WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
Born: 5th April 1916
Died: 12th June 2003 (aged 87)
In La Jolla, a small area in San Diego, California, Bernice Mae ‘Bunny’ Peck gave birth to Eldred Gregory Peck. Both ‘Bunny’ and his father, Gregory, were of British ancestry – which would explain his accent. His parents divorced when he was five and he was raised in Los Angeles by his maternal grandmother who introduced him to the cinema, she died whilst he was at St John’s Military Academy, a Catholic military school, and at the age of 14 he retuned to San Diego to live with his father. After graduating at eighteen, he attended San Diego State Teachers’ College before moving to University of California, Berkeley, as an English Major and pre-medical student. This was where his decision to enter the field of acting came, after participating in a public speaking course. Peck never graduated Berkeley, instead he moved to New York to study at the Neighbourhood Playhouse. He made his stage debut at the age of 25 in a production of George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma – for those of you good at maths, and history, you will have realised that this would have been in 1941, the year of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, making him the right age for military service but Peck was exempt because of a back injury he suffered whilst taking dance and movement classes during his acting training (although Twentieth Century Fox claimed his injury was caused by his participation in his University rowing crew). In 1944 Peck made his big screen debut in Days of Glory, a film which he, himself, was disappointed with his own performance but obviously not everyone was disappointed as he was scouted by several producers yet he decided to stay freelance* and his second film, The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), gained him his first Oscar nomination.
*Freelance – when an actor is ‘freelance’ they have no allegiance to a single film studio and instead have the opportunity to audition for any role with any studio that they like the look of.
First, we have Duel in the Sun a western with an outcome I was not expecting! It is a role that I can say Gregory Peck excels at – Lewton ‘Lewt’ McCanles is quite a nasty character, not the sort of character I ever expected to see Peck play (not that I’m an authority on Gregory Peck characters). His height is definitely an advantage for playing ‘Lewt’, he towers over Jennifer Jones’ Pearl which makes it look much more sinister when he seduces her; I’m not sure if there is anymore interaction between them than the kissing we see but I like that it can be left to the imagination or maybe I’ve watched too many films that may have taken these scenes too far that my thoughts went in this direction! Even though Peck was only an inch and a half taller than Joseph Cotton, who played his brother Jesse, he looks a lot taller making the difference between the tough, stubborn Lewt and the scholar Jesse so much more believable. However much of a brute Lewt McCanles is Peck seems to enjoy playing the role and although not my usual sort of film it made this western, because that is effectively what this film is, it did increase my enjoyment but then who doesn’t love a bad boy?! Talking of bad boys, what is it with Gregory Peck playing complete assholes? Apart from the fact that he does seem to play them very well! In How the West Was Won he plays Cleve Van Valen an asshole with a heart. He’s a gambler and to pay off a debt he matches himself to a young woman with an inheritance until he finds that said inheritance is virtually non-existent, but they get back together again in the end. It’s the smoothness that comes easily to Peck; he’s an awkward Lothario but seems to get away with it with his looks and charm. Now one from his later career. In The Guns of Navarone Gregory plays Captain Keith Mallory. Although Mallory is probably the main character in this film he is supported by a very strong and distinguished cast, he works well with all his co-stars but seems to have a better understanding of Niven and Quinn as they play off of each other easier – or they were just closer off screen I don’t know but sometimes that can bring out better performances. Peck plays the humour of the role e.g. the confused Greek fisherman that doesn’t understand the Germans, well and humour is something that helps war films feel more approachable, I mean, if there was not light-hearted moments in films like this people would get bored and lose interest. It helps that Mr Peck is tall and eloquent – the embodiment of an English officer – as he didn’t even attempt do the accent! And we go back again to his early career although almost not because if The Yearling had continued with its original filming in 1941 this would not be a Gregory Peck film, yet it may have appeared on Spencer Tracy’s list. It’s a sweet story about a young boy who adopts a fawn although this is not the main story as it only really gets going halfway through. No, the real story is about the struggles faced by Penny Baxter (Peck) and his wife and son as they confront their hardships in the wild frontier. Peck does an admiral job playing Penny even with the film being a little bit bitty here and there – he is strong when needed but also shows a softer side with his son, their only surviving child of seven, and when he returns sheepish from the street brawl. I found the film quite irritating at times, nothing to do with Peck but it’s the son’s, Jody’s, faces – God, he’s an ugly crier! And finally we have Peck’s first film with ‘the Master of Suspense’*, by Alfred Hitchcock, and it was probably difficult for an actor of Mr Peck’s stature (6’ 3” and broad shouldered) to be cast in certain roles but Hitchcock made a good choice when he cast him in Spellbound. His height helps, along with the dramatic cinematography and music, with making us believe that he is the killer he believes himself to be – especially when he comes down the stairs with the open throat razor in hand! When he goes into the ‘trances’ his face stiffens up and looks frozen then when he remembers something it changes so much that we can see the person he really is. Like in The Yearling he has his softer more boyish moments too but, as with all Hitchcock, the tension is always there.
*Hitchcock also cast him in The Paradine Case (1947). It was not as well accepted as Spellbound.
I have loved this film since I first saw it and it has always been my favourite role of Gregory Peck’s because of it, and that is his role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. The film is based on Harper Lee’s book of the same name so it has a good foundations – To Kill a Mockingbird was one of those books we had ‘forced’ on us as a set text for our GCSE’s but it is so good it is probably one of my favourite books of all time! Atticus Finch is an up standing member of the community of Maycomb, he is a lawyer who represents a black man who has been accused of raping a white girl – no big deal you say but this story is set in the Deep South of America in the 1930s so think about it. I have always thought, from reading the book, that Atticus carries himself with gravitas and honour (traits he tries to install in his two children, Jem and Scout) and Peck brings this off perfectly, his stature for one helps – especially when he is outside the courthouse protecting Tom from the vigilantes that turn up, if the kids didn’t show then you could imagine him fighting the whole damn crowd if he needed too – but this is not the only reason why Peck was a good pick for this role. His soft voice and his interaction with his two child co-stars making him come across as a loving family man who can have a harsher side. There are many films than can make me cry and this is one – from the moment the members of the courthouse’s upper gallery stand when Atticus passes to the end of the film I’m welling up obviously its not all down to Gregory Peck’s performance the director handles the subject matter gently but I don’t know if there is any actor that could have handled the role so well and would hate to see this film remade.
Gregory Peck’s career spanned forty-seven years, yet he won only one Oscar, Best Actor in a Leading Role for To Kill a Mockingbird (1963 – that’s seventeen years and four nominations after his first nomination for The Keys of the Kingdom!). He won several Golden Globes, including two Henrietta Awards for World Film Favourite – Male in both ‘51 and ’55. At the age of 53 Lyndon B. Johnson presented him with Presidential Medal of Freedom, and twenty-nine years later Bill Clinton presented him with the National Medal of Arts. Gregory Peck was also lover of horses, and he had two run in the Grand National (Owen’s Sedge in 1963, placed 7th, and Different Class in 1968, placed 3rd). He was a humanitarian and supporter of the arts, along with his wife, hosted dinners to support them.
Gregory Peck married twice. First to Greta Kukkonen, which lasted thirteen years and they had three sons – the oldest of which committed suicide at the age of 31, Peck himself was fifty-nine and said it was one of “the most terrible thing that has happened to me in my life”. He married his second wife, Véronique Passani, the day after his divorce papers came through from his first marriage. Véronique gave him two children: a boy and a girl. At least two of his children, and one grandson (Ethan Gregory Peck) seem to have followed in his footsteps. Peck died peacefully in his sleep of Bronchopneumonia at the age of 87, his wife Véronique was by his side. His family set up The Gregory Peck Award for Cinematic Excellence in his honour. Although it was originally presented at the Dingle International Film Festival in Dingle, Ireland it has, since 2014, been presented at the San Diego International Film Festival. The Award is to honour the career achievement of a film actor, producer or director and recipients have included Gabriel Byrne, Annette Bening, Sir Patrick Stewart and Laurence Fishburne.
