mission accomplished...

I guess this is the "number 3" -- you know, celebrities die in threes.
Last week it was Corey Haim and Merlin Olsen, now it's Peter Graves.
He was terrific in the TV show "Mission Impossible," and who could forget him in the "Airplane" films?

And if you're a real baby boomer, you may remember him from that great Saturday morning show "Fury," about a kid and his black stallion.

Graves died Sunday just a few days before his 84th birthday.

He'll forever be known as Jim Phelps, leader of a gang of special agents on "Mission: Impossible." And as airline pilot Clarence Oveur in "Airplane!" -- well, just a master. Some may not know that he also was the brother of James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon on TV's "Gunsmoke."

Sorry, Tom Cruise, but the original "Mission" will always be the best. We all knew that Phelps and his crew would take on the dangerous mission, after listening to the tape that warned them that, if captured, "the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions."

Then the tape self-destructed. And the spine-tingling adventure was on.

Thanks, Peter, for so many great memories