Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Template:Gregory Peck sidebar 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 that 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).
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 "moral fiber".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Gentleman's Agreement (1947) centered on topics of antisemitism, while Peck's character in Twelve O'Clock High (1949) dealt with the challenges of military leadership and 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 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.
Early lifeEdit
Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916, in the neighborhood of La Jolla in San Diego, California,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to Bernice Mae "Bunny" (née Ayres; 1894–1992), and Gregory Pearl Peck (1886–1962), a Rochester, New York–born chemist and pharmacist. His father was of English (paternal) and Irish (maternal) heritage,Template:Sfn<ref>United States Census records for La Jolla, California 1910</ref> and his mother was of English and Scots ancestry.<ref>United States Census records for St. Louis, Missouri – 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910</ref> She converted to her husband's religion, Catholicism, and Peck was raised as a Catholic. Through his Irish-born paternal grandmother Catherine Ashe (1864–1926), Peck was related to Thomas Ashe (1885–1917), who participated in the Easter Rising less than three weeks after Peck's birth and died while being force-fed during a hunger strike in 1917.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Peck's parents divorced when he was five, and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother, who took him to the movies every week.<ref name="Ronald Bergan">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn At the age of 10, he was sent to a Catholic military school, St. John's Military Academy in Los Angeles. While he was a student there, his grandmother died. At 14, he moved back to San Diego to live with his father. He attended San Diego High SchoolTemplate:Sfn and, after graduating in 1934, enrolled for one year at San Diego State Teacher's College (now known as San Diego State University). While there, he joined the track team, took his first theatre and public-speaking courses, and pledged the Epsilon Eta fraternity.Template:Sfn Peck had ambitions to be a doctor and later transferred to the University of California, Berkeley,<ref>Thomas, Tony. Gregory Peck. Pyramid Publications, 1977, p. 16</ref> as an English major and pre-medical student. Standing Template:Convert, he rowed on the university crew. Although his tuition fee was only $26 per year, Peck still struggled to pay and took a job as a "hasher" (kitchen helper) for the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority in exchange for meals.<ref name="02.21.96 - 'Just One of the Guys'">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
At Berkeley, Peck's deep, well-modulated voice gained him attention, and after participating in a public speaking course, he decided to try acting. He was encouraged by an acting coach, who saw in him perfect material for university theatre, and he became more and more interested in acting. He was recruited by Edwin Duerr, director of the university's Little Theater, and appeared in five plays during his senior year, including as Starbuck in Moby Dick.<ref name="Monush, Barry">Template:Cite book</ref> Peck later said about his years at 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."<ref name="berkmag">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1996, Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing crew in honor of his coach, Ky Ebright.<ref name="02.21.96 - 'Just One of the Guys'"/>
CareerEdit
1939–1943: Beginnings and stage rolesEdit
Peck did not graduate with his friends because he lacked one course. His college friends were concerned for him and wondered how he would get along without his degree. "I have all I need from the university", he told them. 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.Template:Sfn He worked at the 1939 World's Fair as a barker, at Rockefeller Center as a tour guide for NBC television, and at Radio City Music Hall.<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> Before 1940, he dabbled in modelling, and worked in exchange for food at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, where he appeared in five plays, including Family Portrait and On Earth As It Is.<ref name="autogenerated1998">"Gregory Peck Returns to Theatre Roots in Virginia Mountains", Playbill, June 29, 1998</ref>
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. The play opened in San Francisco just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor.<ref>Tad Mosel, Leading Lady: The World and Theatre of Katharine Cornell, Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1978Template:Page needed</ref> He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams' The Morning Star in 1942.<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> 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 had been exempted from military service because of a back injury suffered while receiving dance and movement lessons from Martha Graham as part of his acting training.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Twentieth Century Fox later 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."<ref name="sdut">Welton Jones. "Gregory Peck", The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 5, 1998.</ref> Peck performed in a total of 50 plays, including three short-lived Broadway productions, 4–5 road tours, and summer theater.<ref name="theactorswork.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1944–1946: Hollywood breakthroughEdit
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After gaining stage recognition, Peck was offered his first film role at RKO Radio Pictures, the male lead in the war-romance Days of Glory (1944), directed by Jacques Tourneur, alongside top-billed Tamara Toumanova, a Russian-born ballerina.<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> Peck portrayed the leader of Russian guerrillas resisting the Germans in 1941 who stumble across a beautiful Russian dancer (Toumanova), who had been sent to entertain Russian troops; they protect her by letting her join their group.<ref name="Monush, Barry"/><ref name="Thomson, David 1994 pg. 576">Thomson, David (London, 1994) "A Biographical Dictionary of Film", Martin Secker and Warburg Ltd., pg. 576.</ref> During production of the film, Tourneur "untrained" Peck from his theater training where he was used to speaking in a formal manner and projecting his voice to the entire hall.<ref name="ReferenceE">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck considered his performance in the film as quite amateurish and did not wish to watch the film after it was released.<ref name="ReferenceE"/> The film lost money at the box office, disappeared from theaters quickly,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceH">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was largely dismissed by critics.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceE"/>
At the time of the film's release, critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times assessed it as slow-moving and verbose, adding that Peck's acting was stiff.Template:Efn Film historian Barry Monush has written, "Peck's star power was evident from the word go."<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> Following the release of the film, Peck gained the attention of producers, but rather than participate in the studio system, he decided to remain a freelancer with the ability to choose his roles, signing non-exclusive contracts with four studios,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> including an unusual dual contract with 20th Century Fox and Gone With the Wind producer David O. Selznick.<ref name="Turner, Adrian">Template:Cite news</ref>
In Peck's second movie, The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), he plays an 80-year-old Roman Catholic priest who looks back at his undertakings during over half a century of his determined, self-sacrificing missionary work in China.<ref name="variety1944">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Thomson, David 1994 pg. 576"/> The film shows the character aging from his 20s to 80; Peck was featured in almost every scene.<ref name="auto49">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, which was Peck's first nomination.<ref name="Kinn, Gail 2000 pg. 92">Kinn, Gail, and Jim Plazza (New York, 2000) "The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar", Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, pg. 92.</ref> Although the film finished only 27th at the box office in North America for 1944,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Jay Carr of Turner Classic Movies refers to it as Peck's breakthrough performance,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while writer Patrick McGilligan says that it "catapulted him to stardom".Template:Sfn At the time of release, Peck's performance was lauded by Variety and The New York Times, despite mixed reviews for the film itself.Template:Efn The Radio Times referred to it as "a long, talkative and rather undramatic picture" but admitted that "its success saved Peck's career".<ref name="auto3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Craig Butler of AllMovie states "he gives a commanding performance, full of his usual quiet dignity and intelligence, and spiked with stubbornness and an inner fire that make the character truly come alive."<ref name="allmovie.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In The Valley of Decision (1945), a romantic drama about intermingling social classes, Peck plays the eldest son of a wealthy steel mill owner in 1870s Pittsburgh who has a romance with one of his family's maids, portrayed by Greer Garson.<ref name="auto11">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Upon release, reviews from The New York Times and Variety were somewhat positive, with Peck's performance described as commanding.Template:Efn It was North America's highest-grossing movie of 1945.<ref name="auto19"/>
Peck's next film was the first of two collaborations with director Alfred Hitchcock, the suspense-romance Spellbound (1945), opposite Ingrid Bergman. Peck plays a man who is thought to be the new director of the psychiatric facility where Bergman's character works as a psychoanalyst, while his amnesia and disturbing visions suggest he may be a murderer.<ref name="auto16">Fox, Ken, Ed Grant, Jo Imeson, Andrew Joseph and Maitland McDonaugh, Eds. (New York, 1998) "The Movie Guide", Berkley Publishing Group, pg. 645.</ref> Peck and Hitchcock were described as having a cordial but cool relationship.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hitchcock initially hoped that Cary Grant would play the male lead.Template:Sfn Peck later stated that he thought he was too young when he first worked with Hitchcock and that the director's on-set indifference to his character's motivation, important to Peck's acting style, shook his confidence.<ref name="Turner, Adrian"/> Peck's chemistry clicked with his screen partner Bergman; the actors were romantically linked at the time.Template:Sfn
Released at the end of 1945, Spellbound was a hit, ranking as the third-most successful film of 1946.<ref name="auto19" /> Spellbound was well received by critics at the time, as was Peck's performance.Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised the film, stating that Peck's performance "restrained and refined, is precisely the proper counter to Bergman's exquisite role;"<ref name="Crowther, Bosley 1945"/> Frank Miller of Turner Classic Movies has written that the movie accelerated the rise of Peck into a Hollywood star and even "a major sex symbol".<ref name="Turner Classic Movies">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Producer David O. Selznick noted that during preview tests of the movie, the women in the audiences had substantive reactions to the appearance of Peck's name during the opening credits, stating that during his first few scenes the audience had to be shushed to quiet down.<ref name="Turner Classic Movies"/> Spellbound was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, although it was not in the National Board of Review's top ten films of the year.<ref name="Kinn, Gail 2000 pg. 92"/><ref name="autogenerated143">Gebert, Michael (New York, 1996) "The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards", St. Martin's Press, pg. 143.</ref>
In The Yearling (1946),<ref name="Thomson, David 1994 pg. 576"/> Peck portrays a kind-hearted father, opposite onscreen wife, Jane Wyman, whose son finds and insists on raising a three-day-old fawn in 1870s Florida.<ref name="auto16"/> Reviews upon release were very positiveTemplate:Efn with Bosley Crowther evaluating it as a film that "provides a wealth of satisfaction that few films ever attain".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Yearling was a box office success finishing with the ninth highest box office gross for 1947<ref name="auto19"/> and landed six Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor. Peck won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for performance.<ref name="EMAp143">Gebert, Michael (New York, 1996), "The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards", St. Martin's Press, pg. 143.</ref> In recent decades, it has continued to receive critical praiseTemplate:Efn with Barry Monush writing that it is "one of the best-made and most-loved family films of its day".<ref name="Monush, Barry"/>
Peck took his first "against type" role, playing a cruel, amoral cowboy in the Western soap opera Duel in the Sun (1946) with top-billed Jennifer Jones as the provocative temptress-object of Peck's love, anger, and desire.<ref name="auto39">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="tvguide.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Their chemistry is described by film historian David Thomson as "a constant knife fight of sensuality".<ref name="auto9">Thomson, David (London, 1994) "A Biographical Dictionary of Film", Martin Secker and Warburg Ltd., pg. 577.</ref> Joseph Cotten starred as Peck's righteous half brother and competitor for the affections of the "steamy, sexpot" character of Jones;<ref name="auto58">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the movie was resoundingly criticized and even banned in some cities due to its lurid nature.<ref name="auto20">Bergen, Ronald (London: 2004) in "501 Must-See Movies", Bounty Books.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The publicity around the eroticism of Duel in the Sun,<ref name="auto21">Fox, Ken, Ed Grant, Jo Imeson, Andrew Joseph and Maitland McDonaugh, Eds. (New York, 1998) "The Movie Guide", Berkley Publishing Group, pg. 183.</ref> one of the biggest movie advertising campaigns in history,<ref name="auto14">Tookey, Christopher (London, 1994), "The Film Critics' Film Guide", Boxtree Limited. pg. 214.</ref><ref name="tvguide.com"/> used a new tactic of opening in hundreds of theaters across the U.S. at once,<ref name="ReferenceA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> saturating the theaters in cities where it opened,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> resulting in the film's being the second highest-grossing movie of both 1947 and all of the 1940s.<ref>Kay, Eddie Dorman (New York, 1990). "Box Office Champs: The Most Popular Movies from the Last 50 Years", M & M Books, pg. 39.</ref> Nicknamed "Lust in the Dust", the film received mostly negative reviews upon release-Template:Efn Bosley Crowther wrote that "performances are strangely uneven",<ref name="nytimes.com">Template:Cite news</ref> although Jones received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The opinions of Peck's performance have been polarized.Template:Efn
1947–1949: Career setbacksEdit
In 1947, Peck co-founded The La Jolla Playhouse at his birthplace with Mel Ferrer and Dorothy McGuire.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This summer stock company presented productions in the La Jolla High School Auditorium from 1947 until 1964. In 1983, the La Jolla Playhouse re-opened in a new home at the University of California, San Diego, where it operates today. It has attracted Hollywood film stars on hiatus, both as performers and enthusiastic supporters, since its inception.
Peck's next release was the modest-budget, serious adult drama, The Macomber Affair (1947), in which he portrays an African hunting guide assisting a tourist couple. During the trip, the wife, played by Joan Bennett, becomes enamored with Peck, and the husband gets shot.<ref name="variety Macomber">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck was very active in the development of the film, including recommending director Zoltan Korda.<ref name="auto15">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film received positive reviewsTemplate:Efn but was mostly overlooked by the public upon its release, which Peck would later say disappointed him.<ref name="auto15"/>
In November 1947, Peck's next film, the landmark Gentleman's Agreement, directed by Elia Kazan, was released and was immediately proclaimed as "Hollywood's first major attack on anti-Semitism".<ref name="Fox, Ken 1998 pg. 241">Fox, Ken, Ed Grant, Jo Imeson, Andrew Joseph and Maitland McDonaugh, Eds. (New York, 1998) "The Movie Guide", Berkley Publishing Group. pg. 241.</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Based on a novel, the film has Peck portraying a New York magazine writer who pretends to be Jewish so he can experience personally the hostility of bigots.<ref name="Fox, Ken 1998">Fox, Ken, Ed Grant, Jo Imeson, Andrew Joseph and Maitland McDonaugh, Eds. (New York, 1998) "The Movie Guide", Berkley Publishing Group.</ref> It was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Peck for Best Actor, winning in the Best Film and Best Director categories. It was the second-highest top-grossing film of 1948.<ref name="EMAp127">Gebert, Michael (New York, 1996), "The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards", St. Martin's Press.</ref> Peck would indicate in his later years that the film was one of his proudest works.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Upon release, Gentleman's Agreement was widely praised for both its courageousness and its quality,Template:Efn<ref name="ReferenceC">Template:Cite news</ref> Peck's performance has been described as very convincing by many critics, both upon release and in recent years.Template:Efn In recent decades, critics have expressed differing opinions regarding Peck's portrayal, the quality of the film by modern standard, and the film's effectiveness at addressing anti-semitism,Template:Efn with film writer Matt Bailey writing "Gentleman's Agreement may have been an important film at one time, but was never a good film."<ref name="notcoming.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn
Peck's next three releases were commercial disappointments. The Paradine Case was his second and last film with Hitchcock. When producer David O. Selznick insisted on casting Peck for the movie, Hitchcock was apprehensive, questioning whether Peck could properly portray an English lawyer.Template:Sfn In later years, Peck did not speak fondly of the making of the movie.Template:Sfn Released in 1947,The Paradine Case was a British-set courtroom drama about a defense lawyer in love with his client.<ref name="auto9"/> It had an international cast including Charles Laughton, Ethel Barrymore and Alida Valli as the accused.<ref name="auto12">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The movie received positive reviews, with many complimenting Peck's performance,Template:Efn but it was panned by the public, only recouping half of the $4.2Template:Nbspmillion production costs.<ref name="auto7">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In recent decades, the film was criticized by most prominent writers, although critic's praised Peck's acting.Template:Efn Writers Paul Condon and Jim Sangster stated that "Peck is vulnerable yet believable in a role that requires significant delicacy of touch to maintain viewer's loyalty and interest."<ref name="auto13">Condon, Paul, and Jim Sangster (London, 1999), "The Complete Hitchcock", Virgin Publishing Ltd. Pg.136.</ref>
Peck shared top billing with Anne Baxter in the Western Yellow Sky (1948), named for the ghost town where Peck's group of bank robbers seek refuge and encounters the spunky tomboy Baxter, her grandfather, and their gold.<ref name="ReferenceG">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck gradually develops an interest in Baxter's character, who in turn seems to rediscover her femininity and develops an interest in him.<ref name="auto59">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn Critics who commented on Peck's performance felt it to be solid,Template:Efn<ref>Tookey, Christopher (London, 1994), "The Film Critics' Film Guide", Boxtree Limited. quoting A.E. Wilson</ref> but said the plot was slightly unbelievable.Template:Efn<ref name="auto42"/> The film was only moderately commercially successful.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A year later, Peck was paired with Ava Gardner for their first of three films together in The Great Sinner (1949), a period drama-romance where a Russian writer, Peck, becomes addicted to gambling while helping Gardner and her father pay back their debts.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck ended up becoming great friends with Gardner, and would later declare her his favorite co-star.<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> Their friendship lasted the rest of Gardner's life, and upon her death in 1990, Peck took in both her housekeeper and her dog.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film received unfavorable reviews usually describing it as dull,Template:Efn and the public was not interested, rendering it a commercial disappointment.<ref name="ReferenceK">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In modern times, the film has received mixed reviewsTemplate:Efn<ref name="Maltin, Leonard 2005">Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide, 2005.</ref> but TV Guide says "this often gripping film" has strong performances, that "Peck is powerful" in his portrayal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck initially rejected the film, his last movie under his MGM contract, eventually agreeing to do it as a favor to the studio's production head.<ref name="ReferenceJ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
His second 1949 release, Twelve O'Clock High (1949), was the first of many films in which Peck embodies the brave, effective, yet human, "fighting man". Based on true events, Peck portrays the new commander of a "hard luck" U.S. World War II bomber group tasked with instilling discipline and pride into the pilots and crews. He believes the former commander failed because he identified too closely with the men and his overly protective attitude caused the squadron to fail in its mission. Peck succeeds in whipping the command into shape, but finds himself caring deeply for his men and finally breaks down after losing his adjutant on a particularly rough mission over Schweinfurt.<ref name="Fox, Ken 1998"/> The National Board of Review ranked it in their top ten films of the year<ref name="autogenerated143"/> and it received four Academy Awards nominations, Best Actor for Peck.<ref name="Kinn, Gail 2000 pg. 92"/> Peck was later recognized in the New York Film Critics Circle for the role.<ref name="EMAp143"/> Twelve O'Clock High was a commercial success, finishing tenth in the 1950 box office rankings.<ref name="Kay, Eddie Dorman 1990.">Kay, Eddie Dorman (New York, 1990), "Box Office Champs: The Most Popular Movies from the Last 50 Years", M & M Books.</ref> The film received strong reviews upon release.Template:Efn<ref name="ReferenceL">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Twelve O'Clock High">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Recent critics maintain positive opinions.Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Evaluations of Peck's performance were positive,Template:Efn with The New York Times describing "High and particular praise for Gregory PeckTemplate:Nbsp... Peck does an extraordinarily able job in revealing the hardness and the softness of a general exposed to peril."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Film historian Peter von Bagh considers Peck's performance "as Brigadier General Frank Savage to be the most enduring of his life".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1950–1953: Worldwide recognitionEdit
Peck began the 1950s with two Westerns, the first being The Gunfighter (1950), directed by Henry King, who had worked with him previously on Twelve O'Clock High. Peck plays an aging "Top Gun of the West" who is now weary of killing and wishes to retire with his alluring but pragmatic wife and his seven-year-old son, both of whom he has not seen for many years.<ref>Tookey, Christopher (London, 1994), "The Film Critics' Film Guide", Boxtree Limited. pg. 337.</ref><ref name="ReferenceM">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck and King did much photographic research about the Wild West Era, discovering that most cowboys had facial hair, "bowl" haircuts and wore beat-up clothing; Peck subsequently wore a mustache while filming.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto17">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The studio's president called for re-shoots upon seeing the initial footage with the mustache, but backed out due to costs that were inflated by the production manager at King and Peck's persuasion.<ref name="auto17"/><ref name="ew.com">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Gunfighter had disappointing sales at the box office,<ref name="britannica.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with $5.6Template:Nbspmillion in receipts, 47th place for earnings in 1951.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 20th Century Fox's studio chief Darryl Zanuck blamed Peck's mustache for the lukewarm reaction from Peck's typical fans, stating that they wanted to see the usual handsome, clean-shaven Peck, not the authentic-cowboy Peck.<ref name="auto17"/> The Gunfighter received "solid reviews" upon release, with particular enthusiasm from some critics,<ref name="ReferenceN">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn with Peck's performance "bringing him some of his best notices".<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> The New York Times wrote, "through Mr. Peck's fine performance, a fair comprehension is conveyed of the loneliness and the isolation of a man with a lurid nameTemplate:Nbsp... an arresting and quite exciting film."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The movie has grown in critical appreciation over the years and "is now considered one of the all-time classic Westerns"Template:Efn Critics of recent decades uniformly praise Peck's performance,Template:Efn with David Parkinson of Radio Times saying "Peck gives a performance of characteristic dignity and grit."<ref name="auto46">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto51">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn
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Peck's next Western was Only the Valiant (1951), a low-budget movie; Peck disliked the script and would later label the film as the low point of his career.<ref name="auto22">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck's non-exclusive contract with David O. Selznick permitted Selznick to sell Peck's services to Warner Bros for this movie after running into financial difficulties.<ref name="auto22"/> The plot of the film is listed as "an unpopular, strict leader gathers together a rag-tag group of men and leads them on an extremely dangerous mission, turning them into a well-oiled fighting machine by the end and earning respect along the way."<ref name="auto18">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck portrays a U.S. army captain and the mission is to protect an undermanned army fort against the attacking Apaches.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck's romantic interest was played by Barbara Payton.Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Variety's review said "In this cavalry yarnTemplate:Nbsp... great pains have been exerted to provide interesting characters. Peck makes the most of a colorful role."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It earned a moderate $5.7Template:Nbspmillion, ranking 35th in sales for the year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This little-remembered picture receives mixed reviews today, although Peck's acting is praised.Template:Efn
Peck's second 1951 release was the book-to-film adaptation Captain Horatio Hornblower, featuring Peck as the commander of a warship in the British fleet during the Napoleonic Wars who finds romance with Virginia Mayo's character. Peck was attracted to the character, saying, "I thought Hornblower was an interesting character. I never believe in heroes who are unmitigated and unadulterated heroes, who never know the meaning of fear."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The role had been originally intended for Errol Flynn, but he was felt to be too old by the time the project came to fruition.<ref name="ReferenceO">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Captain Horatio Hornblower was a box office success, finishing ninth for the year in the UK<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and seventh in the North America.<ref name="the-numbers.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck's role in the film was largely praised by reviewers. The Associated Press stated that Peck provided "the proper dash and authenticity as the remarkable nineteenth-century skipper"<ref name="cdnc.ucr.edu">Template:Cite news</ref> and Variety later wrote "Peck stands out as a skilled artist, capturing the spirit of the character and atmosphere of the period."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Modern reviews have given mixed reactions of Peck's performance.Template:Efn Richard Gilliam of AllMovie argues that it is "an excellent performance from Gregory Peck" stating that "Peck brings his customary aura of intelligence and moral authority to the role,"<ref name="auto10">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> while the Radio Times asserts "Gregory Peck plays Hornblower as a high-principle stuff shirt and thus confounds director Raoul Walsh's efforts to inject some pace."<ref name="auto64">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn
His third film under Henry King's direction, David and Bathsheba, a Biblical epic, was the top-grossing movie of 1951.<ref name="Kay, Eddie Dorman 1990."/> The two-hit-movie punch of Horatio and David elevated Peck to the status of Hollywood mega-star.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> David and Bathsheba tells the story of David (Peck), who slew Goliath as a teenager, and later as the beloved King, becomes infatuated with the married Bathsheba, played by Susan Hayward.<ref name="ReferenceP">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck's performance in David and Bathsheba was evaluated upon release by The New York Times as "an authoritative performance,"<ref name="ReferenceR">Template:Cite news</ref> and Variety stated "Peck is a commanding personalityTemplate:Nbsp... he shades his character expertly",<ref name="ReferenceQ">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In recent years, critics have argued that his "stiff" performance is made up for in charisma, but overall, they praised his strength in the role;<ref name="ReferenceS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceT">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Leonard Maltin says the movie has "only fair performances".<ref name="Maltin, Leonard 2005"/> David and Bathsheba opened with positive reviews, including praise for avoiding excessive spectacleTemplate:Efn while remaining an epic with "dignified restraint".<ref name=19Aug>Template:Cite news</ref>
Peck returned to swashbucklers in The World in His Arms (1952), directed by Raoul Walsh, who had also directed Captain Horatio Hornblower. Peck portrays a seal-hunting ship captain in 1850 San Francisco who romances a Russian countess played by Ann Blyth and ends up engaging a rival sealer played by Anthony Quinn in a sailing race to Alaska.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was given positive reviews by both contemporary and modern critics.Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> All Movie commented that Peck is "a superb actor, who brings enormous skill to the part, but who simply lacks the overt derring-do and danger that is part of the role."<ref name="ReferenceU">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead link</ref> The film was moderately successful, more so in the UK than in North America.<ref>"Comedian Tops Film Poll". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. December 28, 1952. – 8th most popular in UK for year.</ref><ref>'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953. – grossed $3 million</ref>
He reunited with previous collaborators King, Hayward, and Gardner in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), an adaptation of a short story by Ernest Hemingway.<ref name="auto57">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film stars Peck as a self-concerned writer looking back on his life, particularly his romance with his first wife (Gardner), while he slowly dies from an accidental wound while on an African hunting expedition with his current wife (Hayward) nursing him.<ref name="ReferenceV">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was praised for its cinematography and direction.Template:EfnTemplate:Efn Most reviews praise Peck's performance, with TV Guide saying the story is "enacted with power and conviction by Peck," although some criticized his "bland" expressions.<ref name="Shipman, David 1984 pg. 757">Shipman, David (London, 1984) "The Story of Cinema: Volume Two – From Citizen Kane to the Present Day," Thedford Press Limited. pg. 757.</ref> Peck, who at that time was married to Finnish American-born Greta Kukkonen, even made a two-day visit to Helsinki in January 1953, participating in an invited guest premiere of The Snows of Kilimanjaro that premiered in Finland.<ref>Kovanen, Vesa: "Eikö hän ole ihana!", p. 30. Ilta-Sanomat, 13 January 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2024. (in Finnish)</ref> The Snows of Kilimanjaro was a box office hit and ranked as the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 1952.<ref name="auto19"/>
Peck's "first real foray into comedy" was Roman Holiday (1953), directed by William Wyler.<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> He portrayed American journalist Joe Bradley opposite Audrey Hepburn in her first significant film role, playing a European princess.<ref name="ReferenceW">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Monush, Barry"/><ref name="auto36">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Maitland McDonaugh 1998">Andrew Joseph and Maitland McDonaugh, Eds. (New York, 1998) "The Movie Guide", Berkley Publishing Group.</ref><ref name="ReferenceX">Template:Cite news</ref> Peck's role in Roman Holiday had originally been offered to Cary Grant, who turned it down because the part appeared to be more of a supporting role to the princess.<ref name="ReferenceW"/> Peck had the same concern, but he was persuaded by Wyler that the on-site filming in Rome would be an exceptional experience and Peck accepted the part, eventually insisting that Hepburn's name be above the title of the film (just beneath his) in the opening credits.<ref name="ReferenceW"/> Peck later stated that he'd told his agent, "I'm smart enough to know this girl's going to win the Oscar in her first picture, and I'm going to look like a damned fool if her name is not up there on top with mine."<ref name="ew.com"/>
Roman Holiday was a commercial success, finishing 22nd in the box office in 1953.<ref name="Kay, Eddie Dorman 1990."/> The film continued to garner money after its release, with "modern sources noting it earned $10 million total at the box office".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Critics praised Peck's performance; Bosley Crowther stated that "Peck makes a stalwart and manly escortTemplate:Nbsp... whose eyes belie his restrained exterior,"<ref name="ReferenceX"/> while the Hollywood Reporter commented that "Peck turns in another of his outstanding performances playing the love-smitten reporter with intelligence and good-humored conviction;"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was met with critical acclaim.Template:Efn<ref name="auto4"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Tookey, Christopher 1994"/>Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was nominated for multiple accolades, including 8 Academy Awards, with Hepburn winning for Best Actress; Peck also scored a BAFTA nomination for Foreign Actor.<ref name="auto19"/> At the 1955 Golden Globe awards, Peck and Hepburn were named the World Film Favorite Award winners for their respective genders.<ref name="auto19">Gebert, Michael (New York, 1996) "The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards", St. Martin's Press.</ref>
1954–1957: Overseas and New YorkEdit
With his acclaimed performance in The Gunfighter, Peck was offered the lead role in High Noon (1952) but turned it down because he did not want to become typecast in Westerns.<ref name="ReferenceN"/> Peck was based in the United Kingdom for about eighteen months between 1953 and 1955; new tax laws had drastically raised the tax rate on high-income earners, but the amount due would be reduced if the payer worked outside the country for extended periods.<ref name="ReferenceY">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After Roman HolidayTemplate:'s production in Italy, his three subsequent films were shot and set in London, Germany and Southeast Asia, respectively. Peck starred in The Million Pound Note (1954), based on a Mark Twain short story.<ref name="tcm.turner.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck enjoyed the film's production as "it was a good comedy opportunity" and "was given probably the most elegant wardrobe he had ever worn in film".<ref name="tcm.turner.com"/> He plays a penniless American seaman in 1903 London who is given a oneTemplate:Nbspmillion pound bank note by two rich, eccentric brothers who wish to ascertain if he can survive for one month without spending any of it.<ref name="ReferenceZ">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="tcm.turner.com"/> The film performed modestly at the box office and received mixed reviews for its production.<ref name="tcm.turner.com"/><ref name="ReferenceZ"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn Adrian Turner of the Radio Times praised it as a "lovely comedy" which "has a lot of charm and gentle humor, owing to Peck's evident delight in the role and the unobtrusive direction" adding it has a "witty script".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Peck portrayed a US army colonel investigating the kidnapping of a young soldier in Night People (1954).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He later stated that the role was one of his favorites as his lines were "tough and crisp and full of wisecracks, and more aggressive than other roles" he'd played.Template:Sfn The film received praise for its production and direction, but did poorly at the box office.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn Peck flew to Sri Lanka to film The Purple Plain (1954), playing a Canadian bomber pilot with strong emotional problems during the Second World War.<ref name="ReferenceY"/><ref name="radiotimes.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto41">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Purple Plain was panned in the United States but became a hit in the United Kingdom, ranking tenth at the box office in 1954,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.<ref name="auto19"/><ref name="ReferenceY"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Of his performance, Crowther wrote, "the extent of Peck's agony is impressively transmittedTemplate:Nbsp... in vivid and unrelenting scenes."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In recent years, the movie "has become one of Peck's most respected works,"<ref name="ReferenceY"/><ref name="Maltin, Leonard 2005"/><ref name="radiotimes.com"/> with critic David Thomson rating Peck's performance as excellent.<ref name="Thomson, David 1994 pg. 576"/> Craig Butler of All Movie says that "Peck is astonishing, giving the sort of layered, intense yet nuanced performance that deserves major awards".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1954, Peck was named the third most popular non-British film star in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck did not have a film released in 1955. He made a comeback in the US. with The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), where he portrays a married, ex-soldier father of three who is increasingly haunted by his deeds in Italy during the Second World War.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto8">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film saw Peck reunited with Duel in the Sun co-star Jennifer Jones. During the filming of a scene where their characters argue, Jones clawed his face with her fingernails, prompting Peck to say to the director "I don't call that acting. I call it personal."<ref name="auto26">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The movie was successful, finishing eighth in box office gross for the year,<ref>[1]Template:Dead link grossed $10.8 million but rentals were below 4.8 million as by rentals it was not in the top ten according to Kay, Eddie Dorman (New York, 1990). "Box Office Champs: The Most Popular Movies from the Last 50 Years", M & M Books.</ref> despite contemporary and modern reviews being mixed.<ref name="auto26"/>Template:Efn<ref name="auto63"/><ref>McCarten, John (April 21, 1956). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker: 75–76.</ref><ref name="auto44"/>Template:Efn<ref name="auto5">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Butler of AllMovie declared that "the role fits (Gregory Peck) as if it had been tailor-made for him. Peck's particular brilliance lies in the quiet strength that is so much a part of him and the way in which he uses subtle changes in that quietness to signal mammoth emotions. He's given ample opportunity to do so here and the results are enthrallingTemplate:Nbsp... an exceptional performance".<ref name="auto5"/> Radio Times refers to "the excellent Peck" and states that Peck plays "the appealing flawed hero".
Peck next starred as Captain Ahab in the 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby Dick; he was unsure about his suitability for the part but was persuaded by director John Huston to take the role.<ref name="auto67">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto62">Template:Cite news</ref> Peck almost drowned twice during filming in stormy weather off the sea coasts of Ireland, and several other performers and crew members suffered injuries.<ref name="auto1"/> John Huston was named best director of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review for Moby Dick, but did not receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. The movie had the ninth highest box office of the year in North America,<ref name="auto19"/> but cost $4.5Template:Nbspmillion to make, more than double the original budget, and was considered a commercial disappointment.<ref name="auto1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2003, editor Barry Monush wrote, "There was, and continues to be, controversy over his casting as Ahab in Moby Dick."<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> Upon opening, Variety said: "Peck often seems understated and much too gentlemanly for a man supposedly consumed by insane fury."<ref name="auto32">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto62"/>The Hollywood Reporter argued "Peck plays itTemplate:Nbsp... in a brooding, smoldering vein, but none the less intensely and dynamically." In modern times, critics have said Peck is: "often mesmerizing";<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> "stoic" and "more than adequate"; "<ref name="auto66">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and "lending a deranged dignity" to the role.<ref name="Maltin, Leonard 2005"/><ref name="Thomson, David 1994 pg. 576"/><ref name="timeout.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Shipman, David 1984 pg. 757"/><ref name="auto33">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto29">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck himself later said "I wasn't mad enough, not crazy enough, not obsessive enough – I should have done more. At the time, I didn't have more in me."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
For romantic comedy Designing Woman (1957), Peck was permitted to choose his leading lady, Lauren Bacall, who needed to be busy with work as her husband was gravely ill at the time.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film revolves around a fashion designer and a sports writer on a California vacation. They have a whirlwind romance and marry in haste, despite Peck's character already having a girlfriend back home, only to find upon their return to New York, that they have vastly different lifestyles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was mildly successful and entered at 35th for annual gross, but did not break even.<ref>The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Upon release, Variety said "BacallTemplate:Nbsp... is excellentTemplate:Nbsp... Peck is fine as the confused sportswriter" saying that all the other actors/actresses give top-notch performances.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn In recent years, the few reviews from prominent critics or websites are generally positiveTemplate:Efn with TV Guide exclaiming "they've madeTemplate:Nbsp... the famous stonefaceTemplate:Nbsp... Peck, somewhat funny. Bacall gives an especially good performance." Designing Woman won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1958–1959: Reflections on violenceEdit
Peck's next movie, the Western The Bravados (1958), reunited him with director Henry King after a six-year gap.<ref name="britannica.com"/> King was widely considered to have produced some of Peck's best work; Peck once said "King was like an older brother, even a father figure. We communicated without talking anything to death. It was direction by osmosis."<ref name="ew.com"/><ref name="mubi.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Concentration 1974">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In The Bravados, Peck's character spends weeks pursuing four outlaws whom he believes raped and murdered his wife and agonizing over his own morals.<ref name="auto30">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto37">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was a moderate success, finishing in the top 20 of the box office for 1959.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto19"/> In recent years, the film and Peck's performance have received mixed reviews,Template:Efn with Time Out asserting that "Peck's "crisis of conscienceTemplate:Nbsp... is worked out in perfunctory religious terms;"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and TV Guide stating that Peck's cowboy's "moment of truth is a powerful one and he gives it all the value it deserves, although much of his acting up to then had been lackluster".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1956, Peck made a foray into the film production business, organizing Melville Productions and later, Brentwood Productions.<ref name="encyclopedia.com">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> These companies produced five movies over seven years, all starring Peck,<ref name="encyclopedia.com"/> including Pork Chop Hill, for which Peck served as the executive producer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The films were observed by some as being more political,<ref name="Turner, Adrian"/> although Peck said he tried to avoid any "overt preachiness".<ref name="ew.com"/> In 1958, Peck and good friend William Wyler co-produced the Western epic The Big Country (1958) separate from Peck's production company.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The project ran into numerous issues. Wyler and Peck were dissatisfied with the script, which underwent almost daily revisions after each day's shooting, causing stress for the performers;<ref name="auto38">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the actors would arrive the next day and find their lines and even entire scenes different from what they had prepared.<ref name="gvnews.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The stellar cast included Jean Simmons, Carrol Baker, Chuck Connors, Charlton Heston and Burl Ives; Ives won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his intense performance. There were disagreements between director Wyler and the performers, resulting in Peck storming off-set when Wyler refused to re-shoot a close-up scene;<ref name="auto38"/> Peck and Wyler's relationship remained strained for three years after production.<ref name="auto38"/><ref name="gvnews.com"/> Peck said in 1974 that he had tried producing and acting simultaneously and felt "either it can't be done or it's just that I don't do it well".<ref name="Concentration 1974"/>
The film itself was a big hit, finishing fourth at the domestic box office in 1958<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and second in the UK.<ref>Four British Films In 'Top 6': Boulting Comedy Heads Box Office List. The Guardian (1959–2003) [London (UK)] December 11, 1959.</ref><ref name="Monush, Barry"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto55">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At the time of release, reviews for The Big Country were mixed regarding the producers' prioritization of characterization versus technical filmmaking; opinions on Peck's performance were also disparate.Template:Efn In recent decades, critical opinion of The Big Country has generally risen, although there is still disagreement; many prominent critics and publications describe the cinematography as excellent, some laud Peck's performance, and some cite the film as too long.Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Peck's next feature was Pork Chop Hill (1959), based on true events depicted in a book.<ref name="auto45">Template:Cite news</ref> Peck portrays a lieutenant during the Korean War who is ordered to use his infantry company to take the strategically insignificant Pork Chop Hill, as its capture would strengthen the U.S.'s position in the almost-complete armistice negotiations.<ref name="auto24">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As executive producer, Peck recruited Lewis Milestone of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) to direct. Many critics label it as an anti-war film;<ref name="Monush, Barry"/><ref name="auto27">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> it has also been stated that "as shooting progressed it became clear Peck and Milestone had very different artistic visions."<ref name="ISBN pg. 216">Lewis milestone: Life and Films, Harlow Robinson, University of Kentucky Press, 2019. Template:ISBN, 9780813178356 pg. 216.</ref> Peck later said the movie showed "the futility of settling political arguments by killing young men. We tried not to preach; we let it speak for itself."<ref name="ew.com"/> Despite solid reviews, the film did only fair business at the box office.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Most critics, both upon Pork Chop HillTemplate:'s openingTemplate:Efn and in recent years,Template:Efn agree that it is a gritty, grim and realistic rendering of battle action.<ref name="auto61">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Three critics who comment on Peck's performance are laudatory,Template:Efn with Variety saying that Peck's performance is "completely believable. He comes through as a born leader, and yet it is quite clear that he has moments of doubt and of uncertainty."<ref name="auto24"/>
Peck's second release of 1959 cast him opposite Deborah Kerr in Beloved Infidel, which was based on the memoirs of film columnist Sheilah Graham. The film portrays the romance between Graham (Kerr) and author F. Scott Fitzgerald (Peck) during the last three years of his life, towards the end of which Fitzgerald was often drunk and abusive.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Crowther assessed it as "generally flat and uninteresting" with a "postured performance of Gregory PeckTemplate:Nbsp... his grim-faced, monotony as a washout is relieved in a couple of critical scenes by some staggering and bawling as a drunkard, but that is hardly enough."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Variety said that "the acting, while excellent and persuasive in parts, is shallow and artificial in others. Problem is primarily with Peck who brings to Fitzgerald the kind of clean-cut looks and youthful appearance that conflict with the image of a has-been novelist."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Reviews from five prominent scribes in recent decades are similar, saying that Peck was blatantly miscast,Template:Efn TV Guide it was because of their physical differences, and Craig Butler saying "Peck was an extremely talented actor, but there is nothing in his personality that matches the qualities associated with Fitzgerald.<ref name="Thomson, David 1994 pg. 576"/>
Peck starred next in On the Beach (1959) alongside Ava Gardner in their third and final film together.<ref name="auto65">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film is considered to be Hollywood's first major movie about the implications of nuclear warfare. Directed by Stanley Kramer and based on Nevil Shute's best-selling book, it shows the last months of several people in Melbourne, Australia as they await the onset of radioactive fallout from nuclear bombs.<ref name="auto56">Template:Cite news</ref> Peck portrays a U.S. submarine commander who has brought his crew to Australia from the North Pacific Ocean after nuclear bombs had been detonated in the northern hemisphere, who eventually romances Gardner's character.<ref name="auto56"/> The film was named in the top ten lists of the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was successful at the North American box office, finishing eighth for the year,<ref name="auto19"/> but due to its high production cost it lost $700,000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On the Beach was praised by critics.Template:Efn<ref name="Tookey, Christopher 1994"/><ref name="auto56"/>Template:Efn In recent decades, critical opinion of On the Beach is mixed: some prominent critics asserting that the script is poor,Template:Efn but some critics saying the acting, especially Peck, and cinematography are excellent, and that, overall, the film is powerful.Template:Efn Butler of AllMovie writes, "...Template:Nbspproblematic is the clichéd, almost soap-operatic relationship between Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner and the somewhat melodramatic handling of other sections of the filmTemplate:Nbsp... The cast helps tremendously. Peck has rarely been more stalwartTemplate:Nbsp... Even decades after its release, Beach is a harrowing and devastating experience."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1960–1964: Continued successEdit
Peck's first release of 1961 was The Guns of Navarone.<ref name="auto2">Template:Cite magazine</ref> A J. Lee Thompson-directed World War II drama, it depicts Peck's six-man commando team, which includes David Niven and Anthony Quinn undertaking a mission to destroy two seemingly impregnable German-controlled artillery guns on Navarone Island.<ref name="auto20"/> The team of specialists (Peck is the mountain climbing expert) needs to destroy the guns so that British ships can evacuate 2,000 trapped British soldiers across the Aegean Sea.<ref name="auto20"/><ref name="auto31">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During filming Peck said that his team seems to defeat "the entire German army," which approaches parody, concluding that cast members had to "play their roles with complete conviction" to make the film convincing.<ref name="auto50"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was the top-grossing movie of 1961,<ref name="Kay, Eddie Dorman 1990."/> and became "one of the most popular adventure movies of its day".<ref name="Monush, Barry"/> It landed seven Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Special Effects; other accolades include the Golden Globe Award for Best Dramatic Movie and the BAFTA for Best British Screenplay.<ref name="Kinn, Gail 2000 pg. 92"/><ref name="auto50">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Critics praised The Guns of Navarone, naming it the best picture of the year in Film Daily's annual poll of critics and industry reporters in 1961.Template:Efn Bosley Crowther opined, "more emphasis is placed on melodrama than on character or credibility," that the characters are "all such predictable people you're likely to get bored with them before the guns are blown up", and "One simply wonders why ForemanTemplate:Nbsp... didn't aim for more complex human drama." He goes on to write it is a "robust action drama" and "For anyone given to letting himself be entertained by scenes of explosive action and individual heroic display, there should be entertainment in this picture for there is plenty of itTemplate:Nbsp... Even though the picture runs more than two hours and a half, it moves swiftly and gets where it is going. J.Lee Thompson has directed it with pace."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The New YorkerTemplate:'s film critic declared, it was "one of those great bow-wowTemplate:Nbsp... movies that are no less thrilling because they are so preposterous" confessing he "was held more or less spellbound all the way through this many-colored rubbish." In recent decades, most prominent critics or publications give it positive reviewsTemplate:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Paul V. Peckly of The New York Herald Tribune wrote, "Peck may seem at times a trifle wooden and his German accent too obviously AmericanTemplate:Nbsp.... but his not too introspective, somewhat baffled manner is manly and fitted to the role he plays.<ref name="auto50"/><ref name="auto31"/>
Peck's next film was Cape Fear (1962), produced by Melville Productions. Peck portrays a lawyer whose witness testimony convicted Robert Mitchum's character who, upon being released from prison after serving eight years for sexual assault, threatens to get back at Peck through his wife and daughter, and meticulously terrorizes the family.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck was anxious to have Mitchum in the role of Cady, but Mitchum declined at first, only relenting after Peck and Thompson delivered a case of bourbon to Mitchum's home.<ref name="auto40">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Many cuts were made to the movie to satisfy censorship codes in the US and UK.<ref name="auto40"/> The film grossed only $5Template:Nbspmillion at the North American box office, 47th for the year.<ref name="ultimatemovierankings.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Crowther and Variety gave Cape Fear solid reviews.Template:Efn Both expressed satisfaction with Peck's performance, although Variety noted he could have been a little more stressed by the occurrences. Other reviews were mixed due to the movie's disturbing nature, including The New Yorker.<ref name="auto40"/> In recent decades, reviews have been generally positive.Template:Efn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Critics commented on Peck's performance, with TV Guide saying "Peck is careful not to act the fear; he's an interesting foe for Mitchum." After Cape Fear, Peck planned to make his directorial debut with They're a Weird Mob but eventually did not make the film.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Peck's next role was in the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, playing the role of kind and scrupulously honest lawyer-father, Atticus Finch.<ref name="auto52">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This performance saw his fifth and final Academy Award nomination, for which he won Best Actor. The film received a further seven nominations including for Best Picture, Director, and Cinematography, also winning Adapted Screenplay and Art Direction. At the Golden Globes, Peck won for Best Actor in a Drama, the film was nominated for Best Film and Director. It was also nominated for Best Film at the BAFTAs.Template:Efn<ref>O'Neil, Tom (New York: 2003), "Movie Awards: The Ultimate, Unofficial Guide to the Oscars, Golden Globes, Critics, Guild and Indie Honors," Berkley Publishing Group.</ref> The film was a commercial success as the sixth-highest-grossing film of the year.<ref name="ultimatemovierankings.com"/> In 2003, Atticus Finch, as portrayed by Peck, was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Peck would later say of To Kill A Mockingbird: "My favorite film, without any question."<ref name="Tookey, Christopher 1994"/>
When producer Alan J. Pakula and director Robert Mulligan approached Peck about taking the role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Peck agreed to read the book. He stated "I got started on it and of course I sat up all night and read straight through itTemplate:Nbsp... I called them at about eight o'clock in the morning and said 'When do I start?Template:'"<ref name="auto47">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn Peck did eventually request changes so that film deviated somewhat from the book, mainly showing more scenes of Peck in the courtroom than were in the original rough cut, thus shifting the focus away from the children, and more towards Atticus Finch.Template:EfnTemplate:Efn<ref name="auto47"/> Peck's performance was praised by critics. Variety wrote that the role was especially challenging for Peck but that he "not only succeeds, but makes it appear effortless, etching a portrayal of strength, dignity and intelligence."Template:Efn The Hollywood Reporter said "Peck gives probably the finest performance of his career, understated, casual, effective."<ref name="hollywoodreporter.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Time posited "Peck, though he is generally excellent, lays it on a bit thick at times – he seems to imagine himself the Abe Lincoln of Alabama."<ref name="auto43">"Critics Corner on To Kill a Mockingbird. [2] </ref><ref name="time.com">Template:Cite news</ref> Reviews in recent decades have similarly lauded Peck's performance,Template:Efn with Film Monthly observing, "Gregory Peck's performance as lawyer Atticus Finch is just as beautiful, natural, and nuanced as the movie itself."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Monush, Barry"/> Both Michael Gebert<ref name="auto19"/> and Andrew Collins of Radio Times<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> refer to Atticus Finch as the role that defined Peck's career.
1965–2000: Mature years and later workEdit
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.Template:Sfn
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.Template:Sfn 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 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. 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 after the film. Peck spent the last few years of his life touring the world doing speaking engagements in which he would show clips from his movies and take questions from the audience. He came out of retirement for a 1998 mini-series 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 was 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
PoliticsEdit
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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A life-long Democrat, 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,Template:Sfn Peck encouraged one of his sons, Carey Peck, to run for political office. He was defeated both times by slim margins in races in 1978 and 1980 against Republican U.S. Representative Bob Dornan, another former actor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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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".<ref>Haggerty, Bridget. "Gregory Peck's Irish Connections". IrishCultureAndCustoms.com</ref> 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.Template:Sfn President Richard Nixon placed Peck on his "enemies list", owing to Peck's liberal activism.<ref>Corliss, Richard. "The American as Noble Man". Time. June 16, 2003</ref>
Peck was outspoken against the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son, Stephen, who fought there as a Marine officer forward observer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.Template:Sfn Peck was a close friend of French president Jacques Chirac.<ref name="Elysée">Template:Citation</ref>
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 Ronald Reagan's Supreme Court nomination of judge Robert Bork.<ref>Archived at GhostarchiveTemplate:Cbignore and the Wayback MachineTemplate:Cbignore: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> Bork's nomination was defeated. Peck was also a vocal supporter of a worldwide ban of nuclear weapons, and a life-long advocate of gun control.<ref>Srteve Profitt "Gregory Peck: A Leading Hollywood Liberal Still Can't Put Down a Good Book", Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2000</ref>Template:Sfn
Documents declassified in 2017 show that the National Security Agency had created a biographical file on Peck as part of its monitoring of prominent US citizens.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
Template:Multiple image In October 1942, Peck married Finnish American Template:Ill (1911–2008), with whom he had three sons: Jonathan (1944–1975), Stephen (b. 1946), and Carey Paul (b. 1949). They were divorced in December 1955.Template:Sfn Peck's eldest son was found dead in his home on June 26, 1975, in what authorities believed was a suicide.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> "It's the most terrible thing that has happened to me in my life," Peck said once. "You never get over a thing like that."<ref name="people"/>
During his first marriage, Peck had a brief affair with Spellbound co-star Ingrid Bergman.Template:Sfn He confessed the affair to Brad Darrach of People in a 1987 interview, saying: "All I can say is that I had a real love for her, and I think that's where I ought to stopTemplate:Nbsp... I was young. She was young. We were involved for weeks in close and intense work."Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="people">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
On New Year's Eve in 1955, the day after his divorce was final, Peck married Véronique Passani (1932–2012),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a Paris news reporter who had interviewed him in 1952 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 (b. 1956),Template:Sfn and a daughter, Cecilia Peck (b. 1958).Template:Sfn The couple remained married until Peck's death. His son Anthony is a former husband of supermodel Cheryl Tiegs. Peck had grandchildren from both marriages.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Failed verification One of his grandsons from his first marriage is actor Ethan Peck.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Peck was the owner of thoroughbred steeplechase race horses. In 1963, Owen's Sedge finished seventh in the Grand National.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Another of his horses, Different Class, raced in the 1968 Grand National.<ref name="Pedigree">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The horse was favored, but finished third.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Peck's hobbies included gardening, reading, and listening to music, including classical, opera and jazz. Peck and his wife often hosted dinners in support of the arts and humanitarian or social justice causes.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Peck was Roman Catholic, and once considered entering the priesthood. Later in his career, a journalist asked Peck if he was a practicing Catholic. Peck answered: "I am a Roman Catholic. Not a fanatic, but I practice enough to keep the franchise. I don't always agree with the PopeTemplate:Nbsp... There are issues that concern me, like abortion, contraception, the ordination of womenTemplate:Nbsp... and others."<ref name="The Religion of Gregory Peck">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His second marriage was performed by a justice of the peace, not by a priest, because the Church prohibits remarriage if the first spouse is still living and the first marriage was not annulled. Peck was a significant fund-raiser for the missionary work of a priest friend of his, Father Albert O'Hara, and served as co-producer of a cassette recording of the New Testament with his son Stephen.<ref name="The Religion of Gregory Peck"/>
Death and legacyEdit
On June 12, 2003, Peck died in his sleep from bronchopneumonia at the age of 87 at his home in Los Angeles.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His wife Veronique was by his side.<ref name="Ronald Bergan"/>
Gregory Peck is entombed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels mausoleum in Los Angeles. His eulogy was read by Brock Peters, whose character, Tom Robinson, was defended by Peck's Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.<ref name=last>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Celebrities who attended Peck's funeral included Lauren Bacall, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Shari Belafonte, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart, Mike Farrell, Shelley Fabares, Jimmy Smits, Louis Jourdan, Dyan Cannon, Stephanie Zimbalist, Michael York, Angie Dickinson, Larry Gelbart, Michael Jackson, Anjelica Huston, Lionel Richie, Louise Fletcher, Tony Danza, and Piper Laurie.<ref name=last/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Gregory Peck Award for Cinematic Excellence was created by the Peck family in 2008 to commemorate their father by honoring the life's work of a director, producer or actor. Originally presented at the Dingle International Film Festival in his ancestral home in Dingle, Ireland,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> since 2014 the award has been presented at the San Diego International Film Festival in the city where Peck was born and raised. Recipients include Gabriel Byrne, Laura Dern, Alan Arkin, Annette Bening, Patrick Stewart and Laurence Fishburne.
Acting credits and awardsEdit
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According to the American Film Institute, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Peck's most significant works include Days of Glory (1944), The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Twelve O'Clock High (1949), The Gunfighter (1950), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), The Big Country (1958), Moby Dick (1956), Designing Woman (1957), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Arabesque (1966), Mackenna's Gold (1969), The Omen (1976) and Old Gringo (1989).<ref name="The Academy1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="AFI1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="HPFA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Among his television projects are The Blue and the Gray (1982) The Scarlet and the Black (1983) and Moby Dick (miniseries 1998).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On stage, Peck appeared in Gas Light at the La Jolla Playhouse and provided a voice-over for The Will Rogers Follies at the Palace Theatre.<ref name="Ronald Bergan" /><ref name=IBDB>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
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Peck received five total Academy Award nominations for The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949) before winning Best Actor for his performance in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). In 1967, he received their Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.<ref name="The Academy1" /> He received eight competitive nominations for Golden Globe Awards that recognised his work in The Yearling (1946), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Captain Newman, M.D. (1964), MacArthur (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978) and the 1998 miniseries Moby Dick. Peck's five wins included the Golden Globe for Best Actor twice as well as one Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, and he was honored with their Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1969.<ref name="HPFA" />
In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 1998, Peck received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton for his contributions to acting.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During his lifetime, he also was a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors.<ref name="AFI1" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Gregory Peck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard. In November 2005, the star was stolen, and has since been replaced.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ArchivesEdit
Peck donated his personal collection of home movies and prints of his feature films to the Film Archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1999. The film material at the Academy Film Archive is complemented by printed materials in the Gregory Peck papers at the Academy's Margaret Herrick Library.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
See alsoEdit
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Commons and category Template:Sister project
- Gregory Peck Official Website (Template:Webarchive)—The Gregory Peck Foundation
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- Gregory Peck—Daily Telegraph obituary
- Gregory Peck in the 1920 US Census (Template:Webarchive), 1930 US Census (Template:Webarchive), and the Social Security Death Index (Template:Webarchive).
- Gregory Peck papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Gregory Peck—Interview on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, August 8, 1980
- Image of Sidney Poitier holding his Oscar alongside Gregory Peck, Annabella and Anne Bancroft backstage at the Academy Awards, Los Angeles, 1964 (Template:Webarchive). Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
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