The Only Major Actors Still Alive From The 1960s Mission: Impossible TV Series – SlashFilm

Before Tom Cruise was driving motorcycles off cliffs, clinging to planes, and fighting bad guys atop moving trains in the name of “Mission: Impossible,” the franchise had its humble beginnings in the form of a very ’60s CBS series. The original “Mission: Impossible” was a spy series with a rotating cast of characters created by Bruce Gellar, who died in a plane crash just five years after the show ended. Several key cast members have passed away in the years since then, including Peter Graves, Greg Morris, Martin Landau, Steven Hill, and, of course, Leonard Nimoy.

“Mission: Impossible” was a huge success when it aired, winning 10 Emmys throughout its seven-season run and producing 171 episodes. The show inspired an ’80s revival series, but “Mission: Impossible” really took off when Cruise (and Brian De Palma) got a hold of the franchise in 1996. The near-superhuman character Ethan Hunt was created for the movies, and has headlined seven increasingly action-packed and death-defying movies to date. Meanwhile, the surviving members of the original show’s main cast (here defined as actors who appeared in more than 10 episodes in the same role) have gone on to act on stage and screen, making headlines for good and questionable reasons alike. One of them even broke a world record.

Actress Barbara Bain played the wonderfully named secret agent Cinnamon Carter in the original “Mission: Impossible.” Along with co-star (and her then-husband) Martin Landau, Bain left the show after season 3. Decades later, she told Classic Film & TV Cafe that her exit was unrelated to money (as the press had reported at the time), but that it had to do with proposed changes to the shooting schedule and showrunner, as well as a complicated situation where she ended up “caught up in this mess that had to do with Martin’s contract.” Bain won three Emmys for her role on the show, and she once told Pioneers of Television that in the years since, she’s been approached multiple times by strangers who may or may not be real intelligence agents, asking about some of the show’s writing choices.

Bain reprised her “Mission: Impossible” role just once, on an episode of the (totally unrelated) ’90s show “Diagnosis Murder.” Her on-screen career post-Cinnamon Carter has included several standout guest roles, including a turn as Angela’s grandmother on that decade’s cult classic “My So-Called Life” and an appearance as a suspect in a coal-mining-related murder on “Murder, She Wrote.” Bain only ever starred in one other TV show after the ’60s, and it was the short-lived British sci-fi series “Space: 1999” (which also co-starred Landau). Movie-wise, she’s appeared in films including Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks,” the Neve Campbell-led thriller “Panic,” and the early Steven Spielberg project “Savage.” Bain received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016. Her last credited on-screen appearance was in 2020.

After making a name for himself as a bodybuilder and appearing in buff-guy roles in movies like “Muscle Beach Party” and “Giant of the Evil Island,” Peter Lupus shed his early stage name (Rock Stevens, naturally) for a role on “Mission: Impossible.” Lupus played the agency’s “muscle,” Willy Armitage, across all seven seasons of the original series. The performer acted sporadically after the show ended, appearing on hits of the ’70s and ’80s like “The Love Boat,” “Fantasy Island,” and “Police Squad!” His filmography is equally sporadic and less hit-filled, featuring appearances in movies like the Charles Bronson thriller “Assassination,” the Roger Corman-produced comedy “Think Big,” and the erotic thriller “Acting on Impulse.”

Lupus’ most recent roles all play into his most memorable on screen part: he appeared in an apparent parody film called “Mission: Irreparable” in 2012 and another called “Mission: Imposter” two years later, playing George Bush in the latter. Off screen, Lupus has grabbed headlines a few times for unexpected reasons. According to Glen Weldon’s book “Superman: The Unauthorized Biography,” the performer played Superman in a series of commercials for the U.S. Air Force in the ’70s, before being rather conspicuously recast after appearing as an early nude Playgirl model. In 2007, according to the Television Academy, Lupus broke a Guinness World Record by lifting over 77,000 pounds in under 25 minutes — all in celebration of his 75th birthday. Finally (and disturbingly), Lupus was listed among the celebrities who infamous former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio recruited to his volunteer crusade against undocumented immigrants in 2010, per CBS News.

With over 100 credits to her name, Lesley Ann Warren is one of the more prolific former “Mission: Impossible” stars who’s still with us today. She appeared in just one season of the spy series, playing agent Dana Lambert for 23 episodes before moving on to other projects. A mini biography written by Gary Brumburgh notes that Warren took the role as part of an attempt to move on from the Disney image she’d been saddled with after starring in the Rodgers and Hammerstein version of “Cinderella” in 1965. Dana, who was no doubt meant as a replacement for Barbara Bain’s character, wasn’t a fan favorite on “Mission: Impossible” when it originally aired, though she’s now recognized as a part of the show’s history.

Warren would go on to earn an Oscar nomination for her role in 1983’s “Victor/Victoria,” as well as an Emmy for her part in the 1990 espionage drama “Family of Spies.” She memorably played Miss. Scarlet in the zany big-screen version of “Clue,” and had key roles in influential turn-of-the-millennium indies like “Secretary” and “The Limey.” Warren also played a main character in the USA Channel drama “In Plain Sight,” appeared as the mother to Teri Hatcher’s Susan on “Desperate Housewives,” and popped up in five episodes of “Will & Grace.”

In addition to her on-screen career, Warren has acted on stage in Broadway productions of the Ira Levin-penned “Drat! The Cat!” and the Johnny Mercer-inspired “Dream,” not to mention an ill-fated adaptation of “Gone With The Wind.” In 2015, Warren returned to her “Cinderella” roots, performing a musical number along with the Broadway cast in honor of the Rodgers and Hammerstein version’s 50th anniversary (per BroadwayWorld).

Before he was the mustachioed character actor synonymous with cowboy roles and cuts of beef, Sam Elliott did a short stint on the original “Mission: Impossible.” He played a doctor named Doug Robert for 13 episodes across the show’s fifth and sixth seasons — his biggest TV role to date at that point. In the years since leaving the Impossible Missions Force, Elliott has become a household name, an actor whose presence lends every project he’s a part of more gravitas. Elliott often appears in Westerns, making a strong impression in movies like “Tombstone” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” as well as shows like “Yellowstone” prequel “1883” and FX’s “Justified.”

Other memorable big-screen appearances from Elliott include turns in “The Big Lebowski,” “Up in the Air,” “Road House,” “Hulk,” “Thank You For Smoking,” and the most recent iteration of “A Star Is Born,” for which he earned an Oscar nomination. In the past decade, Elliott has taken more comedic roles, playing Ron Swanson’s hippy opposite in “Parks and Recreation,” voicing himself in “Family Guy,” and taking parts in the “SNL” spinoff “MacGruber” and the Netflix shows “Grace & Frankie” and “The Ranch.”

Additionally, Elliott is known for his signature voice, which he’s put to use in several ad campaigns including, famously, one for beef in the late ’90s. While Elliott has made a career playing traditionally “manly” men — and using his voice to sell products with masculine associations, like trucks and beer — that particular image has also gone too far at least once. Elliott landed in hot water in 2022 when he criticized Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning film “Power of the Dog.” On Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, Elliott was derisive towards Campion’s New Zealand background and what he called the film’s “allusions of homosexuality.” As reported by Deadline, Campion noted the xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny in his statements, and he later apologized to all involved.

Actress and model Lynda Day George had already been appearing on screen for a decade by the time she joined “Mission: Impossible” in its sixth season, playing the female agent who replaced Lesley Ann Warren’s Dana. Agent Lisa Casey stuck with the show to the end, and George went on to act in several other memorable roles. George soon became known for her appearances in cult favorite horror movies like the 1982 slasher “Pieces” and animal apocalypse film “Day of the Animals,” plus “Mortuary,” “Beyond Evil,” “Ants!” and more.

George didn’t just stick with the horror genre: she also guest starred on shows like “Murder, She Wrote,” “Wonder Woman,” and “The Love Boat,” and had a three-episode stint on the groundbreaking miniseries “Roots.” George earned an Emmy nomination for her work on “Mission: Impossible,” and her final on-screen role to date was a reprisal of the Agent Casey character in a 1989 revival series. George often worked with her husband, actor Christopher George, and her retirement from acting came a few years after his death at age 52. In 2021, George told Fox News she was ready to act again, saying, “I think every actor reaches a point in their lives where they want to go back to performing. We’ve learned new things about ourselves and the people around us, so we can see things that we’ve never noticed before, especially as we get older.”