Film and television star Peter Graves, who once served as honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, died Sunday of a heart attack outside his Santa Monica Canyon home. Today would have been his 84th birthday. ??Graves collapsed upon returning from brunch with his wife Joan and several family members at Beaurivage restaurant in Malibu. His daughter Kelly administered CPR, but was unable to revive him. ??’This is sad news for the community and the whole television audience,’ current honorary mayor Gavin MacLeod told the Palisadian-Post. ‘Peter was a very humble actor and from humbleness comes greatness.’ ??Graves, whose career spanned 60 years, was best known for his Golden Globe-winning turn as James Phelps on the classic TV show ‘Mission: Impossible,’ which ran for seven seasons on CBS. He reprised the role in ABC’s revival of the iconic spy series from 1988 to 1990. ??Born Peter Aurness in Minneapolis, Graves became a radio announcer at age 16, and served two years in the Air Force before entering the University of Minnesota to study drama. ?? Here he met Joan Endress, and he would later joke that for a Minneapolis boy like himself to court a woman from St. Paul, ‘That’s like the Montagues and the Capulets.’ He traveled ahead of Joan to Hollywood in the late 1940s, after his older brother, actor James Arness (‘Gunsmoke’), preceded him to Pacific Palisades. ??Graves paid his dues while trying to break into acting, as his friend Emil Wroblicky recently learned firsthand from Graves. ??’He drove a cab for years!’ Wroblicky said. ‘I can’t imagine Peter Graves driving a taxi! He used to go to Pink’s for a chili dog!’ ??Graves’ first credited film appearance was in ‘Rogue River’ (1950). When he landed a Hollywood contract for the picture, it persuaded his fianc’e’s family to let Joan marry him. He changed his name to Graves (his maternal grandfather’s name), to avoid confusion with Arness. His film work included Billy Wilder’s 1953 classic ‘Stalag 17,’ in which he played a German spy opposite Oscar-winner William Holden in this story of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp. He also played in John Ford’s ‘Long Gray Line’ and ‘Night of the Hunter,’ and, more recently, the blockbusters ‘Addams Family Values’ and ‘Men in Black II.’ ??Ironically, it was a movie that Graves initially turned down that became his most memorable. ??’I tore my hair and ranted and raved and said, ‘This is insane,’ he said in 1997, recalling when he read the script for ‘Airplane!’ Graves turned down the role but the filmmakers convinced him that there was a method to their madness. He portrayed Capt. Clarence Oveur in the 1980 comedy and its sequel, uttering such absurdist lines as ‘Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?’ ??Graves’ small-screen career began in the mid-’50s when he landed a part on the NBC Western ‘Fury.’ From then on, he became a television regular with roles on ‘Whiplash’ and ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents.’ In the mid-’90s, Graves became the Emmy-winning host of A&E’s ‘Biography.’ ??News of Graves’ death sent waves of shock and sadness throughout Pacific Palisades, a community he adored and which adored him back. The news came little more than a year after actor Patrick McGoohan, a Palisadian of 30 years, had passed away. Like Graves’ ‘Mission: Impossible,’ McGoohan also appeared in an espionage show on CBS in the mid-1960s (‘The Prisoner’). But unlike the private McGoohan, Graves, with his wife, was a vital part of the local social scene. ??’He was supposed to attend our St. Patrick’s Day dance at the Legion Hall this Saturday,’ Wroblicky said. ‘He was going to bring his clarinet and play with the Big Band Alumni, the guys who played with Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Henry Mancini. The last couple of times, they invited Peter to sit in and play. He chimed right in.’ ??Said Roberta Donohue, publisher of the Post: ‘I met Joan back in the ’80’s when she was the Community Council chairwoman and we instantly bonded. Peter would always greet us with open arms and a wide smile.’ ??Donohue’s daughter, Jennifer, has memories of accompanying the actor on her violin, at age 14, as he played piano and they performed tunes from ‘The Pajama Game’ at a party. ??Arnie Wishnick, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said he always enjoyed having Peter and Joan participate in the Chamber’s annual installation dinner at the Riviera Country Club. ??’Peter may have been a celebrity known around the world, but he always realized that his wife Joan was a celebrity in Pacific Palisades,’ Wishnick said. ‘This is her territory. This is where she had name recognition. She was the star and Peter always let her have the spotlight.’ ??Added Donohue: ‘When Joan became Citizen of the Year in 1987, Peter and close friend Karen Proft teamed up as the emcees for the evening. Peter played the clarinet and Karen sang ‘If I Had You,’ a song that evoked memories of a young actor’s courtship of the future Mrs. Graves in college. Peter continued to help at our ‘Citizen’ events with cameo performances, such as during our Bob Jeffers roast in 2008 when he came on stage as a ‘spy.’ ??’Peter had a wonderful sense of humor,’ Donohue continued. ‘One evening when a group of us went to the Golden Bull for dinner, he told a story about when he was doing live television in the ’50s. He had rehearsed all day with Esther Williams and they had a scene where she dives into a pool and he dives in after her. When this particular scene started filming, with a live audience watching at home, Peter dove into the pool and his trunks started to slip down his waist, down his knees, and by the time he reached the end of the pool, they were around his ankles. He climbed out and the cameraman, who was quick to see his dilemma, did a close up of his face and saved the day! The story had us all in tears of laughter, thanks to Peter’s delivery.’ ?? Wroblicky encountered Graves last week in Santa Monica Canyon as the actor was struggled to find a parking space outside one of Peter’s favorite spots, The Golden Bull. Graves quipped, ‘Doesn’t anybody eat at home anymore?’ ??’He was a gracious gentleman,’ said Golden Bull owner Don Cranston. ‘I always loved it when he was in the house because I loved the sound of his voice. Once I heard that voice, I knew who was here.’ ??Recently, Graves had been on a roll as various tributes to the actor were held. On October 30, he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In November, he was honored by the Ojai Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and by the Chamber of Commerce, which declared November 20, 2009 Peter Graves Day in Pacific Palisades. Presenting a plaque to Graves, actor MacLeod said, ‘It’s not as big as your star in Hollywood, but this is given to you with a lot of love.’ ??’Once my wife and I moved here and started to go to functions, Peter and Joanie were always there,’ MacLeod told the Post Monday. ‘Joanie is the best. They just don’t come better than her. They were a fabulous team. I used to call them Mr. and Mrs. Palisades. They enriched our lives.’ ??In addition to his wife of 59 years, Joan, Graves is survived by his daughter Kelly McCalsin (husband Mark) of Palos Verdes; daughter Claudia King (husband John) of Newberry Park; daughter Amanda Graves of Gardenerville, Nevada; and grandchildren Victoria, Peter, Jennifer, Katie, Skyler and Trevor. A memorial service will be held on Friday, March 19.

The Palisades Charter High School board of directors will submit a proposal to the Los Angeles Unified School District that offers to pay for a portion of the school’s busing transportation costs for the next three years.   The decision was made at Tuesday night’s board meeting.   A month ago, LAUSD told PaliHi that the district would be eliminating transportation for 1,180 PaliHi students who travel from communities all over Los Angeles for an annual savings of $1.9 million. The move is intended to help alleviate a $640-million budget deficit.   The district has provided busing to PaliHi since the late 1970s under a court mandate (Crawford v. Board of Education of Los Angeles) to desegregate schools. Since the school is now an independent charter and receives its funding directly from the state, the district has asked it to pay for the busing.   PaliHi Executive Director Amy Dresser-Held and Operations Manager Maisha-Cole Perri submitted a proposal to the district, suggesting that PaliHi’s and Paul Revere Middle School’s buses be consolidated for a savings of $1.2 million and PaliHi’s afternoon pick-up buses be reduced to save another $500,000.   LAUSD reviewed the proposal and acknowledged that those consolidation efforts would result in a savings of about $700,000, Dresser-Held told the board this Tuesday.   ’The district offered to transport the current juniors for continuity in their education,’ said Dresser-Held, who resigned on March 8 to take an executive director position at another (unnamed) charter school. About 50 parents attended Tuesday’s meeting to encourage her to stay [see story in next week’s Palisadian-Post].   LAUSD has also proposed relocating the magnet program to University High’s campus. PaliHi’s magnet program is one of 173 programs within the district that provides students of different ethnicities the opportunity to focus on a specific subject. PaliHi’s magnet, with about 500 students who travel by bus, focuses on math, science and computer technology.   On Tuesday, Dresser-Held suggested to the board that PaliHi pay to transport the current freshmen and sophomores, so they also could finish their schooling at PaliHi.   ’We will basically grandfather in the kids attending school here and phase out district transportation,’ she said, adding that PaliHi simply can’t afford to pay $1.2 million (which accounts for 10 percent of the school’s $22-million operating budget) to transport all grade levels every school year.   ’It keeps the school whole,’ Dresser-Held continued. ‘We have a moral obligation to the students who are here now not to disrupt their education.’   (Eighty percent of the school’s budget is dedicated to salaries and benefits and the remainder is spent on food service, facilities, textbooks and other operating expenses.)   Since it would cost about $300,000 per grade level for busing, the school board voted 10 in favor with one abstention to pay LAUSD $600,000 next school year and in 2011-12 to transport the current freshmen and sophomores, and $300,000 in 2012-13 to bus the current freshmen.   The board stipulated that it would have the ability to terminate the contract with LAUSD at any time and directed school administrators to ask parents of traveling students to help cover the cost. If the families cannot afford to pay, the board directed administrators to set up a fundraiser or sponsorship to help them.   Board member Carol Osborne said she thinks it’s important that the money comes from the parents and scholarships rather than the school, which faces a budget deficit of $725,000 next school year. This projected shortfall is down from an earlier prediction of $1.1 million because of possible salary reductions and a recent freeze on textbook spending, according to PaliHi’s Chief Business Officer Greg Wood.   However, if the school loses its magnet program funding of about $400,000, this could increase the deficit. Therefore, the board directed Dresser-Held to approach LAUSD to negotiate keeping the magnet program for the sophomores through seniors with the intent of phasing it out over time.   As for the incoming freshmen from Paul Revere, Dresser-Held said they will have to find their own transportation to PaliHi.   ’We will have a parent meeting to see if we can coordinate,’ Dresser-Held said, adding that Revere students will still be given enrollment preference at the school.   PaliHi officials will offer to help Revere parents organize carpools and access reduced-rate bus passes through Metropolitan Transportation Authority. If enough parents are interested, they can pool their money together to pay for a parent-funded bus, Dresser-Held said.   Administrators have extended the fall 2010 application deadline for all grade levels until April 15 in hopes of receiving more applications. The lottery will be held April 29 at 6:30 p.m. in Mercer Hall.

Residents Eric Bollens, Marge Gold and Linda Jackson Vitale will receive the Pacific Palisades Community Council’s annual Golden Sparkplug Award for their civic-minded actions in 2009.   The Council has presented the award since 1974 to Palisades residents who have launched projects or ignited ideas that have a major community impact. This year’s winners will be honored on Thursday, April 22, at the Palisadian-Post’s Citizen of the Year dinner at the American Legion hall on La Cruz Drive.   A selection committee comprising Council members Janet Turner, Mary Cole, Ted Mackie, Alex Lehrhoff and Norma Spak chose Bollens for his efforts to improve teen driving safety, Gold for her work on the Village Green, and Vitale for providing live opera to the community. UCLA junior Eric Bollens, 20, was chosen for his efforts to promote safe driving among Westside teens. After his close friend Nick Rosser died in a car crash on Palisades Drive in early 2009, Bollens joined community meetings as an outspoken advocate for ways to encourage safer driving habits. A computer science major, he also got involved in founding the Safe Westside Web site; began participating in a citizen traffic-enforcement group using radar in the Highlands in conjunction with LAPD West Traffic; and made presentations to high school assemblies with LAPD officers, attorneys and other educators and civic leaders.   One assembly, held at Palisades Charter High School last April, involved more than 700 students. ‘I used to drive too fast,’ Bollens told the teens. ‘I never thought an accident would happen to me and never happen to my friends.’ That attitude changed when Bollens (a Highlands resident) drove by the aftermath of Rosser’s accident, but only later learned it was his friend who had died. ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ he said, recalling this memory as ‘a blur but yet so clear.’ Bollens, a graduate of Crossroads high school, is pursuing a computer science degree at UCLA while also working at UCLA’s Office of Information Technology as a programmer, systems administrator and security analyst. His parents, Gene Lewis and Dr. Ross Bollens, also have a daughter, Katherine, who attends Viewpoint School in Calabasas.   Marge Gold had little idea when she joined the monthly work parties on the Village Green that one day she would become the Village Green Committee’s president. But last year, she indeed assumed that role, and her first goal was to get the youth of Pacific Palisades involved in the maintenance of the Green, located on the triangle between Sunset and Antioch. The board of directors had for many years hoped to achieve this, but to no avail, recalls board member Joan Graves.   Gold initiated a program whereby PaliHi students could receive community service credit by helping with the monthly maintenance on the Green.   ’Marge has been somewhat of a Pied Piper, directing, instructing and leading the students around the Green in their endeavors to complete the tasks assigned,’ Graves said. ‘The program has been successful, thanks to the adult and youth participation. Inspired by Marge’s energetic leadership, the Village Green remains a lovely oasis in the heart of our town.’   One PaliHi volunteer found the experience to be a lot of fun. ‘When I first went to the Village Green clean-up, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it,’ said Noah Martin. ‘I arrived at 9 a.m., helped set up and stayed for two hours cleaning and gardening. I met many people and other kids from Pali were there. I thought it was fun and a great way to help the community. Now I go every month.’   Even Marge’s husband Bob has enjoyed the privileges he gains as husband of the president. ‘Among these are picking up trash and emptying garbage cans, setting and resetting the various timers, telling strangers that smoking is not permitted on the Green on work-party days, and providing computer services as requested by the president. All of this is my way of supporting Marge in her involvement in the community and my contribution to our way of life here in the Palisades. A worthwhile effort.’   Soprano Linda Vitale is no stranger to the entertainment community in Pacific Palisades. Her Sparkplug nomination recognizes her prodigious efforts in offering full-length operas with professional singers, music and stage production right here in town.   ’Linda’s opera students [at Santa Monica Emeritus College] wanted to see live opera, inexpensively and close to home,’ said one of her Sparkplug nominators. ‘So, working with soprano Ella Lee, she assembled a team of like-minded professionals to present opera the way it was originally performed for the pleasure of the audience, with warmth, emotion and beautiful voices and without political or social agenda.’   In May, this new organization’Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera’staged two performances of ‘La Boh’me’ to a full house at the United Methodist Church on Via de la Paz. This was followed last fall by four performances of ‘La Traviata,’ and in January by four performances of ‘Cos’ Fan Tutte,’ with Vitale singing important roles in each production (sung in Italian with English supertitles). She did not receive any money for her performances, nor is she paid to run the company for which she volunteers her time and service.   (Citizen of the Year dinner tickets are $47.50 per person. Reservations are by check only to the Pacific Palisades Citizen of the Year Banquet, c/o Palisadian-Post, P.O. Box 725. Or visit our office at 839 Via de la Paz. Ticket deadline is April 16. Dinner starts at 7:15.)

Business landlords and residents in Pacific Palisades have received notices that they have to pay a $13 fee for a brush inspection on their property because the entire community is located in what the Los Angeles Fire Department deems a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. The Palisadian-Post received numerous complaints from residents and landlords alike about the notice, and the topic also came up at last Thursday’s Community Council meeting. When L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl was contacted last Friday, he said, ‘This is not a bill, it is only a notification. Don’t pay anything yet; the bill will come in April.’ He admitted that the notice was confusing. The Post was among the businesses on Via de la Paz that received the letter. Our building is surrounded by cement and pavement, and is devoid of vegetation, save for a few rosemary plants in a front-window box.   Ted Mackie, owner of the building that houses his bicycle repair shop, Beckwith Insurance and Special Moments at 871 Via, was angered by the notice. ‘It’s a fundraiser for the city,’ Mackie said. ‘How did they decide on that particular fee’the city deficit divided by the number of properties?’ LAFD Battalion Chief Patrick Butler told the Post that the fee was needed to cover the cost of the inspections. ‘It’s geared towards homeowners’ safety,’ he said. The dollar amount ($13) was actually adopted in 1999 under fee ordinance 172.675. The same ordinance was recently updated and readopted as number 172.449, in response to the current budget crisis, Butler said. The city hopes to bring in $1.7 million through the mandatory inspection payment from property owners that abut the Santa Monica Mountains, on either side of the Mulholland Highway and continuing through to the 5 Freeway. Pacific Palisades (with about 10,000 homes and business landlords) could yield a maximum of about $130,000.   Homeowners can avoid the fee if they self-inspect their property and fill out the appropriate paperwork. A more detailed packet will be mailed in April explaining a self-inspection procedure that requires a property owner to (l) provide a copy of the County Assessor’s map book page reflecting the parcel or a drawing of the property (either must depict the dimensions of the property, location of structures on the property and structures on adjacent properties, 2) conduct an inspection of the property under LAMC 57.21.07, 3) make corrections to the property, and 4) submit photographs depicting the property and the owner’s compliance. Or, a resident can simply send the city a check for $13. Some businesses may file for an exemption, but that will also be explained in the packet. When asked what the administrative cost might be to print these letters and pay for two mailings, Butler could not provide a figure. When queried that if hundreds of thousands of residents chose the self-inspect option and send in the required documents and photographs, will additional help have to be hired, Butler did not know. He added that when the next mailer is sent out, a hotline will be made available to answer residents’ questions. Rosendahl was asked if this inspection fee is actually a tax. He agreed that it could be called a tax and added, ‘Our people do pay a lot of taxes, but the fire department feels it has no other option.’ Rosendahl said he has requested that Butler appear before an upcoming Community Council meeting to answer questions regarding brush clearance, the fee, waivers and self-inspection.