Gregory Peck April 5 th. 1916 – June 12 th, 2003 …..the heart and conscience of Hollywood

Tall, lanky and ruggedly handsome, he also had a voice so deep and resonant that it could thrill hearts all the way from a theater’s orchestra seats to those in the back of the balcony. He filled the silver screen with characters of such substance and passion that even the rare villains he portrayed were never completely devoid of empathy. Some of Hollywood’s brightest stars went to him with their problems, trusting him to listen with compassion and without judgment and above all, to keep their secrets. A humble and gentle man, this fine actor was quite possibly the best friend Hollywood ever had.

He was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5 th, 1916 in La Jolla, California to Gregory (“Doc”) Peck, the local druggist and Bernice (“Bunny”) Peck, a switchboard operator for the local phone company. Ten pounds at birth, he caused so much pain for his mother that she vowed never to have another child….and she never did!. Bunny found the name ”Eldred” in the phone book and thought it was a perfect fit her big little son, but the new bearer of the name hated it from the first and let everyone know he wanted to be called “Gregory”. His parents divorced when Gregory was 5 and he spent his early years shuttled between his parents and his maternal grandmother Kate Ayres.

Grandmother Kate shared Greg’s love of books (he had his first library card at 6) and they both were crazy about movies. One film Gregory remembered most was “The Phantom of the Opera” with Lon Chaney. It frightened both of them so much that Gregory slept in his grandmother’s bed that night! Then in 1926, Bunny remarried and moved to San Francisco and Gregory was shipped off to St. John’s, a Catholic military school. When he finished 8 th grade there, he was enrolled in San Diego High School and went to live with his father.

College came in stages…two years at San Diego State, time out to drive a truck and then on to the University of California at Berkeley, a liberal campus after his own heart. Greg enrolled as a pre-med student but found he had no aptitude for science and switched to English Literature. He joined the rowing team and was inveigled into a role in the campus theater production of “Moby Dick” as Starbuck. The die was cast! As soon as final exams were over he “dumped” the name Eldred and set off for New York City. Gregory Peck was going to be an actor!

He enrolled in a two-year acting course at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and spent his summers on the straw hat circuit. In his final year, Greg’s senior performance caught the eye of producer Guthrie McClintic, husband of Katharine Cornell, who invited him to join their touring company. In September, 1941 Gregory had just 8 lines in the third act of ”The Doctor’s Dilemma” and had just fallen in love with Greta Konen, Cornell’s hairdresser. By September, 1942, he had the lead in “The Morning Star” on Broadway so he married Greta!

Soon New York was buzzing. The World Telegram called him “a remarkable young actor” and the New York Daily Mirror referred to him as “Gregory Peck, New York’s newest matinee idol”. That buzz carried all the way to the West Coast and Hollywood couldn’t wait to get their hands on him. But Gregory, sure his success rested on Broadway, wasn’t eager to gamble on films. He refused all offers to go west. Producer Casey Robinson finally snagged him with a “4 pictures over 4 years” deal leaving time for stage commitments. The first picture…”Days of Glory” for RKO. Greg and Greta got on the train!

Totally miscast for his first film as a Russian guerrilla fighter, Gregory’s performance did impress the tough overseer of 20 th Century Fox who had already tested over 40 actors for the role of Father Chisholm in the film adaptation of A.J. Cronin’s “Keys of the Kingdom”. One look and Darryl Zanuck knew he had his priest!

Then, in the summer of 1944, Gregory was given the role he prized above all others. On July 20 th, 1944 Greta made Gregory a papa with the birth of their first son, Jonathan. It would happen again exactly the same way on August 16 th, 1946 with the birth of yet another son, Stephen. In 1947 Greg and Greta found their dream house in the Pacific Palisades making the 40s a momentous decade. Greg also got 3 Oscar nominations that year for “The Keys of the Kingdom” (1944), “The Yearling” (1946), and “Gentlemen’s Agreement” (1947). He also joined fellow actors Mel Ferrer and Dorothy McGuire in the creation of the La Jolla Playhouse. Added to the work he was doing on stage and screen was the incredible amount of time he spent on radio drama shows.

But cracks were showing in his marriage and the gossip columnists were whispering out loud. By the autumn of 1948 things appeared to be back to normal. In June, 1949 Greta had son #3, named Carey for Greg’s good friend Harry Carey. However, appearances were deceiving and soon Greg was treating his problems at home with too much alcohol, his sleeping problems with Seconal and his loneliness with “Only the Valiant” co-star Barbara Payton. The guilt and depression took its toll and, in October of 1950 he suffered a complete physical breakdown. On doctor’s advice he left for a solitary month’s stay at a resort in the Mojave Desert where he sunbathed, read and took long walks. He came home rested and sober….to find nothing had really changed.

Then, in the summer of 1954 while on a stop in Paris for a scheduled interview, Gregory met lovely French reporter Veronique Passani. By the time Greta decided to make the final break, Greg and Passani had been seeing each other for some time. On December 30 th, 1955 Greg and Greta’s divorce was final and, by 7 p.m. the next evening Greg and Veronique were married. They celebrated with a 3-day honeymoon that would last 48 years.

On October 24 th, 1956 Veronique continued the Peck male dynasty by delivering Greg’s 4 th son, Anthony. But two years later, on May 5 th,, 1958, he finally got his little girl. They named her Cecilia. And, in 1963, Gregory got to take home the Oscar for “To Kill a Mockingbird”.

However that same year, the assassination of a president brought Gregory into a totally new forum…political and social activism. Greg narrated. two documentaries for the USIA (United States Information Agency)… “The President” and “John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums”. In 1965 he chaired the fund drive for the Motion Picture Relief Fund and, in 1966, did the same for the American Cancer Society (In fact, he spent his 50 th birthday at the job!). In 1967 he became the president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and first chairman of the AFI (American Film Institute). Much later (in 1987) he openly protested against the selection of a Supreme Court justice (Robert Bork) and petitioned for gun control.

Then tragedy struck on June 25 th, 1975 when his eldest son, Jonathan, battling depression and alcohol dependency, killed himself. Gregory was devastated and unable to work for months and the pain never truly left him. But finally his family and his work pulled him through. A film offer came to do the role of Robert Thorn in “The Omen”. It was a horror film, a new challenge for the actor and Gregory took it. It grossed over $4.3 million in its first 3 days and put him back on top at the box office again!

Gregory would make 7 more films, none as successful as “The Omen” but his performances were always applauded. It seems Greg continually rose above the mediocre scripts. But his co-stars kept getting younger all the time while he had lived long enough to attend and often give the eulogies at the funerals of his best friends. “They’re dying like flies in this town”, he said. Two deaths that really rocked him were those of Audrey Hepburn and Ava Gardner.

Gregory made his last film, a cameo in the 1998 remake of “Moby Dick” when he was 72. He always meant to write a book but found it too hard to tell the dark side of Hollywood and so he gave it up. But he did travel around the country for two years to the local theaters with his show”A Conversation with Gregory Peck”.

His health began to fail in 2003 and he was eventually bedridden. But he lived long enough to hear that his portrayal of Atticus Finch was voted the most admired hero in American cinema history by the AFI.

In the early hours of June 12, 2003 Greg died peacefully in his sleep still holding his wife’s hand. After a life that lasted almost nine decades and a career that spanned six, Gregory Peck was gone.

Following a quiet family funeral he was buried in a crypt underneath the cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles

For more about Gregory Peck on screen and off see Arabella’s Notes.

Filmography

Memorable Television Dramas…

The Blue and the Gray 1982
The Scarlet and the Black 1983
The Portrait 1993
Moby Dick 1998