We were all prepared to note Peter Graves's
birthday today with a Spark about how B-level celebrities
who are late in their careers find themselves squeezing the remnants of their fame to
become commercial spokespeople. So, imagine how we felt reading of Graves’s unfortunate death last Sunday: all our plans were knocked into a cocked hat.
Now, don't get us wrong. We're not disparaging either Mr. Graves's talent or
the product in any way. He was a fine and serious actor whose filmography is
filled with enough classics -- Stalag 17, Night of the Hunter, The Long Gray Line, and Airplane!,
not to mention his iconic role on Mission: Impossible -- that his reputation is secure. Rather, we were
just curious as to how Graves joined a parade of actors who ended up hawking
such services.
Celebrities are, of course, no strangers to commercial endorsements, Mark Twain's
image was used to sell cigars. Baseball players like Joe DiMaggio
and Ted Williams sold cigarettes, as did such classic movie actors as Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, Bob Hope, and Henry Fonda.
But at least those were more mainstream products.
We have to wonder what detours altered the career paths of Peter Graves and Robert Wagner to make them think that flogging for reverse mortgages was the best career move? Or Lindsey Wagner for inflatable mattresses? Or Bob Eubanks for tax lawyers? Or Wilford Brimley for diabetes supplies? Or Betty White
for pet microchips? Or even Sam Waterston for robot insurance?
Commercials are, obviously, a lucrative option for many actors (and not just
celebrities: look at, say, Stephanie Courtney, Dori Kelly,
or Isaiah Mustafa), and while some stars -- Ed Harris,
Gene Hackman, and James Stewart
-- prefer to let their voices, rather than their faces, do the talking
(literally) others are not so camera-shy. It's hard to turn on the television
and get away from William Shatner, Michael Jordan, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, or Tiger Woods...
okay, maybe not Tiger so much anymore.
This is not to mention, of course, another category of celebrity who's not
too proud to appear on camera in commercials, but who doesn't want them seen
in America. Foreign audiences have seen Paul Newman
for coffee, Nicolas Cage for video games, Jennifer Aniston for beer, Leonardo DiCaprio for cell phones, Meg Ryan
for GPS systems, Bruce Willis for credit cards, Keanu Reeves
for whisky, Sean Connery for yogurt, and John Travolta
for -- well, your guess is as good as ours.
As he had done for other clients, Graves, being the professional he was, played it straight and gave it all he had, and you can't ask for more than
that. Now that he's passed, we have to wonder if the ads will continue to
air. Sure, he's gone, but that doesn't seem to have stopped Billy Mays.
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