Gregory Peck 1916-2003

[chernabog_ca]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movi...eck/index.html

Oscar winner Gregory Peck dies at 87

Thursday, June 12, 2003 Posted: 4:23 PM EDT (2023 GMT)

(CNN) -- Actor Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of upstanding Southern lawyer Atticus Finch in 1962's "To Kill a Mockingbird," has died. He was 87.

Peck died Wednesday night, spokesman Monroe Friedman told The Associated Press. His wife of 48 years, Veronique, was at his side.

"She told me very briefly that he died peacefully. She was with him, holding his hand, and he just went to sleep," Friedman said. "He had just been getting older and more fragile. He wasn't really ill. He just sort of ran his course and died of old age."

The character of Finch was recently named the No. 1 hero in movie history in an American Film Institute survey.

Peck was best known for roles of dignified statesmen and people who followed a strong code of ethics: a magazine reporter confronting anti-Semitism in "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947, a best picture Oscar winner), a military officer in "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), the president of the United States in "Amazing Grace and Chuck" (1987).

But he also could play against type. He was a conflicted father in the original "Cape Fear" (1962) and a Nazi in "The Boys From Brazil" (1978), the latter against Laurence Olivier's Nazi hunter.

He also gave an air of wondrous bemusement to his reporter in Audrey Hepburn's first major film, "Roman Holiday" (1953), for which Hepburn won an Oscar.

He knew his image was what resonated with moviegoers.

"Inside of all the makeup and the character and makeup, it's you, and I think that's what the audience is really interested in ... you, how you're going to cope with the situation, the obstacles, the troubles that the writer put in front of you," he told CNN.

All told, Peck was nominated for five Academy Awards. Besides "Mockingbird," he also was nominated for "The Keys of the Kingdom" (1945), "The Yearling" (1946), "Gentleman's Agreement" and "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949).

Peck's life was as dignified as his most notable film roles. He served as president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences and was active in the Motion Picture and Television Fund, American Cancer Society, National Endowment for the Arts and other causes. His divorce from his first wife, Greta, was amicable.

A lifelong liberal activist, he even earned a place on President Nixon's enemies list.

But he played down his own work.

"I'm not a do-gooder," Peck said after learning of the academy's Jean Hersholt humanitarian award in 1968. "It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in."

'You can collect yourself and do it'
He was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, California. He never liked the name. "My mother had found 'Eldred' in a phone book, and I was stuck with it," he said, according to the AP. His parents divorced when their son was 6, and he spent part of his childhood traveling between each of them and his maternal grandmother.

He spent the remainder of his childhood at a Roman Catholic military academy in Los Angeles, then matriculated at the University of California at Berkeley.

An English major, he had no plans to go into acting until he was accosted by a campus director looking for a tall actor for an adaptation of "Moby Dick," the AP notes. "I don't know why I said yes," he recalled in a 1989 interview with the AP. "I guess I was fearless, and it seemed like it might be fun. I wasn't any good, but I ended up doing five plays my last year in college."

After graduation, he headed for New York, where he worked odd jobs -- including as a barker at the 1939 World's Fair -- and studying with Sanford Meisner and Martha Graham. He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams' "Morning Star."

He recalled the opening night in a 1989 interview with the AP.

"In the dressing room I gave myself a kick and said, 'Get out there!' I was jittery for the first five minutes, and then I wasn't jittery anymore. You can die up there and say, 'Call it off, give 'em their money back and let 'em go home.' Or you can collect yourself and do it."

A bad back kept Peck out of World War II.

He made his film debut in 1944 with "Days of Glory," playing a Russian, and followed that with a Roman Catholic priest in "The Keys to the Kingdom," Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound" (1945) and "The Yearling." By that point, he had established himself as a major star.

A star for nearly six decades
"From his debut, Peck was always a star and rarely less than a major box-office success," writes David Thomson in the New Biographical Dictionary of Film. In his roles, "he is a protagonist for middle American aspirations, pathfinder for the straight and narrow ... [he] never succumbs to the awful doubts that drag down Gary Cooper."

"Gentleman's Agreement" was considered a bold film in its day, tackling controversial subject matter. According to the AP, Peck commented in 1971 that his agent cautioned him: "You're just establishing yourself, and a lot of people will resent the picture. Anti-Semitism runs very deep in this country."

Peck ignored his advice.

He ranked "Gentleman's Agreement" as one of his personal favorites, along with "Captain Horatio Hornblower" (1951) and "The Guns of Navarone." But he had a special place in his heart for "To Kill a Mockingbird."

In the film, based on the award-winning Harper Lee novel, Peck played a small-town Southern lawyer who defies public sentiment to defend a black man accused of rape.

"I put everything I had into it -- all my feelings and everything I'd learned in 46 years of living, about family life and fathers and children," he told the AP in 1989. "And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity."

His knightly image gave rise to frequent rumors that he would run for political office, particularly after Ronald Reagan defeated Pat Brown in the 1966 California governor's race. But Peck wouldn't have it.

"I never gave a thought to running," Peck always replied. "Not even in my heart of hearts do I have an ambition to do that."

With Greta Peck, he had three sons, Jonathan, Stephen and Carey; Jonathan, a TV reporter, committed suicide at the age of 30. The star married Veronique Passani, a Paris reporter, in 1954. They had two children, Anthony and Cecilia, both actors.

[Kn'thrak]

NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo!
What bad news i had to wake up too

[editman]

R.I.P.

I was just watching "Spellbound" last weekend, thinking at one point it's astonishing that Gregory's still with us while Ingrid's long gone... Now they're both gone...

I'll always remember him in his Hitchcock movies, Cape Fear, Roman Holiday and The Omen.

[Gaumont]

sad news =(

[blugh]

A damn shame... he was great in Mockingbird, although as for greatest hero... I'm not so sure. But this is absolutely a loss for us all.

[BuDi]

another legend died.... sad.... in few years there won't be any good actors left.... only "actors" like Affleck etc.

[editman]

Originally posted by BuDi
only "actors" like Affleck etc.

No, they're called 'movie stars'...

[BuDi]

i checked some names on imdb ... and list of old great actors is not very large anymore :

I guess these men are alive:

Karl Malden: 22 March 1912
Kirk Douglas: 9 December 1916
Ernest Borgnine: 24 January 1917
Peter Ustinov: 16 April 1921
Charles Bronson: 3 November 1921
Christopher Lee: 27 May 1922
Marlon Brando: 3 April 1924
Paul Newman: 26 January 1925
Sidney Poitier: 20 February 1927
Clint Eastwood: 31 May 1930
Sean Connery: 25 August 1930
Peter O'Toole: 2 August 1932

and this one is "alive":

Ronald Reagan: 6 February 1911

[Granite]

A loss of a great actor

-----------------
From IMDB

Moby Dick (1998) (TV) .... Father Mapple
Passage à l'acte (1993) .... Atticus Finch
Portrait, The (1993) (TV) .... Gardner Church
Cape Fear (1991) .... Lee Heller
Other People's Money (1991) .... Andrew Jorgenson
... aka Riqueza ajena (1998) (USA: video title Spanish title)


Old Gringo (1989) .... Ambrose Bierce
Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987) .... President
... aka Silent Voice (1987)
Terror in the Aisles (1984) (archive footage) .... Robert Thorn (segment "The Omen")
... aka Time for Terror (1984) (Europe: video title English title)
Scarlet and the Black, The (1983) (TV) .... Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty
... aka Scarlatto e nero (1983) (TV) (Italy)
... aka Vatican Pimpernel, The (1983) (TV)
"Blue and the Gray, The" (1982) (mini) TV Series .... Abraham Lincoln
Sea Wolves: The Last Charge of the Calcutta Light Horse, The (1980) .... Col. Lewis Pugh
... aka Sea Wolves, The (1980)


Boys from Brazil, The (1978) .... Dr. Josef Mengele
MacArthur (1977) .... Gen. Douglas MacArthur
... aka MacArthur, the Rebel General (1977)
Omen, The (1976) .... Robert Thorn
... aka Omen I (1976) (reissue title)
... aka Omen I: The Antichrist (1976) (reissue title)
... aka Omen I: The Birthmark (1976) (reissue title)
Billy Two Hats (1973) .... Arch Deans
... aka Lady and the Outlaw, The (1973)
Shoot Out (1971) .... Clay Lomax
I Walk the Line (1970) .... Sheriff Henry Tawes


Marooned (1969) .... Charles Keith
... aka Space Travelers (1969) (USA: reissue title)
Chairman, The (1969) .... John Hathaway
... aka Most Dangerous Man in the World, The (1969) (UK)
Mackenna's Gold (1969) .... MacKenna
Stalking Moon, The (1969) .... Sam Varner
Arabesque (1966) .... David Pollock
Mirage (1965) .... David Stillwell
Behold a Pale Horse (1964) .... Manuel Artiguez
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) .... Capt. Josiah Newman, MD
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) .... Atticus Finch
How the West Was Won (1962) .... Cleve Van Valen
Cape Fear (1962) .... Sam Bowden
Guns of Navarone, The (1961) .... Capt. Keith Mallory


On the Beach (1959) .... Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers, USS Sawfish
Beloved Infidel (1959) .... F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pork Chop Hill (1959) .... Lt. Joe Clemons
Big Country, The (1958) .... James McKay
Bravados, The (1958) .... Jim Douglass
Designing Woman (1957) .... Mike Hagen
Moby Dick (1956) .... Captain Ahab
Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The (1956) .... Tom Rath (ex-Capt.)
Purple Plain, The (1954) .... Squadron Leader Bill Forrester
Night People (1954) .... Col. Steve Van Dyke
Boum sur Paris (1954)
Million Pound Note, The (1953) .... Henry Adams
... aka Man with a Million (1954) (USA)
Roman Holiday (1953) .... Joe Bradley (correspondent, American News Service)
World in His Arms, The (1952) .... Jonathan Clark
Snows of Kilimanjaro, The (1952) .... Harry Street
Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) .... Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N
... aka Captain Horatio Hornblower, R.N. (1951) (UK)
David and Bathsheba (1951) .... David
Only the Valiant (1951) .... Capt. Richard Lance
Gunfighter, The (1950) .... Jimmie Ringo

Twelve O'Clock High (1949) .... Brig. Gen. Frank Savage, Asst. Chief of Air Staff A-3/CO, 918th Bomb Group
Great Sinner, The (1949) .... Fedja
Yellow Sky (1948) .... Stretch
Paradine Case, The (1947) .... Anthony Keane, Counsel for the Defense
Gentleman's Agreement (1947) .... Philip Schuyler 'Phil' Green
Macomber Affair, The (1947) .... Robert Wilson
Duel in the Sun (1946) .... Lewt McCanles
Yearling, The (1946) .... Penny Baxter
Spellbound (1945) .... John Ballantine
... aka Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) (USA: promotional title)
Valley of Decision, The (1945) .... Paul Scott
Keys of the Kingdom, The (1944) .... Father Francis Chisholm
Days of Glory (1944) .... Vladimir

[aS!Dz]

Wow thats a big loss