Pete Duel

Pete Duel February 24 1940 December 31 1971 was born in Rochester New York the eldest of three children born to Dr Ellsworth and Lillian Deuel née Ellstrom He had a younger brother Geoffrey who also became an actor and a sister Pamela He attended Penfield High School where he worked on the yearbook staff campaigned for student government and was a member of the National Thespians Society Moving to New York Deuel landed a role in a touring production of the comedy Take Her Shes Mine To find work in the movies Deuel and his mother drove across the country to Hollywood California in 1963 with only a tent to house them each night In Hollywood he found work in television Deuel was quickly offered the starring role of Dave Willis a newlywed apprentice architect in a romantic comedy called Love on a Rooftop Although the show earned good ratings ABC decided not to bring it back after its first season Deuel wished to move from sitcoms to more serious roles Around 1970 he also changed his name dropping the r from Peter and the first e from Deuel In 1970 Deuel was cast as the outlaw Hannibal Heyes alias Joshua Smith opposite Ben Murphy in Alias Smith and Jones a lighthearted western about the exploits of two outlaws trying to earn an amnesty During the hiatus between the first and second seasons he starred in the television production of Percy MacKayes 1908 play The Scarecrow Deuel became involved in politics during the primaries for the 1968 presidential election campaigning for Eugene McCarthy in opposition to the Vietnam War He attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and witnessed the violence that erupted In the early hours of December 31 1971 Deuel died at his Hollywood Hills home of a selfinflicted gunshot wound to the head Deuels girlfriend Dianne Ray was at his home at the time of his death and discovered his body Ray later told police the two had watched Deuels series Alias Smith and Jones the previous evening She later went to sleep in another room while Deuel stayed up Sometime after midnight Deuel entered the bedroom retrieved his revolver and told Ray Ill see you later Ray then said she heard a gunshot from another room and discovered Deuels body According to police Deuels friends and family said he was depressed about his drinking problem He had been arrested and pleaded guilty to a DUI accident that injured two people the previous June Deuels death was later ruled a suicide Deuels funeral was held at the SelfRealization Fellowship Temple on January 2 1972 in Pacific Palisades At the service Deuels girlfriend read a poem he wrote titled Love An estimated 1000 friends and fans attended His body was flown to Penfield New York where he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery After his death his role in Alias Smith and Jones was taken over by Roger Davis who was previously the narrator over the opening theme of the show The loss of Deuel proved too great for the series to be sustained fans were slow to accept Davis who looked too much like fellow actor Ben Murphy and the series was cancelled in 1973