Gregory Peck Biography

Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 " June 12, 2003) was an American Academy Award winning actor.

One of the world's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play major film roles until the late 1970s. He is best known for his performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, which earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. 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 #12. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1983.

Early life

Eldred Gregory Peck was born in La Jolla, California, the son of Missouri-born Bernice Mae "Bunny" (née Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a New York-born chemist and pharmacist. His father was of Irish (maternal) heritage and English (paternal) heritage, while his mother had Scottish and English ancestry. Peck's father was a Catholic, while his mother converted to the denomination when she married his father. Through his Irish-born paternal grandmother Catherine Ashe, Peck was related to Thomas Ashe, who took part in the Easter Rising fewer than three weeks after Peck's birth and died while on hunger strike in 1917. Peck's parents divorced by the time he was six years old and he spent the next few years being raised by his maternal grandmother.

Peck attended a Roman Catholic military school, St. John's Military Academy, in Los Angeles at the age of 10. His grandmother died while he was enrolled there, and his father again took over his upbringing. At 14, Peck attended San Diego High School and lived with his father. When he graduated, he enrolled briefly at San Diego State Teacher's College, (now known as San Diego State University), joined the track team, took his first theatre and public-speaking courses, and joined the Epsilon Eta fraternity. He stayed for just one academic year, thereafter obtaining 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 declared himself a pre-medical student at Berkeley, and majored in English. Standing he rowed on the university crew.

The Berkeley acting coach decided Peck would be perfect for university theater work. Peck developed an interest in acting and was recruited by Edwin Duerr, director of the university's Little Theater. He appeared in five plays during his senior year. Although his tuition fee was only $26 per year, Peck still struggled to pay, and had to work as a "hasher" (kitchen helper) for the Gamma Phi Beta 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 Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing crew in honor of his coach, the renowned Ky Ebright.

Acting career

Stage

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 with the legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner. 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. In 1940, Peck learned more of the acting craft, working in exchange for food, at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA, appearing in five plays including Family Portrait and On Earth As It Is.

His stage career began in 1941 when he played the secretary in a Katharine Cornell production of George Bernard Shaw's play The Doctor's Dilemma. Unfortunately, the play opened in San Francisco just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. 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, because 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."

In 1947 Peck co-founded The La Jolla Playhouse, at his birthplace, with Mel 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.

Film

Peck's first film, Days of Glory, was released in 1944. 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).

The Keys of the Kingdom emphasized his stately presence. As the farmer Ezra "Penny" Baxter 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 antisemitism 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 films were Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), The Gunfighter (1950), Moby Dick (1956), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (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 role. Peck and Hepburn were close friends until her death; Peck even introduced her to her first husband, Mel Ferrer. Peck once again teamed up with director William Wyler in the epic Western The Big Country (1958), which he co-produced. Peck won the Academy Award with 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.

Peck 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.

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, told about the time Peck once accidentally punched him for real during their final fight scene in the movie, he felt the impact for days afterward. Peck's rare attempts at villainous roles were not acclaimed. Early on, he played the renegade son in the Western Duel in the Sun and, later in his career, the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil co-starring Laurence Olivier.

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 Christopher Plummer, John Gielgud, and Barbara Bouchet in the television film The Scarlet and The Black, about Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a real-life Roman Catholic priest in the Vatican who smuggled Jews and other refugees away from the Nazis during World War II.

Peck, Mitchum, and Martin Balsam all had roles in the 1991 remake of Cape Fear directed by Martin Scorsese. All three were in the original 1962 version. In the remake, Peck played Max Cady's lawyer.

His last prominent film role also came in 1991, in Other People's Money, directed by Norman Jewison and based on the stage play of that name. Peck played a business owner trying to save his company against a hostile takeover bid by a Wall Street liquidator played by Danny DeVito.

Peck retired from active film-making at that point. 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 take questions from the audience. He did come out of retirement for a 1998 miniseries version of one of his most famous films, Moby Dick, portraying Father Mapple (played by Orson Welles in the 1956 version), with Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab, the role Peck played in the earlier film. It would be his final performance, and it won him the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

Peck had been offered the role of Grandpa Joe in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but died before he could accept it. The Irish actor David Kelly was then given the part.

Politics

In 1947, while many Hollywood figures were being blacklisted for similar activities, Peck signed a letter deploring a House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of alleged communists in the film industry.

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 California Governor. Although he later admitted that he had no interest in being a candidate himself for public office, Peck encouraged one of his sons, Carey Peck, to run for political office. Carey was defeated both times by slim margins in races in 1978 and 1980 against Republican U.S. Representative Bob Dornan, another former actor.

In an interview with the Irish media, Peck revealed that former President Lyndon Johnson had told him that, had he sought re-election in 1968, he intended to offer Peck the post of U.S. ambassador to Ireland " a post Peck, owing to his Irish ancestry, said he might well have taken, saying "[It] would have been a great adventure". The actor's biographer Michael Freedland substantiates the report and says that Johnson indicated that his presentation of the Medal of Freedom to Peck would perhaps make up for his inability to confer the ambassadorship. President Richard Nixon, though, placed Peck on his enemies list owing to his liberal activism.

Peck was outspoken against the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son, Stephen, who fought 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 reservations about American general Douglas MacArthur as a man, Peck had long wanted to play him on film, and did so in MacArthur in 1976.

In 1978, Peck traveled to Alabama, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, to campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Donald W. Stewart of Anniston, who defeated the Republican candidate, James D. Martin, a former U.S. representative from Gadsden.

In 1987, Peck undertook the voice-overs for television commercials opposing President Reagan's Supreme Court nomination of conservative jurist Robert Bork. Bork's nomination was defeated. Peck was also a vocal supporter of a worldwide ban of nuclear weapons, and a lifelong advocate of gun control.

Personal life and death

In October 1942 Peck married Finnish-born Greta Kukkonen (1911"2008), with whom he had three sons, Jonathan (1944"75), Stephen (b. 1946), and Carey Paul (b. 1949). They were divorced on December 30, 1955, but maintained a very good relationship. Jonathan Peck, a television news reporter, committed suicide in 1975. Stephen Peck is active in support of American veterans from the Vietnam War; his first wife is screenwriter Kimi Peck, who co-wrote Little Darlings with Dalene Young. Carey Peck had political ambitions, running for Congress in California in 1978 and again in 1980 with the support of his father and family. He narrowly lost to conservative Republican Bob Dornan.

On December 31, 1955, the day after his divorce was finalized, Peck married Veronique Passani (1932"2012), 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, Cecilia Peck. The couple remained married until Gregory Peck's death. His daughter Cecilia lives in Los Angeles.

Peck had grandchildren from both marriages.

Peck owned the thoroughbred steeplechase race horse Different Class, which raced in England. The horse was favored for the 1968 Grand National but finished third. Peck was close friends with French president Jacques Chirac.

Peck was a Roman Catholic and once considered becoming a priest. When asked if he was a practicing Catholic, Peck laughed "Not a fanatic, but I practice enough to keep the franchise." He disagreed with the Church's positions on abortion and the ordination of women. His second marriage was performed by a justice of the peace instead of within the Church because of the Catholic Church's prohibition of divorced persons receiving Church weddings that have not been annulled. Some ways Peck expressed his faith was as a significant fundraiser for a priest friend of his (Father Albert O'Hara), and co-producer of a cassette recording of the New Testament with his son Stephen.

On June 12, 2003, Peck died in his sleep at home from bronchopneumonia. His wife, Veronique, was by his side.

Gregory Peck is entombed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels mausoleum in Los Angeles, California. His eulogy was read by Brock Peters, whose character, Tom Robinson, was defended by Peck's Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Awards and honors

Peck was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning once. He was nominated for The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1968 he received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Peck also received many Golden Globe awards. He won in 1947 for The Yearling, in 1963 for To Kill a Mockingbird, and in 1999 for the TV mini series 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, US President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. 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 1986 Peck was honored alongside actress Gene Tierney with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival Spain for their body of work.

In 1987, Peck was awarded the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.

In 1993, Peck was awarded with an Honorary Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1998 he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

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 was also chairman 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, and has since been replaced.

On April 28, 2011, a ceremony was held in Beverly Hills, California celebrating the first day of issue of a U.S. postage stamp commemorating Peck. The stamp is the 17th commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1944	Days of Glory	Vladimir
	The Keys of the Kingdom	Father Francis Chisholm	Nominated " Academy Award for Best Actor
1945	The Valley of Decision	Paul Scott
	Spellbound	John Ballantyne
1946	The Yearling	Ezra "Penny" Baxter	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Nominated " Academy Award for Best Actor
	Duel in the Sun	Lewton 'Lewt' McCanles
1947	The Macomber Affair	Robert Wilson
	Gentleman's Agreement	Philip Schuyler Green	Nominated " Academy Award for Best Actor
	The Paradine Case	Anthony Keane
1949	Yellow Sky	James 'Stretch' Dawson
	The Great Sinner	Fedja
	Twelve O'Clock High	Gen. Frank Savage	Nominated " Academy Award for Best Actor
1950	The Gunfighter	Jimmy Ringo
1951	Captain Horatio Hornblower	Captain Horatio Hornblower
	Only the Valiant	Captain Richard Lance
	Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Awards		Short subject
	David and Bathsheba	King David
	Pictura: An Adventure in Art	Narrator	Documentary
1952	The Snows of Kilimanjaro	Harry Street
	The World in His Arms	Capt. Jonathan Clark
1953	The Million Pound Note	Henry Adams
	Roman Holiday	Joe Bradley	Nominated " BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1954	Night People	Col. Steve Van Dyke
	The Purple Plain	Squadron Leader Bill Forrester
1956	The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit	Tom Rath
	Moby Dick	Captain Ahab
1957	Designing Woman	Mike Hagen
1958	The Hidden World	Narrator	Documentary
	The Bravados	Jim Douglass
	The Big Country	James McKay	Also producer
1959	Pork Chop Hill	Lieutenant Joe Clemons
	Beloved Infidel	F. Scott Fitzgerald
	On the Beach	Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers, USS Sawfish
1961	The Guns of Navarone	Capt. Keith Mallory
1962	Cape Fear	Sam Bowden
	Lykke og krone		Documentary
	How the West Was Won	Cleve Van Valen
	To Kill a Mockingbird	Atticus Finch	Academy Award for Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Nominated " BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1963	Captain Newman, M.D.	Capt. Josiah J. Newman, MD	Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Drama
1964	Behold a Pale Horse	Manuel Artiguez
1965	Mirage	David Stillwell
1966	John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums	Narrator	Documentary
	Arabesque	Prof. David Pollock
1967	Pähkähullu Suomi		Cameo
1969	The Stalking Moon	Sam Varner
	Mackenna's Gold	MacKenna
	The Chairman	John Hathaway
	Marooned	Charles Keith
1970	I Walk the Line	Sheriff Tawes
1971	Shoot Out	Clay Lomax
1974	Billy Two Hats	Arch Deans
	The Dove		Producer
1976	The Omen	Robert Thorn
1977	MacArthur	General Douglas MacArthur	Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Drama
1978	The Boys from Brazil	Josef Mengele	Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Drama
1980	The Sea Wolves	Col. Lewis Pugh
1982	The Blue and the Gray	Abraham Lincoln
1983	The Scarlet and the Black	Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty
1984	Terror in the Aisles		Documentary. Archival footage.
1985	Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret		Documentary
1986	Directed by William Wyler		Documentary
1987	Amazing Grace and Chuck	President
1989	Old Gringo	Ambrose Bierce
	Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren	Narrator	Documentary
1991	Other People's Money	Andrew Jorgenson
	Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days	Narrator	Documentary
	Cape Fear	Lee Heller
1993	The Portrait	Gardner Church
1994	L'Hidato Shel Adolf Eichmann	Narrator	Documentary
1996	Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick		Documentary
1998	Moby Dick	Father Mapple	TV Miniseries Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor " Series, Miniseries or Television Film
1999	The Art of Norton Simon	Narrator	Short subject
	American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith	Narrator
2000	A Conversation With Gregory Peck	Himself	Documentary

See also

• List of notable Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients