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Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an Academy
Award-winning American film actor. He was one of 20th Century Fox's most popular
film stars, from the 1940s to the 1960s, and played important roles well into the
1990s. One of his most notable performances was as Atticus Finch in the 1963 film
version of To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an Academy Award. President
Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his
lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck
among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 12.
 Early
life
Peck was born Eldred Gregory Peck in San Diego, California's
seaside community of La Jolla, the son of Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and
pharmacist, and Missouri-born Bernice Mae Ayres. Peck's father was a Catholic
and his mother converted to Catholicism upon marrying his father. Peck's
Irish-born paternal grandmother, Catherine Ashe, was related to the Irish
patriot Thomas Ashe, who took part in the Easter Rising less than three weeks
after Peck's birth and died while on a hunger strike in 1917. Despite their
strict Catholicism, Peck's parents divorced when he was five and he was raised
by his grandmother.
Peck was sent to a Roman Catholic military school in Los Angeles at the age of 10
and then to San Diego High School. When he graduated, he enrolled at San Diego
State University to improve his grades so that he could earn admission to his
first-choice college, the University of California, Berkeley. For a short time, he
took a job driving a truck for an oil company. In 1936, he enrolled as a pre-med
student at UC Berkeley, majoring in English. Since he was 6'3" and very strong, he
also decided to row on the university crew. Because of his great stature, the
Berkeley acting coach spotted him and decided he would be perfect for his play. He
developed an interest in acting and was recruited by Edwin Duerr, director of the
school's Little Theater. He went on to appear in five plays during his senior year.
Although his tuition fee was only $26 a year, Peck still struggled to pay, and had
to work as a "hasher" (kitchen helper) for the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority in
exchange for meals. Peck would later say about Berkeley that, "it was a very
special experience for me and three of the greatest years of my life. It woke me up
and made me a human being." In 1997, he donated $25,000 to the Berkeley crew team
in honor of his coach, Ky Ebright.
After graduating from Berkeley with a BA degree in English, Peck dropped the name
"Eldred" and headed to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He was
often broke and sometimes slept in Central Park. He worked at the 1939 World's Fair
and as a tour guide for NBC's television broadcasting.
He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams' The Morning Star in 1942.
His second Broadway performance that year was in The Willow and I with Edward
Pawley. Peck's acting abilities were in high demand during World War II, since he
was exempt from military service owing to a back injury suffered while receiving
dance and movement lessons from Martha Graham as part of his acting training.
Twentieth Century Fox claimed he had injured his back while rowing at university,
but in Peck's words, "In Hollywood, they didn't think a dance class was macho
enough, I guess. I've been trying to straighten out that story for years."
Career
Peck's
first film, Days of Glory, was released in 1944. Though many critics initially
dismissed Peck's acting as wooden, he was nominated for the Academy Award for
Best Actor five times, four of which came in his first five years of film
acting: for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's
Agreement (1947), and Twelve O'Clock High (1949).
Each of these early films introduced an aspect of Peck's persona. The Keys of the
Kingdom emphasized his stately presence. As the farmer Penny Barker in The Yearling
his good-humored warmth and affection toward the characters playing his son and
wife confounded critics who had been insisting he was a lifeless performer. Duel in
the Sun (1946) showed his range as an actor in his first "against type" role as a
cruel, libidinous gunslinger. Gentleman's Agreement established his power in the
"social conscience" genre in a film that took on the deep-seated but subtle
anti-Semitism of mid-century corporate America.Twelve O'Clock High was the first of
many successful war films in which Peck embodied the brave, effective, yet human
fighting man.
Among his other popular films were Moby Dick (1956), On the Beach (1959), which
brought to life the terrors of global nuclear war, The Guns of Navarone (1961), and
Roman Holiday (1953), with Audrey Hepburn in her Oscar-winning film debut. Peck and
Hepburn were close friends until her death; Peck even introduced her to her first
husband, Mel Ferrer.
Peck won the Academy award for his fifth nomination, playing Atticus Finch, a
Depression-era lawyer and widowed father, in a film adaptation of the Harper Lee
novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Released in 1962 during the height of the US civil
rights movement in the South, this movie and his role were Peck's favorites. In
2003, Atticus Finch was named the top film hero of the past 100 years by the
American Film Institute.
In 1949, Peck founded The La Jolla Playhouse, at his birthplace, along with his
friends Jose Ferrer and Dorothy McGuire. This local community theater and landmark
(now in a new home at the University of California, San Diego) still thrives today.
It has attracted Hollywood film stars on hiatus both as performers and enthusiastic
supporters since its inception.
He served as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in
1967, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute from 1967 to
1969, Chairman of the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund in 1971, and
National Chairman of the American Cancer Society in 1966. He was a member of the
National Council on the Arts from 1964 to 1966.
Though so well known, he was not above all criticism. Pauline Kael described him as
"competent but always a little boring". Even those greatly admiring him would admit
stiffness in certain roles. Yet these qualities may have been a necessary trade-off
for the iconic status he reached, and he may have known it. His few attempts at
playing villainous characters were not critically acclaimed.
A physically powerful man, he was known to do a majority of his own fight scenes,
rarely using body or stunt doubles. In fact, Robert Mitchum, his on-screen opponent
in Cape Fear, often said that Peck once accidentally punched him for real during
their final fight scene in the movie. He said that he felt the impact of the punch
for days afterwards and said "I don't feel sorry for anyone dumb enough who picks a
fight with him."
Later
work
In the 1980s, Peck moved to television, where he starred in the mini-series The
Blue and the Gray, playing Abraham Lincoln. He also starred with Barbara Bouchet in
the TV film The Scarlet and The Black, about a real-life Roman Catholic priest in
the Vatican who smuggled Jews and other refugees away from the Nazis during World
War II.
Peck retired from active film-making in 1991. Like Cary Grant before him, Peck
spent the last few years of his life touring the world doing speaking engagements
in which he would show clips from his movies, reminisce, and answer questions from
the audience.
He came out of retirement to appear in the 1998 remake of one of his most famous
films, Moby Dick, portraying "Father Mapple" (played by Orson Welles in the 1956
version), with Patrick Stewart playing Captain Ahab, the role Peck made famous in
the 1956 film.
Politics
In 1947, while many Hollywood figures were being blacklisted for similar
activities, he signed a letter deploring a House Un-American Activities Committee
investigation of alleged communists in the film industry.
President Richard Nixon placed Peck on his enemies list due to his liberal
activism. Peck was always proud of this fact, but he lost five movie deals because
of Nixon's list.
A lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, Peck was suggested in 1970 as a
possible Democratic candidate to run against Ronald Reagan for the office of
Governor of California. Gregory Peck encouraged one of his sons, Carey Peck, to run
for political office. Carey was defeated both times he tried for Congress, in 1978
and in 1980, by Republican Congressman Robert K. Dornan, both times by slim
margins.
In an interview with the Irish media, Peck revealed that former President Lyndon
Johnson had told him that, had he sought re-election, he intended to offer Peck the
post of U.S. ambassador to Ireland — a post Peck, due to his Irish ancestry, said
he might well have taken, saying "it would have been a great adventure".
He was outspoken against the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son,
Stephen, who was fighting there. In 1972, Peck produced the film version of Daniel
Berrigan's play The Trial of the Catonsville Nine about the prosecution of a group
of Vietnam protesters for civil disobedience. Despite his initial reluctance to
portray the controversial General Douglas MacArthur on screen, he did so in 1977
and ended up with a great admiration for the man.
In 1987, Peck led a charge opposing President Ronald Reagan's Supreme Court
nomination of Robert Bork.
Personal
life
Peck owned the thoroughbred steeplechase racehorse Different Class which raced in
England. The horse was the favorite for the 1968 Grand National but finished 3rd.
Peck was close friends with French president Jacques Chirac.
In October of 1943, Peck married Greta Kukkonen with whom he had three sons. Greta
was awarded the Rose of Finland, equivalent to a Medal of Freedom. They were
divorced on December 30, 1955 and maintained a very good relationship as parents.
Their sons are Jonathan, Stephen and Carey Peck. Jonathan Peck, a television news
reporter, committed suicide in 1975. Stephen Peck is active in support of American
veterans from the Vietnam war and Stephen's first wife Kimi Peck is an accomplished
screenplay writer. Gregory supported Carey's political ambitions when running for a
California Representative. Carey's wife Lita Albuquerque is an outstanding
artist.
On December 31, 1955, he married his second wife, Veronique Passani, a Paris news
reporter who had interviewed him in 1953 before he went to Italy to film Roman
Holiday. He asked her to lunch six months later and they became inseparable. They
had a son Anthony Peck, and a daughter Cecelia Peck.
Peck had many grandchildren from both marriages. Stephen has a daughter named
Marisa, and a younger son named Ethan. Carey has four children, three daughters
Marisa, Isabelle, and Jasmine, and a son Christopher.
Death
In early 2003 Gregory Peck was offered the role of Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory. He said he'd seriously consider it. He was looking forward to
playing Grandpa Joe, which he considered "the greatest swan song of them all", but
he died before he could accept.
On June 12, 2003, Peck died in his sleep from cardiorespiratory arrest, and
bronchial pneumonia, at the age of 87 in Los Angeles. His wife of 48 years was at
his side. Peck is buried in the mausoleum of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Angels in Los Angeles, California.
Awards
Peck was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning once. He was nominated in 1946
for The Keys of the Kingdom, in 1947 for The Yearling, in 1948 for Gentleman's
Agreement, and in 1950 for Twelve O'Clock High. He won the Oscar in 1963 for To
Kill a Mockingbird. In 1948, he was awarded with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian
Award.
Peck received many Golden Globe awards. He won in 1947 for The Yearling, in 1963
for To Kill a Mockingbird, and in 1999 for Moby Dick. He was nominated in 1978 for
The Boys from Brazil. He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1969, and was given
the Henrietta Award in 1951 and 1955 for World Film Favorite — Male.
In 1969, Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
nation's highest civilian award.
In 1971, the Screen Actors Guild presented Peck with the SAG Life Achievement
Award. In 1989, the American Film Institute gave Peck the AFI Life Achievement
Award. He received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to
world cinema in 1996.
In 2000, Peck was made a Doctor of Letters by the National University of Ireland.
He was a founding patron of the University College Dublin School of Film, where he
persuaded Martin Scorsese to become an honorary patron. Peck also became chair of
the American Cancer Society for a short time.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Gregory Peck has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6100 Hollywood Blvd. In November, 2005, the star was
stolen. It has since been replaced.
Source : Some of the information on
this page came from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU
Documentation License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Gregory
Peck - Projector - Biography
