Sunday 25 April 2010

Actor Peter Haskell R.I.P.

Actor Peter Haskell, who starred in the short lived series Bracken's World, passed on April 12 at the age of 75.

Peter Haskell was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 15, 1934. His father was noted geophysicist Norman Haskell. He attended Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956.  Afterwards he earned a Bachelor in Arts at Harvard University. It was while at Harvard that he became interested in acting. He was about to enter Columbia University to major in Law, but when a Harvard professor referreded him to playwright Derek Washburn, he found himself cast in the off Broadway play The Love Nest.

Peter Haskell made his television debut in an episode of Death Valley Days. He would become a frequent performer on television. In the Sixties he appeared in guest appearances on The Outer Limits, Dr. Kildare, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, Twelve o'Clock High, Rawhide, Ben Casey, Combat, Lassie, and The Big Valley. In 1969 he was cast as a lead character in the night time soap opera Bracken's World. The series lasted a season and a half. Haskell made his movie debut in Passages from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake in 1966.

Throughout the Seventies Peter Haskell guest starred on such shows as McCloud, Mary Tyler Moore, Longstreet, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Cannon, and Barnaby Jones. He appeared in the film Christina in 1974. In the Eighties he guest starred on Vega$, The A-Team, Too Close for Comfort, Hunter,  the revival of Alfred Hitchock Presents, and Murder, She Wrote. From 1982 to 1983 he was a regular on Ryan's Hope. It was during this period that he attended the New York Law School. He also appeared in the film Child's Play 2.

The Nineties saw Peter Haskell guest star on Matlock, Diagnosis Murder, and Frasier. He also appeared in the films Child's Play 3 and Robot Wars. In the Naughts he guest starred on JAG, The Closer, and ER (his last appearance on screen).

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