Gregory Peck 1916-2003

Today another Hollywood legend went to join many of his famous co-stars on that great silver screen in the sky.

Gregory Peck was born Elred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, California.

Before becoming a Hollywood star Gregory Peck majored in English before studying medicine at Berkeley. The event that changed his direction in life was when he saw Vera Zorina in I Married an Angel. He immediately joined a small campus theater group and then, in 1939, he won a scholarship to the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse School of Dramatics in NYC.

Peck starred in several unsuccessful productions such as Morning Star, The Willow and I and Sons and Soldiers, before coming to the attention of Hollywood. Because of the war there was a scarcity of leading men. Peck was exempt from service due to a spinal injury and it wasn't long before he was under contract to four different studios; RKO, 20th Century-Fox, Selznick Productions and MGM.

Here's a summary of some of his film highlights:

• Days of Glory (1944)
• The Keys of the Kingdom (1945)
• Spellbound (1945)
• The Yearling (1946),
• The Macomber Affair (1947),
• Duel in the Sun (1947)
• Yellow Sky (1948)
• Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
• The Gunfighter (1950),
• Roman Holiday (1953)
• The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956),
• The Guns of Navarone (1961),
• To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
• Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
• The Omen (1976)
• MacArthur (1977)
• The Boys of Brazil (1978)
• The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
• Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987)
• Old Gringo (1989)

In addition to his successful acting career Gregory Peck also enjoyed much critical acclaim behind the camera with films such as:

• The Big Country (1958)
• Pork Chop Hill (1959)
• Cape Fear (1962)
• The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (1972)
• The Dove (1974)

In later life he focussed on his philanthropic efforts and was one of the founders of the American Film Institute and three-term president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and member of the National Council of Arts.

The last time Peck was seen on the big screen was in Martin Scorsese remake of Cape Fear in which he made a cameo appearance and his last TV acting appearance was in 1998 in the mini-series Moby Dick, for which he earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of the preacher, a role that was played in the original 1956 film by Orson Welles.

Unlike many of his contemporaries Gregory Peck was not prolific on radio. To my knowledge he never appeared in any weekly roles, but made quite a few guest appearances in shows such as The Prudential Hour of the Stars, Screen Actor's Guild, Suspense and Hollywood Players.

I've managed to uncover one of the latter shows and have included it in today's update. It's a Christmas show so I'll leave it up for the next week and then take it down and put it back up at a more seasonal time when I've had chance to review it properly.

There's already one other show on RUSC starring Gregory Peck and that is an episode of Suspense. Here's the link directly to that show:

Suspense: Murder Through the Looking Glass

Happy listening my friends