Peter Atwill Griffith was an American

People of the United States

The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

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Life and career

Griffith was born in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, the son of Hilda (née

Married and maiden names

A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Atwill) and Ben E. Griffith. He had two sisters, Jennifer and Jessica Griffith. Griffith was a veteran in the U.S. Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 serving in the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

. His mother managed his acting career as he worked as a child actor, appearing on Broadway a few times. Griffith is known for appearing in the 1978 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 Halloween

Halloween (1978 film)

Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...

, taking the role as Laurie Strode

Laurie Strode

Laurie Strode is a fictional character in the Halloween horror film series, portrayed by actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Scout Taylor-Compton. She appears in six of the present ten Halloween installments, first appearing in John Carpenter's original 1978 film...

's foster father, Morgan Strode, in the beginning of the film, getting into his car and telling Laurie he left the Myers

Michael Myers (Halloween)

Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...

' house key under the mat.

Griffith was married three times (the first two of which ended in divorce): first to Golden Globe-award winning actress Tippi Hedren

Tippi Hedren

Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren is an American actress and former fashion model with a career spanning six decades. She is primarily known for her roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, The Birds and Marnie, and her extensive efforts in animal rescue at Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat which she...

 from 1952–1961, with whom he had a daughter, actress Melanie Griffith

Melanie Griffith

Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...

. Second to actress Nanita Greene, and together they had two children, Tracy Griffith

Tracy Griffith

Tracy Griffith is an American actress and chef. She is the daughter of actor and producer Peter Griffith and model/actress Nanita Greene, and the older sister of production designer and set decorator Clay A. Griffith. She is also the half-sister of actress Melanie Griffith...

 (also an actress) and Clay A. Griffith

Clay A. Griffith

Clay A. Griffith is an American production designer and set decorator, working mainly in the American film industry. He was born in 1967. He is the youngest child of actor-producer Peter Griffith and model-actress Nanita Greene. His older sister is actress Tracy Griffith, and his half-sister is...

 (a production designer). Griffith then married Debra Meyer Boyd and remained with her until his death.

Griffith died aged 67 on May 14, 2001, in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

 from complications from emphysema

Emphysema

Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...

. He was buried at San Domingo Cemetery in Normanna, Texas

Normanna, Texas

Normanna is a census-designated place in Bee County, Texas, United States. The population was 121 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Normanna is located at ....

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External links