Name Peter 8th Role Actor | Died June 6, 1994, France | |
Spouse Vanessa Lee (m. 1960–1992) Parents Henry Algernon Claude Graves Movies Give Us the Moon, Bees in Paradise, Spring in Park Lane, Miss London Ltd, I Hired a Contract Killer Similar People Herbert Wilcox, Val Guest, Marriott Edgar, Timo Salminen, Marcel Varnel | ||
Grandparents Claude Thomas Graves | ||
Peter George Wellesley Graves, 8th Baron Graves (21 October 1911 – 6 June 1994), was an English actor.
Born in London, Graves was the son of Henry Algernon Claude Graves, 7th Baron Graves. Admiral Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, was his great-great-great-grandfather. He was educated at Harrow.
Known during his acting career as Peter Graves, he specialised in light comedies and musicals, often cast as dapper young men about town. His career peaked in the mid to late 1940s, beginning with the films of director/writer Val Guest, including Miss London Ltd (1943) and Bees in Paradise (1944), opposite Arthur Askey; and Give Us the Moon (1944) and I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945), opposite Margaret Lockwood. Other roles included the lead in Spring Song (1946), and George IV in both The Laughing Lady (1946) and Mrs. Fitzherbert (1947).
He also appeared in a number of films by Herbert Wilcox, such as popular musicals Spring in Park Lane (1948) and Maytime in Mayfair (1949), both vehicles for Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding. He also portrayed another royal, Prince Albert in Wilcox's The Lady with a Lamp (1951) and Lilacs in the Spring (1954).
He re-emerged in the 1960s as a popular comic supporting player in number of films, including Alfie (1966); The Wrong Box (1966); The Jokers (1967); I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967); and The Magic Christian (1969). He continued acting until a few years before his death, mostly on television.
In 1963 he succeeded his father as eighth Baron Graves. However, as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords.
He married Winifred Ruby Moule on 28 May 1960. She died in 1992. The union had been childless and he died without an heir on 6 June 1994 in France of a heart attack. He was succeeded in the barony by his second cousin Evelyn Paget Graves.