Legendary Actor Gregory Peck Dies
Oscar Winner Was 87
POSTED: 1:54 p.m. EDT June 12, 2003
UPDATED: 4:18 p.m. EDT June 12, 2003
The film world has lost one of its biggest legends.
Gregory Peck died at his Los Angeles home overnight, spokesman Monroe Friedman told The Associated Press.
Peck was 87.
Friedman said that Peck's wife, Veronique Passani, was by the actor's side when he died. The couple had been married since Dec. 31, 1955.
"She told me very briefly that he died peacefully," Friedman told AP. "She was with him, holding his hand, and he just went to sleep. He had just been getting older and more fragile. He wasn't really ill. He just sort of ran his course and died of old age."
Peck made the headlines as late as last week, when his "To Kill a Mockingbird" character, Atticus Finch (pictured, left), was named the top movie hero of all time by the American Film Institute.
In the 1962 classic, Finch was a faultlessly noble widower raising a daughter and son amid Southern racial unrest as he defended a black man accused of raping a white woman.
The role earned Peck his only Best Actor Oscar. He was also nominated four of the first five years he was in films, for Best Actor for his roles in "The Keys to the Kingdom" (1944), "The Yearling" (1946), "Gentlemen's Agreement" (1947) and "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949).
Peck, who was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, Calif., made his film debut in "Days of Glory" in 1944.
A lanky, charismatic movie star, Peck's long career also included such classics as "Roman Holiday," "Spellbound," "Captain Horatio Hornblower," "The Guns of Navarone" and the title role in "MacArthur."
He also played a lawyer terrorized by a man he helped put in jail in 1962's "Cape Fear," and had a cameo in the remake of the film in 1991.
Over the years, Peck did not limit himself to one specific type of role.
He portrayed a priest in "Keys of the Kingdom," combat heroes in "Twelve O'Clock High" and "Pork Chop Hill," Westerners in "Yellow Sky" and "The Gunfighter," and a romantic in "Roman Holiday."
He also played infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in the dramatic thriller "The Boys from Brazil," as well as an ambassador who discovers his son is Antichrist in the horror-thriller "The Omen."
Offscreen as well as on, Peck conveyed a quiet dignity and was never touched by scandal. He had one amicable divorce, from Greta Rice, to whom he was married to from 1942 to 1955.
Peck served as president of the Motion Picture Academy and was active in the Motion Picture and Television Fund, American Cancer Society, National Endowment for the Arts and other causes.
Peck won honorary Oscar -- the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award -- in 1968. According to AP, Peck insisted he was not a "do-gooder" after he learned he'd be getting the award.
"It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian," Peck said. "I simply take part in activities that I believe in."
In addition to his wife, Peck is survived by children with Rice, Stephen and Carey; and his children Passani, Tony and Cecilia.
He was preceded in death by his oldest son with Rice, Jonathan, who committed suicide in 1975 at the age of 30.
In the 1962 classic, Finch was a faultlessly noble widower raising a daughter and son amid Southern racial unrest as he defended a black man accused of raping a white woman.
The role earned Peck his only Best Actor Oscar. He was also nominated four of the first five years he was in films, for Best Actor for his roles in "The Keys to the Kingdom" (1944), "The Yearling" (1946), "Gentlemen's Agreement" (1947) and "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949).
Peck, who was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, Calif., made his film debut in "Days of Glory" in 1944.
A lanky, charismatic movie star, Peck's long career also included such classics as "Roman Holiday," "Spellbound," "Captain Horatio Hornblower," "The Guns of Navarone" and the title role in "MacArthur."
He also played a lawyer terrorized by a man he helped put in jail in 1962's "Cape Fear," and had a cameo in the remake of the film in 1991.
Over the years, Peck did not limit himself to one specific type of role.
He portrayed a priest in "Keys of the Kingdom," combat heroes in "Twelve O'Clock High" and "Pork Chop Hill," Westerners in "Yellow Sky" and "The Gunfighter," and a romantic in "Roman Holiday."
He also played infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in the dramatic thriller "The Boys from Brazil," as well as an ambassador who discovers his son is Antichrist in the horror-thriller "The Omen."
Offscreen as well as on, Peck conveyed a quiet dignity and was never touched by scandal. He had one amicable divorce, from Greta Rice, to whom he was married to from 1942 to 1955.
Peck served as president of the Motion Picture Academy and was active in the Motion Picture and Television Fund, American Cancer Society, National Endowment for the Arts and other causes.
Peck won honorary Oscar -- the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award -- in 1968. According to AP, Peck insisted he was not a "do-gooder" after he learned he'd be getting the award.
"It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian," Peck said. "I simply take part in activities that I believe in."
In addition to his wife, Peck is survived by children with Rice, Stephen and Carey; and his children Passani, Tony and Cecilia.
He was preceded in death by his oldest son with Rice, Jonathan, who committed suicide in 1975 at the age of 30.Copyright 2003 by Lifewhile.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
