'To Kill a Mockingbird' Turns 50, but Where Is Harper Lee? By Donna Trussell:This summer America celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of "To Kill a Mockingbird," but don't count on an appearance by the reclusive author, 84-year-old Harper Lee of Monroeville, Ala. She hasn't granted an interview since 1964. She never gives speeches. She's rarely seen outside of her hometown. And she's apparently made her peace with her status as a one-book author.
Harper Lee set the bar so high that subsequent books could never really leave its shadow. In point of fact she once told her cousin, "When you have a hit like that, you can't go anywhere but down." But you could say the same for anyone who touched this landmark story of childhood, of the Deep South, of injustice and redemption, released as a film in 1962.
Actor Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, the widowed attorney appointed to defend a black man accused of rape. Ten-year old Mary Badham, who played Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, was the youngest actress ever nominated for Best Supporting Actress. (She lost to another young actress -- Patty Duke, who played Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker.")
Screenwriter Horton Foote and director Robert Mulligan would no doubt count 'To Kill a Mockingbird' as their finest achievement. Actress Collin Wilcox Paxton will be forever known as Mayella Ewell (". . . you're just a bunch of lousy, yella, stinkin' cowards . . . "). To this day, Elmer Bernstein's theme from the opening credits of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is instantly recognizable. As is the score that accompanied the devastating court verdict:
Harper Lee loved the movie. "I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused," she once said. "That film was a work of art."
I would have to agree with Harper Lee. One scene in particular comes to mind. Jem and Scout are talking in the soft tones of children falling asleep. Scout, who was only 2 years old when her mother died, is asking was her mother pretty? Was she nice? Did you love her? Did I love her? Do you miss her? The camera moves from the bedroom window to the front porch where Atticus sits, deep in thought. His face is somber, and we know Atticus is remembering his late wife.
Harper Lee's book has been called "southern gothic," but in this case the gothic is not so much a literary genre as it is the simple assumptions of the little girl narrating the story. To Scout, the world is black and white, rich and poor, good and evil. In her house is her brother Jem and Calpurnia, who cares for them. A few hundred feet away is a broken-down shack inhabited by the bogeyman himself. The days and nights of Jem, Scout and their friend Dill are filled with trees, swings, moonlight, loose boards, secrets, dares, mysteries and souvenirs.
You can't talk about the South without factoring in the heat. Before air conditioning, every window in town was open all the time, and that made minding one's business all but impossible. You heard people fight. You heard them make up. You smelled their cooking. You were part of a community, whether you realized it or not.
What happens when that community divides neighbor against neighbor? Although set during the Great Depression, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' hit bookstores just as the civil rights movement was gaining momentum. The timing was perfect.
But times change. The appeal of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the movie it produced have lasted half a century.
Over the years lawyers confided to Gregory Peck that his performance inspired them to study law, and he got letters up until he died in 2003. At his funeral, Brock Peters, the actor who played defendant Tom Robinson, read the eulogy. To the end, actress Mary Badham, who'd remained friends with both Peck and Peters, still called him Atticus.
Atticus was, in fact, the working title of the book. Harper Lee was the youngest of four children of an attorney in Monroeville. Lee could have studied law like her father, and for a time it looked like that was the likely course of her life.
Ultimately she left law school, moved to New York City and became an airline reservation clerk. And a writer.
Since childhood, Lee had been friends with her Monroeville neighbor, Truman Capote, on whom the "To Kill a Mockingbird" character Dill was based. Although Lee has always played down the autobiographical component of her book, Capote maintained it was all true, right down to the shadowy character Boo Radley and the gifts left in a hollow tree.
What are the odds that two of the greatest writers of our time would happen to live in the same small town, whose population of 6,000+ has barely budged since the 1930s? And what are the odds that Harper Lee would not only have written her own tour de force, but she would have a hand in the creation of another American classic? After finishing her own book, Lee accompanied Capote to Holcomb, Kans., to assist in researching what would become the book, "In Cold Blood."
On July 11, 1960, "To Kill a Mockingbird" appeared in print. Harper Lee had hoped for a little "public encouragement," but she got a good deal more than that. The following year Lee won the Pulitzer Prize.
The acclaim was enthusiastic, but not universal. Author Flannery O'Connor said, "I think for a child's book it does all right. It's interesting that all the folks that are buying it don't know they're reading a child's book. Somebody ought to say what it is."
The book has sold over 30 million copies and been translated into 40 languages. After filming was complete, Lee retired to a life of seclusion in the house she shared with her sister in Monroeville.
The town is proud of their most famous resident. There's a restaurant called Mockingbird Grill and another called Radley's Fountain. The courthouse where Harper Lee watched her father practice law has been turned into a museum and gift shop.
In 2005 a writer named Charles Shields published a biography. "Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee" is more a portrait of the famous novel than of its author. Not exactly surprising, since he had so little to go on.
One book reviewer complains that the biography omits the most important aspect of "To Kill a Mockingbird." That would be Scout, "Lee's 6-year-old narrator, as an icon of American girlhood."
Margot Mifflin continues:
For thousands of postwar American women, Scout is a touchstone of childhood authenticity . . . We were all Scout once: unfiltered, free-ranging, with a physical confidence rooted in a prepubescent androgyny -- qualities inevitably poisoned by the idiotic affectations of adolescence. (When she senses the feminizing agenda her stuffy aunt has in store for her, Scout feels "the starched walls of a pink cotton penitentiary closing in" on her.) Lee's magic . . . was in ventriloquizing the experiences of a 6-year-old in the voice of a grown woman, offering a bridge back to childhood. As a motherless child, Scout demonstrates how children treat life's curve balls as what happens, not what shouldn't happen, and adjust their expectations accordingly. She's unlike other girl characters, filmic or literary, of her age . . . What other girl character has Scout's open grace, her left hook, and the narrative to herself from beginning to end?
We were all Scout once. Perhaps there's the answer to the question of why this book (and film, which have merged in the public mind) has endured.
Where is Harper Lee? I like to think of her as she was in 1958. "All but drowning in multiple drafts of the same material, Lee suddenly threw open a window and scattered five years of work onto the dirty snow below."
Such a writerly thing to do.
Harper Lee immediately called her editor, who ordered her outside to rescue "To Kill a Mockingbird" from the New York slush.
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Short SummaryTo Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama during the Depression, and is narrated by the main character, a little girl named Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer with high moral standards. Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill are intrigued by the local rumors about a man named Boo Radley, who lives in their neighborhood but never leaves his house. Legend has it that he once stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, and he is made out to be a kind of monster. Dill is from Mississippi but spends his summer in Maycomb at a house near the Finch's.
The children are curious to know more about Boo, and during one summer create a mini-drama they enact daily, which tells the events of his life as they know them. Slowly, the children begin moving closer to the Radley house, which is said to be haunted. They try leaving notes for Boo on his windowsill with a fishing pole, but are caught by Atticus, who firmly reprimands them for making fun of a sad man's life. Next, the children try sneaking over to the house at night and looking through its windows. Boo's brother, Nathan Radley, who lives in the house, thinks he hears a prowler and fires his gun. The children run away, but Jem loses his pants in a fence. When he returns in the middle of the night to get them back, they have been neatly folded and the tear from the fence roughly sewn up.
Other mysterious things happen to the Finch children. A certain tree near the Radley house has a hole in which little presents are often left for them, such as pennies, chewing gum, and soap carved figures of a little boy and girl who bear a striking resemblance to Scout and Jem. The children don't know where these gifts are coming from, and when they go to leave a note for the mystery giver, they find that Boo's brother has plugged up the hole with cement. The next winter brings unexpected cold and snow, and Miss Maudie's house catches on fire. While Jem and Scout, shivering, watch the blaze from near the Radley house, someone puts a blanket around Scout without her realizing it. Not until she returns home and Atticus asks her where the blanket came from does she realize that Boo Radley must have put it around her while she was entranced by watching Miss Maudie, her favorite neighbor, and her burning house.
Atticus decides to take on a case involving a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping a very poor white girl named Mayella Ewell, a member of the notorious Ewell family, who belong to the layer of Maycomb society that people refer to as "trash." The Finch family faces harsh criticism in the heavily racist Maycomb because of Atticus's decision to defend Tom. But, Atticus insists on going through with the case because his conscience could not let him do otherwise. He knows Tom is innocent, and also that he has almost no chance at being acquitted, because the white jury will never believe a black man over a white woman. Despite this, Atticus wants to reveal the truth to his fellow townspeople, expose their bigotry, and encourage them to imagine the possibility of racial equality.
Because Atticus is defending a black man, Scout and Jem find themselves whispered at and taunted, and have trouble keeping their tempers. At a family Christmas gathering, Scout beats up her cloying relative Francis when he accuses Atticus of ruining the family name by being a "nigger-lover". Jem cuts off the tops of an old neighbor's flower bushes after she derides Atticus, and as punishment, has to read out loud to her every day. Jem does not realize until after she dies that he is helping her break her morphine addiction. When revealing this to Jem and Scout, Atticus holds this old woman up as an example of true courage: the will to keep fighting even when you know you can't win.
The time for the trial draws closer, and Atticus's sister Alexandra comes to stay with the family. She is proper and old-fashioned and wants to shape Scout into the model of the Southern feminine ideal, much to Scout's resentment. Dill runs away from his home, where his mother and new father don't seem interested in him, and stays in Maycomb for the summer of Tom's trial. The night before the trial, Tom is moved into the county jail, and Atticus, fearing a possible lynching, stands guard outside the jail door all night. Jem is concerned about him, and the three children sneak into town to find him. A group of men arrive ready to cause some violence to Tom, and threaten Atticus in the process. At first Jem, Scout and Dill stand aside, but when she senses true danger, Scout runs out and begins to speak to one of the men, the father of one of her classmates in school. Her innocence brings the crowd out of their mob mentality, and they leave.
The trial pits the evidence of the white Ewell family against Tom's evidence. According to the Ewells, Mayella asked Tom to do some work for her while her father was out, and Tom came into their house and forcibly beat and raped Mayella until her father appeared and scared him away. Tom's version is that Mayella invited him inside, then threw her arms around him and began to kiss him. Tom tried to push her away. When Bob Ewell arrived, he flew into a rage and beat her, while Tom ran away in fright. According to the sheriff's testimony, Mayella's bruises were on the right side of her face, which means she was most likely punched with a left hand. Tom Robinson's left arm is useless due to an old accident, whereas Mr. Ewell leads with his left. Given the evidence of reasonable doubt, Tom should go free, but after hours of deliberation, the jury pronounces him guilty. Scout, Jem and Dill sneak into the courthouse to see the trial and sit in the balcony with Maycomb's black population. They are stunned at the verdict because to them, the evidence was so clearly in Tom's favor.
Though the verdict is unfortunate, Atticus feels some satisfaction that the jury took so long deciding. Usually, the decision would be made in minutes, because a black man's word would not be trusted. Atticus is hoping for an appeal, but unfortunately Tom tries to escape from his prison and is shot to death in the process. Jem has trouble handling the results of the trial, feeling that his trust in the goodness and rationality of humanity has been betrayed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ewell threatens Atticus and other people connected with the trial because he feels he was humiliated. He gets his revenge one night while Jem and Scout are walking home from the Halloween play at their school. He follows them home in the dark, then runs at them and attempts to kill them with a large kitchen knife. Jem breaks his arm, and Scout, who is wearing a confining ham shaped wire costume and cannot see what is going on, is helpless throughout the attack. The elusive Boo Radley stabs Mr. Ewell and saves the children. Finally, Scout has a chance to meet the shy and nervous Boo. At the end of this fateful night, the sheriff declares that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife so Boo, the hero of the situation, won't have to be tried for murder. Scout walks Boo home and imagines how he has viewed the town and observed her, Jem and Dill over the years from inside his home. Boo goes inside, closes the door, and she never sees him again.
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Biography for
Gregory Peck Date of Birth
5 April 1916, La Jolla, California, USA
Date of Death
12 June 2003, Los Angeles, California, USA (cardiorespiratory arrest and bronchial pneumonia)
Birth Name
Eldred Gregory Peck
Nickname
Father Peck
Greg
Height
6' 3" (1.91 m)
Mini Biography
Peck was born in La Jolla, California. His father was a druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fond memories are of his grandmother taking him to the movies every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. He studied pre-med at Berkeley and, while there, Peck got the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' stage play "The Morning Star" (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (1944).
Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged, and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as the amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (1946), Peck was again nominated for the Academy Award and won the Golden Globe. Peck appeared in Westerns such as Duel in the Sun (1946), Yellow Sky (1948) and The Gunfighter (1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award with his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), a story of discrimination, and Twelve O'Clock High (1949), a story of high level stress at bomber command.
With a string of hits behind him, Peck soon took the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic figures in larger-than-life films such as Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951) and Moby Dick (1956). He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (1953). After four nominations, Peck finally won the Oscar for his performance as Lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). In the early 60s, he appeared in two dark films, Cape Fear (1962) and Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), which dealt with the way people live. He also gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (1961), one of the biggest cinematic hits of that year.
In the early 70s, he produced two movies, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972) and The Dove (1974), while his film career waned. He made a comeback playing the wooden Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (1976). After that, he returned to the bigger than life roles as MacArthur (1977) and the evil Doctor Mengele in The Boys from Brazil (1978). In the 80s, Peck moved into television with the mini series "The Blue and the Gray" (1982) and the movie The Scarlet and the Black (1983) (TV). In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different part, in Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the liberal owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (1991).
In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the Medal of Freedom. Always politically liberal, Peck was active in causes dealing with charities, politics or the film industry. He died in June 2003, aged 87.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Tony Fontana
Spouse
Veronique Passani (31 December 1955 - 12 June 2003) (his death) 2 children
Greta Kukkonen (5 October 1942 - 30 December 1955) (divorced) 3 children
Trade Mark
Almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it.
Trivia
His earliest movie memory is of being so scared by The Phantom of the Opera (1925) at age 9 that his grandmother allowed him to sleep in the bed with her that night.
U.C. Berkeley graduate (BA '39), oarsman on Cal's JV crew.
Of his own movies, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is Peck's favourite.
Children, with Kukkonen, Jonathan (b. 1944 - d. 1975), Stephen Peck (b. 1945), Carey Paul Peck (b. 1949).
Children with Veronique Passani: Tony Peck (b. 1956) and Cecilia Peck (b. 1958).
Oldest son, Jon, committed suicide by gunshot. [1975]
Chairman, Motion Picture & Television Relief Fund. [1971]
Recipient, Presidential Medal of Freedom, nation's highest civilian award, awarded by Lyndon Johnson. [1969]
Charter Member, National Council on the Arts. [1968-1974]
National Chairman, American Cancer Society. [1966]
Charter Member, National Council on the Arts. [1964-1966]
Chairman, American Film Institute. He was the first Chairman of the AFI. [1967-1969]
Stating he was worried about the 600,000 jobs hanging on the survival of the Chrysler Corporation, he volunteered to become an unpaid TV pitchman for the company in 1980.
He took in former co-star Ava Gardner's housekeeper and dog after her death in 1990.
Was in the original version of Cape Fear (1962) in 1962, playing Sam Bowden. He was later brought back for a part in another version of Cape Fear (1991), playing Max Cady's attorney.
Honorary chair, Los Angeles Library Foundation. [1995]
Was president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences from 1967-1970. He made the decision to postpone the 1968 Oscar ceremony after Martin Luther King's assassination.
Chosen by producer Darryl F. Zanuck for the epic film David and Bathsheba (1951) because Zanuck thought Peck had a "biblical face".
His paternal grandmother, Catherine Ashe, was an immigrant from County Kerry, Ireland. She was a relative of Thomas Ashe, an Irish patriot who fought the in Easter Rising in 1916 and died on hunger strike the following year.
Seriously considered challenging then California Governor Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign in 1970 but decided against it at the last minute despite state and national pressure from the Democrat Party of California and The Democratic National Committee.
Marched with Martin Luther King.
His character from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Atticus Finch, was voted the greatest screen hero of all time by the American Film Institute in May 2003, only two weeks before his death (beating out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third).
Along with Dorothy McGuire, Mel Ferrer and David O. Selznick, he co-founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theater on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.
During his lean salad days, he supported himself as a Radio City Music Hall tour guide and as a catalog model for Montgomery Ward.
Brock Peters delivered his eulogy on the day of his funeral and burial, June 16, 2003. In To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Peters played Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a white girl that Atticus Finch (Peck's character) defended in court.
Was the first native Californian to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.
A back injury incurred in college kept him out of the services in World War II.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1979.
Son, Stephen did a tour in Vietnam with the Marine Corps. Peck was proud of his son's military service even though he disagreed with the war itself.
He had Catholic Armenian roots from his paternal grandfather, Sam "Peck", an immigrant from England. After he married his second wife, Veronique Passani, she had his ancestry traced and discovered the Armenian lineage. Urging him to learn of his partial Armenian heritage and to learn the Armenian language, he took Armenian classes in his middle age. But, by then, his public persona was fixed. "Gregory" is a common Indo-European name and Armenian surname (Gregorian or Krikorian) and was the name of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, Apostle of Armenia (332 AD).
When he came to Italy to shoot Roman Holiday (1953), Gregory was privately depressed about his recent separation and imminent divorce from his first wife, Greta. However, during the shoot, he met and fell in love with a French woman named 'Veronique Passani'. After his divorce, he married Passani and they remained together for the rest of his life. So, in a way, he lived out his own "movie romance".
According to at least one biography, he took his role in The Omen (1976) at a huge cut in salary (a mere $250,000) but was guaranteed 10% of the film's box office take. When it went on to gross more than $60 million in the U.S. alone, The Omen (1976) produced the highest-paid performance of Peck's career.
While studying at UC Berkeley, Peck was a houseboy for the school's chapter of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.
He was voted the 58th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Attended San Diego High School.
He was voted the 27th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
Named the #12 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends list by the American Film Institute
He was of English, Irish, Scottish and Armenian heritage.
In late November of 2005, thieves stole Peck's "Hollywood Walk of Fame" star using a cement saw to cut the bronze-and-terrazzo marker out of the sidewalk. In a simple ceremony, a new star honoring the late actor was unveiled on December 1st to replace the stolen one. Hollywood's honorary mayor Johnny Grant lifted a covering and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly welcome back to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Gregory Peck." Peck's star was the fourth to be stolen since the Walk of Fame was inaugurated. James Stewart's and Kirk Douglas' stars disappeared some years ago after being removed for construction and were later recovered by police in the nearby city of South Gate. Gene Autry's star also vanished during a construction project. A call saying it had been found in Iowa proved to be a false alarm.
He and The Big Country (1958) co-star Charlton Heston both played the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele: Peck in The Boys from Brazil (1978), Heston in My Father, Rua Alguem 5555 (2003).
In the spring of 1939, Peck skipped graduation at the University of California at Berkeley and, with $160 and a letter of introduction in his pocket, went by train to New York, traveling coach, to embark on his acting career.
Studied acting with Michael Chekhov
Father-in-law of Daniel Voll.
He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1998 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.
Was Warner Bros. original choice to play Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). He was offered the role and seriously considered it but passed away before he could give them an answer.
His performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is ranked #13 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Cited that his favorite leading ladies were Audrey Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, and Ava Gardner.
Once owned a thoroughbred named "Different Class," who was the favorite in the 1968 Grand National Steeplechase in the UK - but finished 3rd.
In 1997, as a presenter at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) awards ceremony, he said, "It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all."
Mourners for the public service held after his burial held huge black-and-white portraits of Peck as they approached the Cathedral, designed by artist/sculptor Robert Graham, husband of Anjelica Huston. Church officials estimated that almost 3,000 people attended. Seats were reserved for Peck's friends, a sizable number of whom were celebrities - they were instructed to whisper the secret password "Atticus" to the red-coated ushers who escorted them to the reserved section - Harry Belafonte, Anjelica Huston, Michael York, Louise Fletcher, Tony Danza, Piper Laurie, Harrison Ford, Calista Flockhart. Michael Jackson, wearing a red jacket, caused a stir when he arrived 20 minutes late. Decked out in a bright blue suit and clutching a program with Peck's picture on it was his first wife Greta, looking hale and hearty at 92. Roger Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, presided over the service. The program included bible readings by Peck's children Carey, Cecilia and Tony. Mahoney said, "He lived his life authentically, as God called and willed him and placed him in his room, with gifts and talents." Brock Peters, who played the black man defended by Peck's character Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), delivered the eulogy. The film spawned a close friendship between the two stars that lasted more than 40 years. "In art there is compassion," said Peters, "in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love. Gregory Peck gave us these attributes in full measure." The crowd visibly warmed to a videotape performance of Peck featuring a lecture he gave several years before. He said he hoped to be remembered first as a good husband, father and grandfather. Then, with quiet strength and unforgettable presence, he added: "I'd like to be thought of as a good storyteller".
He had always wanted to do a Walt Disney movie.
In the 1950s, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson, AZ, named one of their male javalinas "Gregory Peckory" in his honor; incidentally, their female was named "Olivia de Javalina" to honor actress Olivia de Havilland.
He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son who was serving there.
In 1947, at the beginning of the anti-communist investigations in Hollywood, Peck signed a letter deploring the witch hunts despite being warned his signature could hurt his career.
Broke his ankle in three places in a fall from a horse while filming Yellow Sky (1948).
Turned down Gary Cooper's Oscar-winning role as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (1952) because he felt the story was too similar to his The Gunfighter (1950). When the film proved to be a huge success Peck admitted he had made a mistake, though he said he didn't believe he could have played the character as well as Cooper.
In 1999 he supported the decision to give Elia Kazan an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, saying he believed that a man's work should be separate from his life.
He was a close friend of Michael Jackson for the last 25 years of his life, and often went horse riding with the singer at his Neverland Ranch. During the Jordie Chandler scandal in 1993, Peck wrote a letter defending Jackson. He also gave a glowing video tribute to Jackson at his 30th Anniversary concert in New York in 2001.
In 1987 he joined Burt Lancaster, Martin Sheen and Lloyd Bridges in narrating a TV advertisement for the People for the American Way, in opposing the confirmation of President Ronald Reagan's nominee to the Supreme Court, conservative judge Robert Bork. Bork, under intense criticism in part because of his past strong opposition to civil rights laws, ultimately failed to be confirmed by the Senate.
He was a close friend of Jane Fonda, and frequently attended political rallies with her.
He was an active supporter of AIDS fund raising.
Advertised Chesterfield cigarettes.
In 1946 he met and befriended Gary Cooper, with whom he was often compared in terms of looks and acting style.
During the Vietnam War Peck was a vocal supporter of teenagers who dodged the draft, calling them "patriots" and "heroes" and saying that burning their draft cards was part of their civic duty. He produced an anti-war film, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972) using his own money in order to provoke more opposition to the conflict.
Appeared on President Richard Nixon's infamous "List of Enemies" in 1972.
After Peck stormed off the set of The Big Country (1958), director William Wyler said of him: "I wouldn't direct Peck again for a million dollars and you can quote me on that.".
As a board member of Handgun Control Inc. (along with Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon), Peck was sometimes criticized for his friendship with Charlton Heston, a longtime advocate of gun ownership who served as President of the National Rifle Assocation (NRA) from 1998 to 2003. When questioned by James Brady, Peck said, "We're colleagues rather than friends. We're civil to each other when we meet. I, of course, disagree vehemently with him on gun control.".
In his 80s his frail and thin appearance frequently sparked press rumors of his impending death, particularly when in 2001 he attended Jack Lemmon's funeral with his head bandaged from a recent fall.
He was given the role of Ambassador Robert Thorn in The Omen (1976) after Charlton Heston turned it down in order to make Midway (1976).
In 1948, amid the anti-Communist hysteria sweeping the country, he was called before a "fact finding committee" set up by the California Legislature to ferret out alleged Communists and their sympathizers in the entertainment industry. He was summoned because of his association with a host of "liberal" organizations and causes, along with several other stars. He gave the committee a list of every organization to which he had contributed money, along with their letterheads, and said that he contributed to them because they were legitimate organizations. He told the committee, "I am not now and never have been associated with any communist organization or supporters of communism. I am not a communist, never was a communist and I have no sympathy with communist activities".
He was a heavy drinker as a young actor in Hollywood. In 1949 he was hospitalized with heart spasms, and while filming David and Bathsheba (1951) he was hospitalized with a suspected heart attack. Though it turned out to be a palpitation brought on by his lifestyle and overwork, he began to drink less thereafter. However, he did not stop smoking for many more years.
His few attempts to play a villain were considered unsuccessful, perhaps because the public could not accept Peck as anything other than good. He was considered too young at 38 (the movie was filmed in 1954) to play Captain Ahab in Moby Dick (1956), especially since the character was described in Herman Melville's novel as an old man. Peck admitted he only agreed to play Nazi Dr Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil (1978) because he wanted to work with Sir Laurence Olivier. Although the film and his performance were savaged by the critics, Peck remained loyal to it.
He was originally cast in the role played by Robert Taylor in Quo Vadis (1951).
Campaigned for Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election.
He did not get along with director Elia Kazan while filming Gentleman's Agreement (1947). Kazan told the press he was very disappointed with Peck's performance and the two men never worked together again.
After making Arabesque (1966), Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society.
He is listed in the Cal Berkeley Alumni roster as a graduate of the Class of 1942 who studied as an English major and where he acted in plays at the Associated Students sponsored 'Little Theatre' on campus. Incidentally while under the watch of the University's Committee on Music and Drama led by Professor William Popper as chairman, the University's Department of Dramatic Arts was just being established towards the end of his student tenure in 1941.
In 1996, veteran character actor Richard Jaeckel, Peck's costar in The Gunfighter (1950), was diagnosed with cancer, and Jaeckel's wife had Alzheimer's disease. The Jaeckels had lost their Brentwood home, were over $1 million in debt, and Jaeckel was basically homeless. His family tried unsuccessfully to enter him into Woodland Hills Motion Picture and Television Hospital. Peck lobbied for Jaeckel's admittance and he was treated within three days. Jaeckel stayed in the hospital until his passing in June 1997.
The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions.
Only the Valiant (1951) was his least favorite film. He thought the western potboiler was a step backwards after starring in The Gunfighter (1950).
When he was the President of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Science, he tried his hardest to get a full-length animated feature film (most notably the The Jungle Book (1967)) not only nominated for Best Picture Academy Award but actually win the award. He resigned as President in 1970 when other members didn't agree with him about animated films being nominated for the award. Twenty-one years after he resigned Beauty and the Beast (1991) became the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture although it did not win.
Turned down Yves Montand's role in Let's Make Love (1960) because he didn't want to work with Marilyn Monroe.
Son of Gregory Pearl Peck and wife Bernice Mae Ayres.
He had always wanted to act in a Shakespearean play, but by the time the opportunity presented itself in 1951 he decided it was too late to start.
Formed a solid friendship with Mary Badham, who played his daughter "Scout" in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). They remained in contact until his passing. According to Badham, she always called him "Atticus" and he always called her "Scout".
His favorite singers were Frank Sinatra and Michael Jackson. He was also a big fan of Elton John.
His favorite drink was Guinness, which he drank every day. Eventually he had a tap installed in the bar at his house.
In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 12.
A physically powerful man, Peck was known to do a majority of his own fight scenes, rarely using body or stunt doubles. Robert Mitchum, his on-screen opponent in Cape Fear (1962), said that Peck once accidentally punched him for real during their final fight scene in the movie. He recalled feeling the impact of the punch for days afterwards and said, "I don't feel sorry for anyone dumb enough who picks a fight with him.".
In December 2002 Peck visited his wife in hospital in Los Angeles after she underwent surgery to relieve pressure on two vertebrae. The sight of the veteran actor in hospital sparked more press rumors that he was seriously ill.
His mother died in May 1992 at the age of 97.
Agreed to star in David and Bathsheba (1951) as a riposte to the Biblical epics of Cecil B. DeMille.
By 1974, following a series of flops, Peck's career had declined to such an extent that he admitted in an interview that he was thinking of retiring from acting. Two years later however he made an enormous comeback with The Omen (1976).
He was considered for Rock Hudson's role in Ice Station Zebra (1968).
One of his greatest heroes from childhood was President Abraham Lincoln. Peck was initially concerned about playing him in "The Blue and the Gray" (1982), since at 66 he was a decade older than Lincoln was when he was assassinated.
In the early 1990s Peck considered writing his autobiography, however he decided against it when he realized he wasn't as good at writing as his friend David Niven.
Often stated how disappointed he was that many American viewers did not realize how anti-war The Guns of Navarone (1961) was.
MGM wanted Peck to play Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959), but the director Alfred Hitchcock thought Peck was too serious and cast Cary Grant instead.
He was a lifelong opponent of nuclear weapons, and made On the Beach (1959) for this reason.
Personally chose Lewis Milestone to direct the anti-war movie Pork Chop Hill (1959), because Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) had made a deep impression on him.
In 1999 he publicly berated Congress for failing to pass legislation preventing teenagers from buying guns, following the Columbine high school massacre.
His election as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1967 was widely seen as heralding in a new, younger, progressive and decidedly liberal era of filmmaking in Hollywood.
While filming The Bravados (1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle.
He was a close friend and ardent supporter of President Lyndon Johnson, spending much time at the White House and the Johnson Ranch.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 417-420. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
He regularly visited Humphrey Bogart while filming Designing Woman (1957) with Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall. Peck was reportedly devastated by the star's death in January 1957.
Was the second choice to play Prof. Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), had first choice Sean Connery declined the role. Star Harrison Ford cited Peck as one of his favorite actors and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) as one of his favorite films.
He was a close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.
He visited Michael Jackson on the set of filming the "Smooth Criminal" segment for Moonwalker (1988). Also visiting the set was Robert De Niro and Bruce Willis.
Was kept out of military service during WWII due to a back injury.
Personal Quotes
[when he discovered that his second wife, French journalist Veronique Passani, had passed up an opportunity to interview Albert Schweitzer at a lunch hosted by Jean-Paul Sartre in order to go out on a date with Peck] You made the right choice, kiddo!
[on his 1962 Oscar-winning role in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)] I put everything I had into it - all my feelings and everything I'd learned in 46 years of living, about family life and fathers and children. And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity.
They say the bad guys are more interesting to play but there is more to it than that - playing the good guys is more challenging because it's harder to make them interesting.
I just do things I really enjoy. I enjoy acting. When I'm driving to the studio, I sing in the car. I love my work and my wife and my kids and my friends. And I think, "You're a lucky man, Gregory Peck, a damn lucky man."
Gregory Peck is the hottest thing in town. Some say he is a second Gary Cooper. Actually, he is the first Gregory Peck.
[on gay rights] It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all.
I'm not a do-gooder. It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in.
I don't lecture and I don't grind any axes. I just want to entertain.
You have to dream, you have to have a vision, and you have to set a goal for yourself that might even scare you a little because sometimes that seems far beyond your reach. Then I think you have to develop a kind of resistance to rejection, and to the disappointments that are sure to come your way.
I am a Roman Catholic. Not a fanatic, but I practice enough to keep the franchise. I don't always agree with the Pope . . . there are issues that concern me, like abortion, contraception, the ordination of women . . . and others. I think the Church should open up.
[when asked what he thought about the John Holmes porn trial] You know, someone once asked me that and I said the day that Laurence Olivier drops his pants on the screen is the day that I will support adult actors, and then I saw the movie The Betsy (1978).
[1987] Robert Bork wants to be a Supreme Court justice. But the record shows he has a strange idea of what justice is. He defended poll taxes and literacy tests, which kept many Americans from voting. He opposed the civil rights law that ended "whites only" signs at lunch counters. He doesn't believe the Constitution protects your privacy. Please urge your senators to vote against the Bork nomination. Because, if Robert Bork wins a seat on the Supreme Court, it will be for life. His life . . . and yours.
Faith is a force, a powerful force. To me, it's been like an anchor to windward - something that's seen me through troubled times and some personal tragedies and also through the good times and success and the happy times.
[on meeting Pope John Paul II at the White House in 1978] He impressed me more than any other man I've ever met, and I've met a lot. My wife and I happened to be seated on one of the aisles, and the Pope came right down and he saw me and smiled. The smile was genuine, not a politician smile, the practiced smile. He shook hands with me and went on. And then [US President Jimmy Carter] said, "Hello, Gregory, what are you doing here?" and I said, "Well, Mr. President, you invited me". He said, "Just a minute"--and damned if he didn't run after the Pope, grabbing him by the arm and pulled him back. He said, "Your Excellency, this is one of our best-known, most beloved American film actors". And he looked at me, ah! There was a glimmer as if somehow he must have seen me in a movie. His eyes widened and he took me in his arms. And he sort of grabbed me by the elbow and said, "God bless you, Gregory. God bless you in your mission". And he went on.
[on Gentleman's Agreement (1947)] We felt we were brave pioneers exploring anti-Semitism in the United States - today, it seems a little dated.
[on The Boys from Brazil (1978)] I felt, Laurence Olivier felt, friends of mine like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon felt, that I was good in this part. Some critics seem unwilling to accept actors when they break what they think is the mold or the image.
I've had my ups and downs. There have been times when I wanted to quit. Times when I hit the bottle. Marital problems. I've touched most of the bases.
[1956] Of the movies I've done, there isn't much I really like. The Gunfighter (1950), Roman Holiday (1953), Twelve O'Clock High (1949) I feel were my best.
That's why those fellas were so magnificent playing the same part, because they'd played it forty times. That's why John Wayne finally became a good actor in True Grit (1969) - he's got 150 of them behind him. Now he's developed a saltiness and an earthiness and a humor and a subtlety that comes from mining that same vein over and over again.
[1987] I would give up everything I do and everything I have if I could make a significant difference in getting the nuclear arms race reversed. It is the number-one priority in my life. My work was the main thing in my life for a long time; now I'm beginning to think a little more about what the future will hold and what kind of world my kids will live in.
I realize now how very short life is, because I've got to be considered to be in the home stretch. But I won't waste time on recriminations and regrets. And the same goes for my shortcomings and my own failures.
Every script I'm offered has Cary Grant's paw prints on it.
(1965) There are times when I could cheerfully walk out on the whole goddamn setup. I don't have to make pictures any more. When I first came out here to work from the New York stage, I was carved up in all directions, a dumb actor tied to a slew of contractual clauses. Today I'm my own man - free, off the hook. This is a collective business, I know. But now it's up to me to decide the stories we use and the kind of picture in which I'm prepared to get involved. I'm no longer the dumb and trusting ham being shuttled from picture to picture at someone else's whim. I'm a company boss who has to make big decisions right or wrong, responsible only to myself in the long run. For years we actors have been fighting for our so-called artistic freedom. We wanted to get rid of the moguls and their accountants. We damned the studio shylocks for their materialism and lack of taste. Now, most of us are on our own. So what happens? This morning I had to call my office and scrap a production on which people had been working for months ... I decided it would be best to chuck it in rather than risk making a bad picture. All night I've been pacing up and down the house trying to make the right decision. I tell you there are times when I wish Hollywood actors had retained the status of bums and gypsies and left the planning to others. Right now, I'm tempted to say, "The hell with all of it". The picture has changed, my friend. The old omnipotent caliphs are dying fast. Television plus the weight of years has weakened the survivors. It will need energy and a fresh executive approach to redirect the creative drive, re-channel the talent. The monopolies of the studios have been broken. The anti-trust laws have severed their distribution outlets. The shackling of actors to loaded long-term contracts is virtually a thing of the past. In effect, I have complete control over what I do. A year of two back this was considered some kind of victory of art over tyranny. Now I'm not so sure. I'm a free soul, you remember. Before I became an actor, I wanted to be a writer. Freedom of mind and action is important to me. Right now I'd like to take off for Mexico and fish for a while and swim and read books without wondering whether they would make a good picture. Now I'll have to follow another production through from the drawing board to the cutting room. And then go out on the road and sell it with personal appearances. It can be stimulating. A challenge, as they say at Chasens. But there are times when actors like myself find themselves wishing we could resurrect Irving Thalberg and pass the ball to him or people like him. The town's wide open for any operator with the ability to finance, package and sell motion pictures.
[on Robert Mitchum] I had given him the role and had paid him a terrific amount of money. It was obvious he had the better role. I thought he would understand that, but he apparently thought he acted me off the screen. I didn't think highly of him for that.
Marilyn Monroe may have been a bit of an extreme example, but she was given the best stories to suit her talents, she was stroked and cared for and treasured and treated like a little princess, treated as a valuable, talented person. What it was that led her to drink and take pills, I don't know. I don't think anyone can put it all together, but it's too easy to say that Hollywood wrung her out and exhausted her, strained her nerves and destroyed her. I think she'd have gone to pieces even sooner without the adulation and the care she received at the hands of her directors and producers and the big studios.
[on what he thought about stars being paid $30 million per movie] I was born too soon!
[2000] Do I think there's a glamorous male actor today? No way.
Now, you take a great cinema actor, in my opinion, James Cagney. He went very far. He was very theatrical, very intense, and yet always believable. He riveted the audience's attention. His acting advice was, "Believe what you say -- say what you believe." And that says it really.
[on Frank Sinatra] Undeniably the title holder in the soft-touch department.
One good thing about the bad movies is that people don't remember them. Nobody ever comes up to me and says, 'I hated you in I Walk the Line (1970)!'.
I enjoy practicing my craft as well as I possibly can. I enjoy the work for its own sake.
Salary
The Purple Plain (1954) $250,000
The Million Pound Note (1954) $250,000
Only the Valiant (1951) $60,000
Days of Glory (1944) $10,000
