disenchanted
Modern Screen's Hollywood Yearbook, 1973
He was young (31), goodlooking, the star of a
successful TV series (Alias Smith and Jones) and had a best gal.
He had everything, in fact except peace of mind. And the prospect
of facing 1972 was simply too much for him. So on December 31,
Pete Duel picked up a gun, went into the living room and shot
himself through the head. When his girlfriend, Diana Ray rushed
into the living room, she found Peter slumped on the floor near
a brightly lit Christmas tree. Many reasons have been given for
his suicide: that he felt a TV series "the ultimate trap
and utterly destructive"; that he had never got over an
earlier love affair with actress Jill Andre which went sour;
that he was sensitive and couldn't bear the suffering that was
going on in the world; that he had a drinking problem, and was,
in fact drinking heavily the night he ended his life. But perhaps
his sister Pamela came closest to explaining the tragedy when
she said, "My brother had many hang-ups and he magnified
them out of all proportions. It was not possible for him to pass
things off. He couldn't cope." Born in the small rural community
of Penfield, New York, there was as far as anyone knows no deep
trauma in Pete's childhood. He came from a loving, very respected
family, and the relationship between him, his brother Geoffrey
and Pam was very close. Interested in acting since his college
days, he came to Hollywood after understudying the juvenile lead
in Take Her, She's Mine, found no difficulty landing TV roles;
eventually got the lead in Love on A Rooftop and although he
intended to return to Broadway, the television offers that kept
pouring in were too lucrative to turn down. No one knew that
he despised the work he was doing; sometimes he cringed from
sheer boredom. But more important there were days when he despised
himself--and one day he despised himself too much to go on living.
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