Gregory Peck
Acting
- Born:
- 1916-04-05
- Died:
- 2003-06-12
- Place of birth:
- La Jolla, California, USA
Biography
Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner, Peck began appearing in stage productions, acting in over 50 plays and three Broadway productions. He first gained critical success in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), a John M. Stahl–directed drama which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He starred in a series of successful films, including romantic-drama The Valley of Decision (1944), Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), and family film The Yearling (1946). He encountered lukewarm commercial reviews at the end of the 1940s, his performances including The Paradine Case (1947) and The Great Sinner (1948). Peck reached global recognition in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing back-to-back in the book-to-film adaptation of Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) and biblical drama David and Bathsheba (1951). He starred alongside Ava Gardner in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953), which earned Peck a Golden Globe award. Other notable films in which he appeared include Moby Dick (1956, and its 1998 mini-series), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962, and its 1991 remake), The Omen (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). Throughout his career, he often portrayed protagonists with "fiber" within a moral setting. Gentleman's Agreement (1947) centered on topics of antisemitism, while Peck's character in Twelve O'Clock High (1949) dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder during World War II. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), an adaptation of the modern classic of the same name which revolved around racial inequality, for which he received universal acclaim. In 1983, he starred opposite Christopher Plummer in The Scarlet and The Black as Hugh O'Flaherty, a Catholic priest who saved thousands of escaped Allied POWs and Jewish people in Rome during the Second World War. Peck was also active in politics, challenging the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 and was regarded as a political opponent by President Richard Nixon. President Lyndon B. Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. Peck died in his sleep from bronchopneumonia at the age of 87.
Known For
Filmography
Gregory Peck, le gentleman acteur
To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View
The Fabulous Allan Carr
Discovering Audrey Hepburn
Discovering: Robert Mitchum
Fallout
Talking Pictures
Close Up
The Curse of 'The Omen'
Legenden: Audrey Hepburn
Barbra Streisand: The Concert - Live at the MGM Grand
Edith Head: The Paramount Years
Restoring Roman Holiday
From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff
Backstory: 'Gentleman's Agreement'
The Making of 'Cape Fear'
The Making of 'Cape Fear'
American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith
A Conversation with Gregory Peck
Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood
Intimate Portrait: Lauren Bacall
Moby Dick
Fearful Symmetry
Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
Ingrid Bergman Remembered
Sinatra: 80 Years My Way
Roger Moore: A Matter of Class
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey
Charlton Heston: For All Seasons
Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick
The Hunt for Adolf Eichmann
Baseball
The Will Rogers Follies: A Life In Revue
Audrey Hepburn: Remembered
The Portrait
Audrey Hepburn: In Her Own Words
Cape Fear
Other People's Money
Robert Mitchum: The Reluctant Star
Anthony Quinn: An Original
Sanford Meisner: The American Theatre's Best Kept Secret
Sammy Davis, Jr. 60th Anniversary Celebration
Island of Whales
Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren
Old Gringo
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
The Making of Moonwalker
Gregory Peck: His Own Man
Amazing Grace and Chuck
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
Directed by William Wyler
Olympic Gala
James Bond: The First 21 Years
The Scarlet and the Black
The Blue and the Gray
Night of 100 Stars
Champs-Elysées
The Sea Wolves
The Kennedy Center Honors
Mickey's 50
The Boys from Brazil
Ciné regards
MacArthur
NBC: The First Fifty Years
The Omen
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Dinah!
Spécial cinéma
Billy Two Hats
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
The Men Who Made the Movies: King Vidor
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Film '72
Shoot Out
V.I.P. Schaukel
The Pearl Bailey Show
I Walk the Line
The Infinite Journey
Marooned
The Chairman
The Extraordinary Seaman
Mackenna's Gold
Look at Life: All in a Day's Work
The Stalking Moon
The Movie Orgy
Africa
Arabesque
John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums
Salute to Stan Laurel
Mirage
Uncertain Verification
Behold a Pale Horse
Captain Newman, M.D.
To Kill a Mockingbird
How the West Was Won
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Lykke og krone
Cape Fear
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
The Mike Douglas Show
The Dick Powell Show
The Guns of Navarone
On the Beach
Beloved Infidel
Pork Chop Hill
The All-Star Christmas Show
The Big Country
The Bravados
Fun in the Big Country
The Hidden World
Designing Woman
Moby Dick
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Tony Awards
Stars of Cabaret
MGM Parade
The Purple Plain
Reflets de Cannes
Night People
Boom on Paris
The Million Pound Note
Roman Holiday
The Oscars
The World in His Arms
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
David and Bathsheba
Pictura
Only the Valiant
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
The Gunfighter
Twelve O'Clock High
The Art Director
The Great Sinner
Yellow Sky
The Ed Sullivan Show
Bambi
The Paradine Case
Gentleman's Agreement
The Macomber Affair
Duel in the Sun
The Yearling
Spellbound
The Valley of Decision
The Keys of the Kingdom
Days of Glory