At the age of 88 on 3 June 2011, James Arness died of natural causes (during his sleep) at his Brentwood home in Los Angeles. He was survived by his wife (Janet), two sons, Rolf and Jimmy, and six grandchildren.
He had written a letter prior to his death that he wanted to be posted posthumously. The letter displayed on his website reads,
I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of Gunsmoke, The Thing, How the West Was Won and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years.
He was born on 26 May 1923 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US. He had lost his older brother Peter Graves to death on 14 March 2010.
Garves was best known for his role as Jim Phelps, the director of the Impossible Missions Force, in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible and its subsequent revival.
