Eldred Gregory Peck
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19
Awards
Gregory Peck was first nominated for an Academy Award for The Keys of the Kingdom in 1944 and finally won Best Actor for To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962. He starred in classics like Roman Holiday 1953 and Cape Fear 1962. Peck also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 and was named the greatest screen hero by AFI in 2003. He died in Los Angeles in 2003 at age 87.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Gregory Peck — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Gregory Peck by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Gregory Peck — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
His parents divorced when he was five, and his grandmother raised him, taking him to the movies every week. Born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916 in La Jolla, California, he studied pre-med at the University of California, Berkeley before discovering acting. He then trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and made his Broadway debut in 1942.
Peck made his film debut in Days of Glory 1944, but stardom came with The Keys of the Kingdom 1944, earning his first Oscar nomination. Working with Alfred Hitchcock on Spellbound 1945 led to more acclaimed roles. He received Oscar nominations for The Yearling 1946, Gentleman’s Agreement 1947, and Twelve O’Clock High 1949. The Oscar finally arrived for To Kill a Mockingbird 1962. Later hits included The Omen 1976 and The Boys from Brazil 1978.
Peck married Greta Kukkonen in 1942; they divorced in 1955. In 1955 he wed Veronique Passani, and they stayed together until his death. He had five children, including Jonathan, who committed suicide in 1975. Peck opposed the Vietnam War but supported his son serving there. He was also a friend of Audrey Hepburn, with whom he starred in Roman Holiday 1953, and he successfully pushed for her star billing.
The American Film Institute voted Peck’s Atticus Finch the greatest screen hero of all time in 2003. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1967. His performance in To Kill a Mockingbird is ranked #13 on Premiere magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Peck is remembered for his decency, humanitarian work, and enduring film legacy.
The complete filmography of Gregory Peck — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Gregory Peck — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Gregory Peck — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
They Say the Bad Guys Are More Interesting to Play but There Is More to It Than That – Playing the Good Guys Is More Challenging Because It’s Harder to Make Them Interesting.
I Just Do Things I Really Enjoy. I Enjoy Acting. When I’m Driving to the Studio, I Sing in the Car. I Love My Work and My Wife and My Kids and My Friends. and I Think, You’re a Lucky Man, Gregory Peck, a Damn Lucky Man.
Gregory Peck Is the Hottest Thing in Town. Some Say He Is a Second Gary Cooper. Actually, He Is the First Gregory Peck.
I’m Not a Do-gooder. It Embarrassed Me to Be Classified as a Humanitarian. I Simply Take Part in Activities That I Believe In.
I Don’t Lecture and I Don’t Grind Any Axes. I Just Want to Entertain.
You Have to Dream, You Have to Have a Vision, and You Have to Set a Goal for Yourself That Might Even Scare You a Little Because Sometimes That Seems Far Beyond Your Reach. Then I Think You Have to Develop a Kind of Resistance to Rejection, and to the Disappointments That Are Sure to Come Your Way.
I Am a Roman Catholic. Not a Fanatic, but I Practice Enough to Keep the Franchise. I Don’t Always Agree with the Pope . . . There Are Issues That Concern Me, Like Abortion, Contraception, the Ordination of Women . . . and Others. I Think the Church Should Open Up.
Faith Is a Force, a Powerful Force. to Me, It’s Been Like an Anchor to Windward – Something That’s Seen Me Through Troubled Times and Some Personal Tragedies and Also Through the Good Times and Success and the Happy Times.
I’ve Had My Ups and Downs. There Have Been Times When I Wanted to Quit. Times When I Hit the Bottle. Marital Problems. I’ve Touched Most of the Bases.
I Realize Now How Very Short Life Is, Because I’ve Got to Be Considered to Be in the Home Stretch. but I Won’t Waste Time on Recriminations and Regrets. and the Same Goes for My Shortcomings and My Own Failures.
Every Script I’m Offered Has Cary Grant’s Paw Prints on It.
Marilyn Monroe May Have Been a Bit of an Extreme Example, but She Was Given the Best Stories to Suit Her Talents, She Was Stroked and Cared for and Treasured and Treated Like a Little Princess, Treated as a Valuable, Talented Person. What It Was That Led Her to Drink and Take Pills, I Don’t Know. I Don’t Think Anyone Can Put It All Together, but It’s Too Easy to Say That Hollywood Wrung Her Out and Exhausted Her, Strained Her Nerves and Destroyed Her. I Think She’d Have Gone to Pieces Even Sooner Without the Adulation and the Care She Received at the Hands of Her Directors and Producers and the Big Studios.
I Enjoy Practicing My Craft as Well as I Possibly Can. I Enjoy the Work for Its Own Sake.
I Can Honestly Say That in Twenty Years of Making Movies I Never Had a Part That Came Close to Being the Real Me Until Atticus Finch.
When I’m Wrongly Cast, or in a Poor Script, I Sink with the Ship.
People Identify the Stanislavsky Method with a Group of Actors Who Are Physically Unlike Me – Marlon Brando, James Dean, Nowadays Al Pacino, Robert De Niro. That Doesn’t Mean a Tall, Lanky California Actor Can’t Use It. I Do and Always Have.
Mackenna’s Gold Was a Terrible Western. Just Wretched.
If You Have to Tell Them Who You Are, You Aren’t Anybody.
Little-known facts about Gregory Peck — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
In 1996 veteran character actor Richard Jaeckel, Peck’s co-star in The Gunfighter 1950, was diagnosed with cancer, and his wife had Alzheimer’s. The Jaeckels lost their Brentwood home and were over $1 million in debt. Once Peck lobbied for Jaeckel’s admittance to the Motion Picture and Television Country Home, he was treated within three days and stayed until his death on June 14, 1997.
He took in former co-star Ava Gardner’s housekeeper and dog after her death on January 25, 1990.
He formed a solid friendship with Mary Badham, who played his daughter Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird 1962. They remained in contact until his passing, and she always called him Atticus and he called her Scout.
Of his own movies, To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 is his favorite.
His favorite drink was Guinness, which he drank every day. Eventually he had a tap installed in the bar at his house.
He cited that his favorite leading ladies were Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, and Ava Gardner.
During his lean days, he supported himself as a Radio City Music Hall tour guide and a catalog model for Montgomery Ward.
His character from To Kill a Mockingbird 1962, Atticus Finch, was voted the greatest screen hero of all time by the American Film Institute in May 2003, only two weeks before his death.
According to at least one biography, he took his role in The Omen 1976 at a huge cut in salary, $250,000, but was guaranteed 10% of the box-office take. It grossed over $60 million in the US alone, becoming the film for which he earned the most money.
Appeared on President Richard Nixon’s infamous enemies list in 1972.
President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences from 1967 to 1970. He made the decision to postpone the 1968 Oscar ceremony after Martin Luther King’s assassination.
His son Stephen did a tour in Vietnam with the Marine Corps. Peck was proud of his son’s military service even though he disagreed with the war itself.
When he was President of the Academy, he lobbied the Board of Governors to make animated feature films eligible for Best Picture nomination. It wasn’t until 1991 that Disney’s Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film nominated for Best Picture.
Turned down Yves Montand’s role in Let’s Make Love 1960 because he didn’t want to work with Marilyn Monroe.
Became friends with Audrey Hepburn after working with her in Roman Holiday 1953. Peck persuaded Paramount to give her star billing equal to his, believing the film rested on her character. Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar, and they remained close until her death in 1993.
In 1980, stating he was worried about the 600,000 jobs hanging on the survival of Chrysler Corp., he volunteered to become an unpaid TV pitchman for the company.
A physically powerful man, he did most of his own fight scenes. Robert Mitchum, his on-screen opponent in Cape Fear 1962, said Peck accidentally punched him for real during their final fight scene, and the impact was felt for days.
Marched with Martin Luther King.
Was Warner Bros’ original choice to play Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005. He was offered the role but passed away before giving an answer.
When he arrived in Italy to shoot Roman Holiday 1953, he was depressed about his separation from first wife Greta. During the shoot, he met and fell in love with Veronique Passani, whom he married after his divorce.
After making Arabesque 1966, he withdrew from acting for three years to concentrate on humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society.
Regularly visited the terminally ill Humphrey Bogart while filming Designing Woman 1957 with Bogart’s wife, Lauren Bacall. He was devastated by Bogart’s death on January 14, 1957.
Oldest son Jon committed suicide by gunshot in 1975.
In 1947, at the beginning of the Red Scare, he signed a letter deploring the witch hunts despite being warned it could hurt his career.
Appeared in five films selected for the National Film Registry: Gentleman’s Agreement 1947, Twelve O’Clock High 1949, Roman Holiday 1953, How the West Was Won 1962, and To Kill a Mockingbird 1962.
MGM wanted him to play Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest 1959, but Alfred Hitchcock thought he was too serious and cast Cary Grant instead.
In 1999 the American Film Institute named him among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at #12.
He did not get along with director Elia Kazan while filming Gentleman’s Agreement 1947. Kazan told the press he was disappointed with Peck’s performance, and they never worked together again.
In 1999 he publicly berated Congress for failing to pass legislation preventing teenagers from buying guns, following the Columbine high school massacre.
By 1974, following a series of flops, his career had declined to the point that he admitted in an interview he was thinking of retiring. Two years later, he made an enormous comeback with The Omen 1976.
In 1999 he supported the decision to give Elia Kazan an honorary Oscar, saying a man’s work should be separate from his life.
A back injury incurred in college kept him out of the services in World War II.
Had always wanted to do a Walt Disney movie.
His picture appears on a USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued April 28, 2011. Peck is shown as Atticus Finch; the stamp price was 44 cents.
His earliest movie memory is being scared by The Phantom of the Opera 1925 at age nine, leading his grandmother to let him sleep in her bed.
His Best Actor Oscar nomination for The Keys of the Kingdom 1944 is the only time he was nominated for a film not nominated for Best Picture.
Mourners at his public service held large black-and-white portraits of him. Church officials estimated almost 3,000 attendees. Celebrities included Harry Belafonte, Anjelica Huston, and Harrison Ford. The secret password was Atticus. Brock Peters delivered the eulogy, noting their 40-year friendship.
Was the first native Californian to receive an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Strongly disliked his first name Eldred and used his middle name Gregory throughout his career.
In December 2002 he visited his wife in the hospital after she underwent spine surgery, sparking rumors of his own illness.
Early in his career he worked at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA, the State Theatre of Virginia, alongside Ernest Borgnine and Patricia Neal.
In 1969 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Lyndon B. Johnson.
His performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird is ranked #13 on Premiere magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters.
National Chairman of the American Cancer Society in 1966.
Along with Peter Ustinov, delivered the eulogy for friend and two-time co-star David Niven.
Was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War while remaining supportive of his son serving there.
Children with Veronique Peck: Tony Peck born 1956 and Cecilia Peck born 1958.
Strongly opposed nuclear weapons and made On the Beach 1959 for this reason.
His favorite singers were Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson; he was also a big fan of Elton John.
The financial failure of Cape Fear 1962 ended his company, Melville Productions.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Gregory Peck.
Celebrities similar to Gregory Peck — same craft, ranked by reach.
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