House Peters Jr.

Biography

House Peters Jr. spent over 32 years in Hollywood as a well-respected, journeyman character actor and occasional star of B-movies. Beginning his career in 1935's Hot Tip (1935), he went on to portray mostly supporting characters and a host of baddies in a large number of stage roles, films, serials, TV shows and commercials. House was born into an acting family, the son of silent screen star House Peters and actress Mae King Peters. Affectionately known as "Junior" or "Juny" by friends and relatives, he grew up in Beverly Hills, attended local schools with many children of Hollywood's elite and dove into the acting business upon graduation from Beverly Hills High, with modest success. With his new career put on hold because of WWII, House served in the U.S. Army Air Corps' Air Sea Rescue section as a small-boat operator. Meeting and subsequently marrying Lucy Pickett during his tour in the Phillipines, he returned home after the war and resumed his career. During the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, House found a lot of work in both movies and television, playing such roles as soldiers, police detectives, western outlaws and even as the original Mr. Clean in a popular string of TV commercials. Peters had set himself a goal when he began his acting career that if he didn't achieve star status by age 50, he would leave show business for good. Being true to his word after remaining typed as a perennial supporting player, he left the set after finishing a Lassie (1954) episode in 1965 in which he played a recurring role as county sheriff Jim Simmons, and ended his career. From that day forward House went into the real estate business in the San Fernando Valley and never turned back. When he finally retired from this profession, he and Lucy toured the entire country many times over in their van and travel trailer, fishing, gold prospecting, site seeing and attending every swap meet they could find. He was the recipient of the coveted Golden Boot Award and penned an autobiography, "Another Side of Hollywood," House makes occasional appearances at western film festivals, including the ever-popular gathering at Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, California. If he had anything to do over again in his entire life, Peters emphatically proclaims that it would be to "change my name!"