American stage and film actor nominated for four Oscars, the Best Actor award for his role in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962. He was a recipient of the American Film Institutes Life Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award. A handsome man, 6′ 3″ and with great dignity and stature, his other famed films are “The Keys of the Kingdom,” 1945 “The Yearling,” 1946 “Gentleman’s Agreement,” 1947 and “Twelve O’clock High” in 1949.
His father was an Irish pharmacist whose business closed when Gregory was six. He traveled from city to city for two years with his mother. When she married an Italian traveling salesman, the boy moved in with his maternal grandmother. He attended La Jolla Grammar School his first five grades and then St. John’s Military Academy from age 10 to 14. Moving in with his dad, Peck went to high school in San Diego.
By age 17 Peck reached his full height of 6’3″ and at 18 began driving an oil truck, working his way through San Diego State as a pre-med student, then going to the University of California, Berkeley as an English major. He was a member of the junior varsity rowing team 1938. Interested in acting, he won a scholarship to study with Sanford Meisner and Martha Graham, skipping his graduation in the spring of 1939. Taking the train to New York, he dropped the name Eldred becoming Gregory Peck and entered New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse. During a dance class Martha Graham put her knee in his back giving him a spinal injury that prevented him from entering the service in WW II. He spent the summers of 1940-42 doing summer stock in Virginia then New York and Massachusetts.
Peck’s Broadway debut was in “Morning Star” in September 1942. His Hollywood debut was in “Days of Glory” in 1943 for which he received an Oscar nomination. He received the Best Actor Oscar in 1962 for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1967. An intellectual heavyweight with strong values, he is a serious Civil War buff, doesn’t like conflicts and advocates gun control. When asked by the Democrats to run for Governor of California, he refused.
Peck married Greta Rice in 1942. They had three sons, Stephen 1943, Jonathan 1945 who shot himself to death in 1975 and Carey in 1950. He and Greta divorced in 1954. Peck met Veronique Passani, a Frenchwoman, in 1955 when she interviewed him for an article. They married and have a son, Tony born 1957 and daughter Cecilia born 1959. They have homes in Los Angeles and France.
During his 70’s he was still active in film and in Hollywood environmental issues as well as he appearing at many charitable events.
Known for his dignity and graciousness, actor Gregory Peck died at his home in Los Angeles at age 87 on June 12, 2003. Peck was an intellectual with strong values, a humanitarian who won many awards for his life’s work on and off stage.
Link to Wikipedia biography