Biography
Childhood

Peter Ellstrom Deuel was born in Rochester, New York state on 24 February 1940. He was the eldest child of Dr Ellsworth Shaut Deuel, who was of French descent and known as Bob, and Lillian Marcella Deuel nee Ellstrom who was a first generation American of Swedish parents. His younger brother, Geoffrey Jacob, was born on 17 January 1943 and his sister Pamela Jane on 27 June 1945.

In 1947, the family moved to an old house in Penfield. Pamela described the house as having a couple of acres and being quite idyllic for raising a family. Peter's father was the town doctor and he had his offices in part of the house while the family lived in the other part. In fact, Peter came from a long line of doctors, not only his father but also his grandfather and great-grandfather were doctors. Two cousins and two great-uncles were also doctors and in addition, his mother was a nurse.

Coming from such a medical family, it was quite natural that his family would assume that Peter too would eventually train as a doctor.

"My family kind of assumed that I, too, would follow medicine as my vocation in life. But a few years ago, I came to a point where I had to decide, and pursued acting instead. Not everyone, to this day, can say that they feel that I made the right decision. I wouldn't, really, have been that happy as a doctor, it isn't creative enough for me. For others in my family, it was the ideal profession. But we are different as human beings from one person to another--and I just couldn't see myself as a doctor for the rest of my life. I made my choice calmly and objectively, and I've never had any cause for regrets on that score or any other, for that matter."

Peter said he didn't feel any pressure from his family though about his career choice. "I know my dad must have been disappointed when I decided on acting; but you'd have to ask him. He never let me think that he minded, which was a beautiful thing. He never let me know. Once, just a short while ago, when we were home for Christmas, he said something that makes me feel that perhaps he minded more than he let on. He just said something like, 'Why sure it would have been fun if you'd been a doctor,' but he just threw the line away in the middle of a paragraph."

In fact during his early childhood, his main interest was not medicine or drama, but airplanes and it is said that he could identify everything in the sky at a very young age. He had hopes of becoming an air force pilot but these hopes were dashed when he failed his medical due to less than perfect eyesight.

It seems that his interest in the stage and drama did begin early though and one news report on his funeral in Penfield mentioned his mother's memories of his stage debut as the Ugly Duckling.

Peter often described a happy childhood and home. Of his parents he said "I had good parents. My father dedicated his life to humanity, every real doctor does. My mother dedicated her life to my father and her children. I couldn't have had finer examples of human beings. I was given every possible advantage. There was love and happiness in our home. Lots of it. I liked my parents. I knew from the time I was a kid that they would always protect me, always give me affection and that they would always consider my welfare above their own. My parents did not run my life, they didn't smother me. Instead they tried to guide me to be the kind of person I had to be and at the same time they showed me what my obligations were to others."

"My parents are groovy people. They're parents a guy can talk to--about anything. And they listen. There was never any pushing to force me to do a thing. They always let me take my own road. When I decided to become an actor, there was never a word of objection. If anything, there was encouragement. Oh, Dad told me about the difficulties and disappointments and all the unhappy people in this business; and about how long it takes to get started and all that. But then he gave me his best wishes and sent me on my way. Maybe it's because Mom and Dad are young and they think young. They play golf together and my mother has a ball. Once she opened a women's shop just for kicks but after about seven years of it she found it was running her life. So she sold it. And now, she's out with my dad on the golf course almost every day."

In one interview, Peter told the story of the day he decided to annoy his mom in the kitchen. He was in ninth grade at the time and she grabbed a yardstick to swat him over the shoulders with. When the yardstick suffered more damage than his shoulders, Peter broke out laughing and he describes how his mom tried not to and failed.

"She was always very funny when she talked to me about life. My mother had a religious background--very church-going and all that. But she was hip--always had been--and had a heck of a time figuring out how to put across a point to me. 'What I mean, Petey,' she'd say, 'is that I don't think these things are right, you understand, but . . .' And then she'd realize she'd gotten herself into a corner and couldn't get herself out of it. And I'd grin, and then she'd get mad. But she was liberal and understanding, and above all, a good woman."

Pete attended Penfield High School and in his early years there, up to second year high, Pete seems to have found studying easy. "I got good marks with very little effort, I got through my homework fast because I wanted time to myself, time to be free. I wanted the most of each of my days. I was curious. I still am. I asked questions and tried to remember the answers."

However, in his later school years and college years, it seems this wasn't the case. "I dislike school. My study habits weren't just poor--they just weren't. I had no study habits." he said. "I thrived on trouble. It always got me out of that boring classroom and into something interesting like finding a chink in the principal's armor."

He did however fill his high school years with many activities, being a member of the Junior Baseball team, the Assembly Committee, the National Thespians and the National Honor Society.

One article of the time describes Pete's involvement in two road accidents around this time. The first was reportedly in 1958 when he was injured as a passenger in a car crash on an icy road. He required stitches in his tongue and suffered a broken pelvis which lead to four weeks spent in hospital in a cast and a further eight weeks on crutches.

There was another accident when he came of his motorcycle coming downhill on a mountain road. This time his right leg was split open from knee to ankle and he was reportedly in surgery for nearly three hours, followed by several months of skin grafting. Luckily he had been wearing a crash helmet "Thanks to my helmet, I didn't even have a headache. Not at the time of the accident, and not afterwards." 

It seems though, that as he approached graduation from high school, he become depressed, not really knowing what he wanted to do. This statement which he made in 1967 about his high school years, now seems particularly chilling.

"My father took great pains to get me ready for college, but I had been watching the world and I didn't see one thing in my future that I really wanted. Everything seemed phony. I was down, terribly depressed. I knew that if I went to college I'd be educated like every other guy who ever went to college. I'd be given little chance to become Peter Deuel. People I didn't even know, would never even meet, had planned my life for me. I said the devil with it. That's when I decided to commit suicide. I thought about it a long time. I felt useless. I was ambitious for nothing. I kept feeling I was on the wrong track and would never get off. I didn't know what was going to happen to me if I died, but it seemed the only sensible thing to do. Then I discovered there was one thing I didn't have--the guts to take my own life. So, in truth, I just chickened out and after a while the urge went away. I finally went to college, St. Lawrence University. I majored in drinking and girls. Today there's nothing I regret more than having wasted all that time and my father's money."

He did graduate in 1957 and he did go to college, to St Lawrence University in Canton, New York where he majored in English, Drama and Psychology. He wasn't a member of the Drama Department and yet he managed to appear in every production. Toward the end of his sophomore year, he appeared in the lead role in a production of The Rose Tattoo which his family came to see.

His father was impressed and Pamela later described what happened next. "I think at that time when Dad saw what Peter had, that he wouldn't be really furthering himself to stay at St Lawrence. I think that Daddy just did say "Listen, you're wasting your time and my money, go be an actor." Pete took his father's advice and went on to enrol at the American Theatre Wing in New York City.

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