Peter Hurkos - Popularization

Popularization

Despite refutations, Hurkos remained famous. He has several successful television specials, including:

• Japan: The Greatest Psychic in The World . . . Peter Hurkos, a six-hour two-part special on TV-TOKYO and NET-TV filmed at Dr. Puharich's lab in Dobson, North Carolina, where Hurkos was specifically tested for this special, and also on location in Japan

• The Netherlands: Peter Hurkos, a four-part nine-hour special for TROS television, highlighting Hurkos's attempt to use his abilities to help Dutch millionaire Maup Caransa find his former kidnappers

He also appeared three times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His story was told on the television program One Step Beyond as "The Peter Hurkos Story: Parts 1 and 2".

Numerous periodicals reported Hurkos's exploits throughout his lifetime: Time, Newsweek, Omni, Life, True, Reader's Digest, Playboy, The National Enquirer, Ladies Home Journal, et al. Hurkos himself published three books: Psychic (Bobbs-Merrill), The Psychic World of Peter Hurkos, (Doubleday), and Peter Hurkos: I Have Many Lives (Doubleday). Various authors have described and examined various details of Hurkos's life and alleged ESP in more than 75 published books.

He also appeared in several motion pictures as himself, including The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena (Sunn International), Mysterious Monsters (David Wolper), and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (Paramount). George Voskovec portrayed Hurkos in The Boston Strangler, the 1968 film adaptation of Gerold Frank's 1966 book of the same name. His life may also have been the basis for the Stephen King novel The Dead Zone.

Hurkos's hobbies included gardening and oil painting. At one time, one of his paintings was on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art. The personal art collection of Ronald Reagan reportedly includes multiple Hurkos paintings, as does the General Omar N. Bradley Museum in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

At the time of his death, Peter Hurkos resided in Studio City, Los Angeles, California. He failed to predict accurately the date of his own death: Although he prophesied that he would die on 17 November 1961, he did not die until 1 June 1988, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in West Hollywood, California.