Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor.
One of 20th Century Fox’s most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1990s. His notable performances included that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won his Academy Award.
President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at #12.
Peck’s first film, Days of Glory, was released in 1944. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor five times, four of which came in his first five years of film acting: for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), and Twelve O’Clock High (1949).
The Keys of the Kingdom emphasized his stately presence. As the farmer Penny Barker in The Yearling his good-humored warmth and affection toward the characters playing
his son and wife confounded critics who had been insisting he was a lifeless performer. Duel in the Sun (1946) showed his range as an actor in his first “against type” role as a cruel, libidinous gunslinger. Gentleman’s Agreement established his power in the “social conscience” genre in a film that took on the deep-seated but subtle anti-Semitism of mid-century corporate America.Twelve O’Clock High was the first of many successful war films in which Peck embodied the brave, effective, yet human fighting man.
Among his other films were Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), The Gunfighter (1950), Moby Dick (1956), On the Beach (1959), which brought to life the terrors of global nuclear war, The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Roman Holiday (1953), with Audrey Hepburn in her Oscar-winning role. Peck and Hepburn were close friends until her death; Peck even introduced her to her first husband, Mel Ferrer. Peck once again teamed up with director William Wyler in the epic Western The Big Country (1958), which he co-produced.
In October 1942, Peck married Finnish-born Greta Kukkonen with whom he had three sons, Jonathan (b. 1944 – d. 1975), Stephen Peck (b. 1946), Carey Paul Peck (b. 1949). Greta was awarded the Order of the White Rose. They were divorced on December 30, 1955, but maintained a very good relationship as parents to their sons. Jonathan Peck, a television news reporter, committed suicide in 1975. Stephen Peck is active in support of American veterans from the Vietnam war. His first wife is screenwriter Kimi Peck who co-wrote Little Darlings with Dalene Young. Carey Peck had political ambitions and in 1980 ran for Congress in California, with the support of his father and family. He narrowly lost to conservative Republican Bob Dornan.
Gregory Peck Naked Photos
