Peter Graves, 8th Baron Graves

Known during his acting career as Peter Graves, he specialised in light comedies and musicals, often cast as dapper young men about town. His career peaked in the mid-to-late 1940s, beginning with the films of director/writer Val Guest, including Miss London Ltd. (1943) and Bees in Paradise (1944), opposite Arthur Askey; and Give Us the Moon (1944) and I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945), opposite Margaret Lockwood. Other roles included the lead in Spring Song (1946), and George IV in both The Laughing Lady (1946) and Mrs. Fitzherbert (1947).

He also appeared in a number of films by Herbert Wilcox, such as the popular musicals Spring in Park Lane (1948) and Maytime in Mayfair (1949), both vehicles for Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding. He also portrayed another royal, Prince Albert, in both Wilcox's The Lady with a Lamp (1951) and Lilacs in the Spring (1954).[1]

He re-emerged in the 1960s as a popular comic supporting player in several films, including Alfie, The Wrong Box (both 1966), The Jokers, I'll Never Forget What's'isname (both 1967), and The Magic Christian (1969).[2] He continued acting until a few years before his death, mostly on television.[3]

In 1963 he succeeded his father as eighth Baron Graves. However, as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords.

He married Winifred Ruby Moule (better known as soprano singer Vanessa Lee, who played many leading roles, especially in several Ivor Novello musical comedies) on 28 May 1960.[4] She died in 1992; their union had been childless. He died on 6 June 1994 in France, of a heart attack. He was succeeded in the barony by his second cousin Evelyn Paget Graves.

• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

• Peter Graves at IMDb