Geoffrey Deuel, the younger brother of tragic Alias Smith and Jones actor Peter Duel who portrayed the famed outlaw Billy the Kid in the John Wayne-starring Chisum, has died. He was 81.
Deuel died Sunday in hospice care in Largo, Florida, after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Jacqueline Deuel, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The square-jawed Deuel appeared on many TV shows from the mid-1960s through the mid-’70s, showing up on The Monkees, The Invaders, The FBI, The Flying Nun, Medical Center, Mannix, Adam-12, The Mod Squad, Mission: Impossible, The Streets of San Francisco, Ironside, Cannon and The Young and the Restless, among others.
In his film debut, Deuel was “introduced” to moviegoers in the opening credits of Andrew V. McLaglen’s Chisum (1970), and a reviewer in The New York Times wrote that he “cut a personable swath” as a particularly vengeful Billy the Kid. This year, the website Screen Rant ranked his turn as Billy as the 10th best in the outlaw’s onscreen history.
Peter Duel also played an outlaw, Hannibal Heyes (aka Joshua Smith), on the light-hearted ABC series Alias Smith and Jones, which premiered in January 1971. On New Year’s Eve that year, midway through the show’s second season, he died at his Hollywood Hills home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“You don’t ever get over a shock like that,” Geoffrey said in a 2018 interview.
“He and Peter were very close,” Jacqueline Deuel said. “They really loved each other and took care of each other.”
Geoffrey Jacob Deuel was born in Lockport, New York, on Jan. 17, 1943, and raised in nearby Penfield. His father, Ellsworth, was a doctor and his mother, Lillian, a nurse.
After attending Penfield High School, Ithaca College and Syracuse University, Deuel followed his brother to Hollywood in 1965 and appeared on a 1966 episode of ABC’s 12 O’Clock High.
Geoffrey and Peter, who was three years older, worked together on an episode of NBC’s The Name of the Game that aired in February 1971.
In the 1980s, Deuel performed in plays in Tampa’s Ybor City neighborhood and returned to school to earn a master’s degree from the University of South Florida. He worked for years as a substitute teacher.
In addition to his wife — they were together for 40 years and married in 2017 — survivors include his younger sister, Pamela.
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