Hello all,

I’ve added Peter’s performance in The Hell With Heroes to the MOVIES page (which now has one movie on it!). Enjoy. More to come…

Life’s Work, Living Free
by Janey Milstead, from Hollywood; FAB 208, May 6, 1972

We can’t forget, and we don’t want to. Now the awful shock has worn off, we understand that Pete has really gone from this world. But he hasn’t left our thoughts, and never will. As a last, simple tribute to him, FAB remembers the things that were important while he was here — his life, his career, and the beliefs that made him a warm, committed human being. As long as these things live on in people’s minds, they will be important always.

FEBRUARY 24, 1940
Born Peter Ellstrom … Read More

flip, August 1972

Dear FLIP, Just a note of thanks for the lovely section (May) “Your Pete Duel Memory Scrapbook.” It was a great way to help his many fans to remember him as the very handsome, warm, loving, talented person he was. I had the pleasure and privilege of seeing him onstage at the Municipal Auditorium here in Birmingham, Alabama, when he and Ben were guests at the 1971 Annual Cerebral Palsy Telethon. It was so beautiful seeing him holding the little handicapped children, the love showing radiant from his eyes. I can’t explain the shock and sorrow I felt … Read More

TEEN Photo Album, May 1972

On New Year’s Eve, while most of us were looking forward to a cheerful evening with friends and family, maybe at a party or just celebrating at home, the shocking news came over the TV, and made headlines in the late afternoon papers.

Pete Duel was dead. The young actor who had found so much success in his series, Alias Smith and Jones, would not be with us in the new year to come.

[Pete didn’t die on New Year’s Eve; he died very early in the morning on that day.]

His many fans took the news in shock … Read More

by Lois Kane; Silver Screen, July 1975

Why would a man like Pete Duel — rich, handsome, successful — want to die? Pete Duel left more than his shattered body behind when he made his violent exit from the stage of life. He also left us with the mystery of why he chose to kill himself.

The handsome 31-year-old star of Alias Smith and Jones was in a position that any other young man would envy. He was an actor on the way up, with money in the bank and his clean-cut cowboy image in just about every young girl’s heart.

Lucky, successful … Read More

A fan’s tribute to Peter Deuel
by Sherilyn Smith; October 2000

In my mind’s eye, in a flash
Broken dreams, meant to last
Seventy-one, his will to lose,
Imposed haunting mid-war blues.

On his steed, his head held high
Shining armor, sword and style
Dark eyes glittering all that is
Passion, rage and love and death.

And all the love, the love had I,
Young one to hear his battle cry.
Then gone was he, the one I loved
In an instant, in a flash,
Is my sorrow meant to last?

Please go then, Pete, and be at peace
Rest, my love, your dreams be sweet
When you wake, our spirits wait
For your return, in faith and … Read More

The Woman Who Will Never Forget Pete Duel’s Death!
Why She’ll Always Wonder
by Felicia Griffith; Screen Parade, June 1972

Pete Duel’s lifetime, however short, was a full one. And one of its most fulfilling elements, especially towards its end, was his girlfriend, Dianne Ray. Although they never married, Pete and Dianne were as close to each other as any man and woman could be. And if anyone could have prevented Pete from taking his own life, that person may well have been Dianne.

Pete was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Dr. Ellsworth S. Deuel and the former Lillian M. … Read More