George Peppard

Peppard made his stage debut in 1949 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. After moving to New York, 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). Peppard’s Broadway appearance in The Pleasure of His Company (1958) led to an MGM contract. Prior to a strong film debut in The Strange One (1957), he was discovered playing 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 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, The Victors in 1963, The Carpetbaggers in 1964 and The Blue Max in 1966.

In the early 1980s, George Peppard re-emerged as a television star for his role as Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith in the action adventure series The A-Team, acting alongside Mr. T, Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz. In the series, the A-Team was a crack squad of renegade commandos on the run from the military for a crime they did not commit while serving in the Vietnam war. The A-Team made a living as soldiers of fortune, albeit only helping people with a just grievance.
"Hannibal" Smith was the leader of the A-Team, distinguished by his cigar smoking, black leather gloves, disguises and catch phrase, "I love it when a plan comes together." The show ran five seasons on NBC from 1983–1987. It made Peppard known to a younger generation and is arguably his most well-known role. The role was reportedly written with James Coburn in mind, but went to Peppard when Coburn had to pull out.


Peppard died on May 8, 1994, in Los Angeles, California. Although he was being treated for lung cancer, his actual cause of death, according to the Internet Movie Database, was pneumonia. He is buried in Northview Cemetery in Dearborn, Michigan