Actor Pete Duel, most widely known for his starring role as outlaw Hannibal Heyes in television’s Alias Smith and Jones, led an unpredictable and often tumultuous life, a fact best characterized by his highly publicized 1971 suicide at the height of his television celebrity. This extensive biography delves beyond such familiar events as Duel’s career and death to reveal more personal aspects, including his political involvement and environmental activism.
Organized chronologically, the biography features extensive personal interviews with Duel’s closest family and friends, including sister Pamela Deuel Johnson and former girlfriends Jill Andre, Beth Griswold, Kim Darby and Dianne Ray. Plus exclusive interviews with actors, producers, directors and writers who worked with Pete Duel.
Includes complete episode guides for his work on TV’s Gidget, Love on a Rooftop and Alias Smith and Jones and an extensive filmography. Includes over 60 previously unpublished photographs.
Professional Reviews
Kim Darby - Actress
I am so glad this book was written. I know that Peter would have wanted it written in order to have some closure for the people he left behind.
I love the book and think it is handled with a great amount of dignity and good taste. There is a tremendous amount of work within the pages and it is very close to me.
It was wonderful that Paul talked to so many people who knew Peter. He got as close to Peter as anybody could get. The integrity is there for all to see. It was recorded as it happened.
Frank Price - former President of Universal TV
It is not the usual superficial adoring screen bio. I am impressed with the depth of the portrait. There is a serious psychological study in the narrative of his life. The book makes its comment on the human condition and does it without appearing to.
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Reviews for "Pete Duel : A Biography"
Reviewed by Susan McLeod
11/5/2007
I have just ordered the book and am really looking forward to it.I'm so glad to see Pete getting some of the attention he deserves.Some of the first stories I wrote were inspired by him.I remember him from Love On A Rooftop and fell madly in love when he appeared on Alias Smith and Jones.I was thirteen then,and will never forget the day he died.It seemed like the world had ended.I wrote a poem about it(pretty awful,but my heart was in the right place.)After all these years I
Highly recommended. In this clear eyed, objective, and intelligently written biography author Paul Green, through interviews with Deuel’s sister, Pamela Deuel Johnson and lovers, friends and colleagues cleverly tells a sometimes funny, sometimes wrenching story of the short, troubled and frustrating life of the preternaturally talented actor who arguably could have become one of the best of his generation. Green and his contributors pull no punches about Deuel’s being a walking contradiction, more demanding of himself than he was of others, possessive, argumentative, rebellious, alcoholic, drug-addicted and depressed. But he was also generous, idealistic, outspoken and protective. As one friend comments, “he was a mad creative genius.” As somebody who lived through the turmoil, desperation and hope of the 1960’s and early 1970’s I recognize Green’s skill in pulling the reader back in time, particularly in the chapter Safe in the Park, which provides a riveting account of the Democratic National Convention in 1968 in which Deuel participated as a volunteer for Senator Eugene McCarthy. In spite of an often misspent life and premature death, I finished the book respecting Peter Deuel for prevailing despite problems and serious health concerns, eventually reinventing himself as “Pete Duel” who would create the indelible character of Hannibal Heyes in the last great Western Alias Smith and Jones. I would have preferred seeing Deuel as Hamlet but today when watching his work on DVD which is available through various fan sites I realize that yes, he really was as good as I remember and I find myself speculating on what might have been if Deuel hadn’t been involved in a car accident at the age of sixteen which irrevocably changed his life.
Brannon Walker playwright/actor
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