Dan Briggs (Mission: Impossible)

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Daniel Briggs was a character in the first season of the Mission: Impossible original television series who ran the Impossible Missions Force. He was played by Steven Hill.

[edit] Role

Daniel Briggs's role in the team was to select the best people for the mission at hand. The team usually ended up consisting of Cinnamon Carter, Willy Armitage, Barney Collier and Rollin Hand. He would brief the team, then if needed, hand out extra disguises or devices.

As was the case with most characters in the series, Briggs's background and personal life were never explored in detail. The first episode of the series indicated that he had not worked with the IMF for some time prior to that mission. Another episode ("Old Man Out") revealed that he had once romanced an IMF agent played by Mary Ann Mobley. The novel Mission: Impossible, written by John Tiger, suggested a relationship existed between Briggs and his agent Cinnamon Carter, but there was no indication of this in the series.

Briggs was depicted at times as a cold, calculating character, quite willing to kill in order to complete a mission. At other times, he exhibited a father-like attitude towards his agents, and was frequently seen smiling encouragement and patting shoulders as missions progressed. Several episodes, such as Shock, revealed that Briggs had acting, voice mimicry and disguise abilities similar to those of one of his agents, Rollin Hand.

[edit] Problems

During the course of production of the first season, disagreements arose between actor Hill, a practitioner of Orthodox Judaism, and the producers over work hours related to Hill's desire to keep strict observance of the Sabbath. In addition, Hill was suspended when he refused to climb a soundstage staircase. Afterwards, Hill's, and hence Briggs's, appearances in the remaining Season 1 episodes were scaled back.^[1] In the aforementioned Shock, for example, Briggs spent all of the mission portion of the episode in disguise, which allowed another actor to play the role. However, a later episode, A Cube Of Sugar still featured Briggs, and hence Hill, in an active role.

At the start of the second season, Peter Graves appeared as IMF Director James Phelps and no on air explanation was offered for Briggs's disappearance.

[edit] References