Rochester Times Union, December 31, 1971
Peter Duel, 31, Rochester-born star of television's Alias Smith and Jones, was found shot to death early today in his Hollywood Hills home, police reported. Coroner's officials said the young actor was shot in the head.
Police said Duel's body was discovered at 1:30 p.m. after an anonymous phone call to authorities [actually, the call wasn't anonymous]. The body was on the living room floor. Duel had been shot with a .38-caliber weapon, they said.
Police reported they were questioning two persons. Both were guests in the Duel home, and one was reportedly a girlfriend, Dianne Ray.
Los ... Read More
Category: 1971 and Earlier
December 27, 2014Laura
...but either way it's not the image that seems to fit Pete Duel.
by Judy Stone; TV Guide, May 15, 1971
In 1965, Peter Deuel had a private five-year plan. Five years in Hollywood to show his stuff, and then back to Broadway to name his price and his play. Instead he mushed through the goo of Gidget and Love on a Rooftop, suddenly whipped into political action and then subsided into a Zen-like meditation. He emerged in a mood to simplify his life, stripped away some nonessentials, and changed his name to Pete Duel.
It sounded terse. Clean-cut. The right name for ... Read More
December 27, 2014Laura
Rochester Times Union, December 31, 1971
When Peter Duel went to Hollywood in 1963, he set a goal for himself. He wnated to be a feature film performer of note within five years. He didn't quite make it. Although he made a few feature films, he still was better known as a television performer. But Duel's widespread exposure on Alias Smith and Jones might have eventually been the route to a film career for the former Penfield resident.
Although he was ambitious as an actor, Duel also liked to discuss other things in talks with reporters.
In an interview at his parents' home ... Read More
May 26, 2014Laura
Tiger Beat Spectacular, December 1971
I don't think you can name a place and say that is where love is. People is what love is all about, not places or things. Love is found with that one special person with whom you choose to spend the rest of your life. It doesn't matter where you are, because if she's with you, then love is everywhere you go.
You don't even have to be with that special person for love to be present. If you know you love someone, it stays with you, even if you're thousands of miles away from her. No, ... Read More
July 8, 2013Laura
By Cecil Smith; Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1971
Pete Duel's younger brother Geoffrey, who still spells his name Deuel, is costarring with Patrick (son of John) Wayne in a pilot by Stirling Silliphant called Movin' On which sounds a great deal like Silliphant's famous old Route 66. Pete wishes him well, hoping the series will die by morning.
"That series, this series, any series is a big fat drag to an actor who has interest in his work," said Pete. "It's the ultimate trap. You slowly lose any artistic thing you may have. It's utterly destructive."
He rubbed his sleep-lined face. They ... Read More
July 8, 2013Laura
Unknown source; December 16, 1970
This pedestrian entry featuring action shrinks (they zoom up and down the highway and around town a lot) piloted part four of the NBC-Universal "Four in One" Wednesday night series this season. It indicated that The Psychiatrist will have one strong element.
That would be Pete Duel who, as an ex-junkie and patient cum assistant of semi-young, semi-hip Dr. James Whitman (Roy Thinnes), turned in a most impressive and appealing performance against steep and tricky odds. Tricky, because under the gun of network TV's rigid approach to the drug problem, his character was forced hither and yon ... Read More
July 8, 2013Laura
by Carl Koster; TV Radio Show, December 1967
Sally has dated a number of young Hollywood bachelors, including Peter Deuel who played her brother-in-law in the Gidget series. It was from him that we got our first clue about why Sally can't fall in love. According to Deuel, last season's Love On A Rooftop star, Sally is "a cute girl from whom a guy should expect nothing but laughs." Nothing but laughs?
"That's not meant as a subtle put-down," Deuel told us. "Sally's just not the serious type. She doesn't get involved. If a situation takes a serious turn, she'll always find ... Read More
July 8, 2013Laura