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Gregory Peck
Known for: ActingEldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) 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 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner, Peck began appearing in stage productions, acting in over 50 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 in a series of successful films, including romantic-drama The Valley of Decision (1944), Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), and family film The Yearling (1946). He encountered lukewarm commercial reviews at the end of the 1940s, his performances including The Paradine Case (1947) and The Great Sinner (1948). Peck reached global recognition in the 1950s and 1960s, appearing back-to-back in the book-to-film adaptation of Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) and biblical drama David and Bathsheba (1951). 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. Other notable films in which he appeared include Moby Dick (1956, and its 1998 mini-series), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962, and its 1991 remake), The Omen (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). 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. 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.
Filmography 59
The Omen
as Robert Thorn 
Roman Holiday
as Joe Bradley 
The Bravados
as Jim Douglass 
The Guns of Navarone
as Capt. Keith Mallory 
Cape Fear
as Lee Heller 
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
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as Harry Street 
To Kill a Mockingbird
as Atticus Finch 
Spellbound
as John Ballantine 
How the West Was Won
as Cleve Van Valen 
MacArthur
as Douglas MacArthur 
Cape Fear
as Sam Bowden 
Mackenna's Gold
as Marshal MacKenna 
On the Beach
as Dwight Towers 
The Blue and the Gray
as Abraham Lincoln 
The Yearling
as Ezra "Penny" Baxter 
Duel in the Sun
as Lewton "Lewt" McCanles 
The Big Country
as James McKay 
Moby Dick
as Captain Ahab 
Yellow Sky
as James "Stretch" Dawson 
The Boys from Brazil
as Dr. Josef Mengele 
The Million Pound Note
as Henry Adams 
Arabesque
as Prof. David Pollock 
Twelve O'Clock High
as Brigadier General Frank Savage 
The Sea Wolves
as Col. Lewis Pugh 
Other People's Money
as Andrew Jorgenson 
Gentleman's Agreement
as Philip Schuyler Green 
Marooned
as Charles Keith 
I Walk the Line
as Sheriff Henry Tawes 
Moby Dick
as Father Mapple 
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
as Tom Rath 
Shoot Out
as Clay Lomax 
The Paradine Case
as Anthony Keane 
Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.
as Capt. Horatio Hornblower R.N 
The Scarlet and the Black
as Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty 
Captain Newman, M.D.
as Capt. Josiah "Joe" Newman, MD 
The Gunfighter
as Jimmy Ringo 
Night People
as Col. Steve Van Dyke 
The Keys of the Kingdom
as Fr. Francis Chisholm 
Pork Chop Hill
as Lt. Joe Clemons 
David and Bathsheba
as King David 
The Stalking Moon
as Sam Varner 
Designing Woman
as Mike Hagen 
The Purple Plain
as Bill Forrester 
The World in His Arms
as Captain Jonathan Clark 
Behold a Pale Horse
as Manuel Artiguez 
Only the Valiant
as Capt. Richard Lance 
The Valley of Decision
as Paul Scott 
Mirage
as David Stillwell 
Billy Two Hats
as Arch Deans 
Amazing Grace and Chuck
as President 
The Great Sinner
as Fedja 
Beloved Infidel
as F. Scott Fitzgerald 
Jack Lemmon: America's Everyman
as Self 
Old Gringo
as Ambrose Bierce 
Audrey Hepburn: Remembered
as Self 
Charlton Heston: For All Seasons
as Self 
From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff
as Self / Narrator (voice) 
Fun in the Big Country
as Self 
American Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith
as Narrator