George Peppard Byrne, Jr. was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of building contractor George Peppard Byrne, Sr. and opera singer Vernelle Rohrer. He graduated from Dearborn High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Peppard enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at age 17 on July 8, 1946 and rose to rank of Corporal in the 10th Marines, leaving the Marines at the end of his enlistment in January 1948.[1] From 1948 to 1949, he studied Civil Engineering at Purdue University where he was a member of the Purdue Playmakers theatre troupe and Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He then transferred to Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1955.[2] He also trained at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.[3] [edit]
Peppard made his stage debut in 1949 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. After moving to New York City, Peppard enrolled in The Actors Studio, where he studied the Method with Lee Strasberg. His first work on Broadway led to his first television appearance, with a young Paul Newman, in The United States Steel Hour (1956), as the singing, guitar-playing baseball player Piney Woods in Bang the Drum Slowly. Peppard's Broadway appearance in The Pleasure of His Company (1958) led to an MGM contract. Following to a strong film debut in The Strange One (1957), he played the illegitimate son of Robert Mitchum's character in the popular melodrama Home from the Hill (1960). His good looks, elegant manner and superior acting skills landed Peppard his most famous film role as Paul Varjak in Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn. This 1961 role boosted him briefly to a major film star. His leading roles in that film's wake included How the West Was Won in 1962 (his character spanned two sections of the episodic Cinerama extravaganza), The Victors in 1963, The Carpetbaggers in 1964, and The Blue Max in 1966. The Carpetbaggers was based on an epic Harold Robbins novel which used the life of Howard Hughes as inspiration and featured Alan Ladd in his final screen role as Nevada Smith, also played by Steve McQueen in a smash hit prequel the following year. Peppard started choosing tough guy roles in big, ambitious pictures where he was somewhat overshadowed by ensemble casts; for example, his role as German pilot Bruno Stachel, an obsessively competitive officer from humble beginnings who challenges the Prussian aristocracy during World War I in The Blue Max (1966). For this role, Peppard earned a private pilot's license and did much of his own stunt flying, although stunt pilot Derek Piggott was at the controls for the famous under-the-bridge scene. Due to Peppard's alcoholism, and notoriously difficult personality on the set, his career devolved into a string of B-movies through the late sixties and early seventies. He then had a notable success with the TV series Banacek (1972–74), (part of the NBC Mystery Movie series), and one of his most critically acclaimed, though rarely seen, performances in the TV movie Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case (1975), as Sam Sheppard. Among the disappointing films was the 1970 Western Cannon for Cordoba, in which Peppard played the steely Captain Rod Douglas, who has been put in charge of gathering a group of soldiers on a dangerous mission into Mexico, and 1967's Rough Night in Jericho in which he was billed over crooner Dean Martin and Jean Simmons, a reflection of his status at that point in his career. Peppard appeared in the short-lived (half a season) Doctors' Hospital (1975) and several other television films. He was in the cult science-fiction film Damnation Alley in 1977. With fewer interesting film roles coming his way, he acted in, directed and produced the drama Five Days from Home in 1979. In a rare game show appearance, Peppard did a week of shows on Password Plus in 1979. Out of five shows, one was never broadcast on NBC (but aired much later on GSN) due to a rant where he expressed dissatisfaction with NBC executives watching "as if you're some sort of crook.
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