure but little personal recognition. Alias Smith and Jones should have been the series that made Duel a household name, but a newcomer by the name of Ben Murphy — a Paul Newman lookalike — stole the ... Read More
November 30, 2011Laura
Variety, January 3, 1972
Coroner's investigation continued today into the death of actor Peter Duel, 31, who police believe shot himself in the head in his Hollywood Hills home early Friday morning. The nude body of the television star, who appeared opposite Ben Murphy in Universal's Alias Smith and Jones series on ABC-TV, was found beneath the Christmas tree by Dianne Ray, who was visiting him.
Following memorial services at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine here yesterday, the body was flown to Penfield, N.Y. for burial.
Police are calling the death a probable suicide, following questioning of Miss Ray, who said she had ... Read More
November 30, 2011Laura
Australian Associate Press; January 2 or 3, 1972; Hollywood, Sunday
The death of actor Pete Duel, found sprawled naked under his Christmas tree soon after he had watched his own television Weston show, probably was suicide, police said yesterday. The 31-year-old star of the Western series Alias Smith and Jones was found by his girlfriend Dianne Ray on Friday soon after they had watched the show together.
His 38-calibre revolver was near his feet, his fingerprints on the gun and there was a bullet wound in his head, police said. The Los Angeles County Coroner (Mr. Noguchi), who performed an autopsy, said, ... Read More
November 30, 2011Laura