Gregory Peck Biography

Gregory Peck

Born: April 5, 1916

Death: June 12, 2003 (aged 87)

Occupation: Actor

Years active: 1941–2000

Political party: Democratic

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He 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 twelfth-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

Other than his acting career, 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.

After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner, Peck began appearing in stage productions, acting in over fifty plays and three Broadway productions. He first gained critical success in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), a John M. Stahl–directed drama which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. He starred alongside Ava Gardner in The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952) and Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (1953), which earned Peck a Golden Globe award.

Throughout his career, he often portrayed protagonists with "fiber" within a moral setting. Gentleman's Agreement (1947) centered on topics of antisemitism, while Peck's character in Twelve O'Clock High (1949) dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder during World War II. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), an adaptation of the modern classic of the same name which revolved around racial inequality, for which he received universal acclaim. In 1983, he starred opposite Christopher Plummer in The Scarlet and The Black as Hugh O'Flaherty, a Catholic priest who saved thousands of escaped Allied POWs and Jewish people in Rome during the Second World War.

Acting credits - Part of his significant works

• 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)

• Old Gringo (1989)

Awards

Peck received five total Academy Award nominations for The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Twelve O'Clock High (1949), winning the Best Actor for his performance in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). In 1967, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Peck received five nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, recognizing his work in The Yearling (1946), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Captain Newman, M.D. (1964), MacArthur (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978) and Moby Dick (miniseries 1998). Peck won the Golden Globe for Best Actor twice as well as one Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1969.

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. 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. 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.