Trivia of George Peppard

 Trivia of George Peppard (1 October 1928 - 8 May 1994)

*During 1948 and 1949, he studied civil engineering at Purdue University where he was a member of the Purdue Playmakers theatre troupe and Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He became interested in acting, being an admirer of Walter Huston in particular.Peppard made his stage debut in 1949 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. After moving to New York City, Peppard enrolled in the Actors Studio, where he studied the Method with Lee Strasberg.

*He made his Broadway debut in 1956 opposite Shelley Winters and Pat Hingle in Girls of Summer. A young Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the title song, was uncredited in the play's original program.

*He started getting noticed when he played Robert Mitchum's illegitimate son in the popular melodrama Home from the Hill (1960).Home from the Hill was a prestigious film directed by Vincente Minnelli.During filming Peppard said "Brando is a dead talent - I saw him in The Young Lions” but said Peck is "a man of integrity as a star and a person. Lee Strasberg is the only person I know who is brilliant."

*George Peppard was married five times. His second wife was actress Elizabeth Ashley, who commented in a 2015 interview: "I married a movie star 11 years older than me because I was looking for a father. Big mistake! Granted, he was gorgeous. Maybe too gorgeous! And good for breeding. But I believe it was doomed from the start." Peppard and Ashley had met on the set of The Carpetbaggers (1964) and they shared top billing the following year in The Third Day. Their marriage lasted six years and they had a son, Christian (also an actor).

*His good looks, elegant manner, and acting skills landed Peppard his most famous film role as Paul Varjak in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) with Audrey Hepburn.Director Blake Edwards actually had not wanted Peppard (the another candidate was Steve McQueen & Tony Curtis), but was overruled by the producers. He was cast in July 1960.

*Reportedly, George Peppard didn't get along with either of his female co-stars on the set of Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). According to Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion, he and Patricia Neal were friends when they attended the Actors Studio in the 1950s. However, her opinion of him had changed by the time they made Tiffany's: "Boy, he'd gotten rotten. At the Actors Studio, I'd adored him." As for Audrey Hepburn, she and Peppard seemed unable to overcome their different personalities. He sometimes referred to her as the "Happy Nun" on the set (she had made The Nun's Story two years earlier).

*He reached the peak of his popularity in another such lavish production, The Blue Max (1966), in which he effectively played an obsessively competitive German flying officer during World War I.George Peppard flew one of the Pfalz replicas off-screen, but did not fly in any of the scenes in the movie.Though Peppard had learned to fly and gained his pilot's license in preparation for the role.Peppard said this project movie was one of the most exciting creative experiences he'd ever had.