George Peppard

A fascinating retrospective on the life and career of one of Hollywood's most enigmatic actors, George Peppard.

In George Peppard: A Life, Jerry Roberts offers the definitive biography of one of Hollywood’s most intriguing yet forgotten players, an A-list star known for his enduring performances in such essential touchstone films as Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), How the West Was Won (1963), and The Carpetbaggers (1964). A self-assured original whose individuality precipitated a fall from Hollywood grace, he achieved a career revival with the television show The A-Team (1983-87). Press-shy and tough to pin down Peppard was known for his loyalty and work ethic, as a ladies’ man and prodigious drinker, and as a loner who didn’t fit anyone’s idea of a Hollywood joiner or glad-hander, and as a family man who shielded his children from the limelight.

Peppard was famously difficult to work with, distrusting producers, rewriting scripts, and offering unsolicited advice to directors. His leading ladies shared unfavorable opinions of him, and yet one of them married him—twice. In fact, Peppard married five times, and the alimony payments and other debts, plus increased drinking, sent him to rock-bottom in 1978, from where he believed dinner theatre might be his final chapter.

Featuring exclusive interviews and filled with behind-the-scenes stories including contretemps on Breakfast at Tiffany’s; when the director of How the West Was Won was nearly fired and the final train shoot-out abandoned until Peppard threatened to walk off the picture; and a virtually unknown episode where actors were almost killed in a train accident and Peppard’s stunt double lost a leg and an eye, cinephiles and fans are sure to be entertained and to learn something new about one of Hollywood’s most authentic icons.