Handsome and elegant George Peppard occasionally displayed considerable
talent through his career, whether action roles or dramatic. Following Broadway and television experience, he made a strong
film debut in
Stirb wie ein Mann (1957). He
started getting noticed when he played
Robert Mitchum's illegitimate son in the
popular melodrama
Das Erbe des Blutes (1960). He
then established himself as a leading man, giving arguably his most
memorable film performance as
Audrey Hepburn's love interest in
Frühstück bei Tiffany (1961).
Seen by the studios as a promising young star, Peppard was subsequently
cast in some of the major blockbusters of the early/mid-1960s:
Das war der wilde Westen (1962),
Die Sieger (1963),
Die Unersättlichen (1964) and
Geheimaktion Crossbow (1965). He
reached the peak of his popularity in another such lavish production,
Der blaue Max (1966), in which he
effectively played an obsessively competitive German flying officer
during World War I.
However, by the late 1960s, he seemed to settle as a tough lead in more
average, often hokum, adventures, including
Jedes Kartenhaus zerbricht (1968),
Kanonen für Cordoba (1970) and
Der Agent, der seinen Leichnam sah (1972).
In the early 1970s, his declining popularity was temporarily boosted
thanks to the television series
Banacek (1972). With his film roles
becoming increasingly uninteresting, he acted in, directed and produced
the drama
Fünf Tage bis nach hause (1978),
but the result was rather disappointing. In the mid-1980s, he again
obtained success on television as Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, the
cigar-chomping leader of
Das A-Team (1983). George Peppard
died at age 65 of pneumonia on May 8, 1994 in Los Angeles, California.
He is buried alongside his parents in Northview Cemetery in Dearborn,
Michigan.
