Gregory Peck, biography of the American actor

The fascination of black and white has always had an undeniable power of attraction on the viewer. That type of cinema, especially American-style, is rightly found in the Olympus of myth. Above all thanks to actors of a certain caliber and thickness, with a magnetic effect in front of the camera. Gregory Peck had this power and many others. A character that any good novice actor would have at least one thing to learn from.

In the series, when talent is cultivated from the very beginning, combining it with self-denial and sacrifice.

Summary

The beginnings of Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck is an American actor, a native of San Diego. He was born precisely on April 5, 1916. According to what the American Film Institute affirms, he represents one of the greatest stars ever in American cinema and beyond.

She has Scottish and Irish origins due to her parents. At 20 he enrolled in the medical school and at the same time took up the sport of rowing full time. Everything changes when, starting in 1938, he moves to Los Angeles and officially enrolls in an acting school.

The first love remains the theater . He engages in some important theatrical activities which, however, keep him a little restrained from a professional point of view. Thus comes the time to definitely take off in the field of acting, moving to the cinema.

Gregory Peck’s early films

The first film of a long and honored career is Tamara , daughter of the steppe, from 1944. Here she plays the role of a Russian partisan. From then on he will take on roles oriented mostly towards romantic and sentimental comedies. His acting style demands it, always rather calm and measured. It is no coincidence that the characters represented were above all idealists and of rather impressive moral stature.

Second film and The Keys of Heaven , where he plays a young priest. He was awarded his first Oscar nomination. 1945 is the year of the definitive consecration on a professional level. This is because he meets a legend of American and international cinema like Alfred Hitchcock on his way . One of the most influential and famous directors on the world scene decides to cast him in his new film, Io ti salvero , 1945. Alongside him he will play a female star of the cinema of the time as Ingrid Bergman .

It is the inevitable sign that Gregory Peck has now reached very high peaks of popularity and satisfaction with the public, despite the fact that he still had little experience on the set.

He thus became a star and an actor still remembered today as one of the beautiful in Hollywood .

Gregory Peck’s Acknowledgments

Consents justified by a moral and social commitment to which Gregory had become accustomed, so much so that the American president Lyndon B. Johnson in 1969 officially awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom . One of the highest honors at an institutional level.

The second Oscar nomination comes thanks to the work of Clarence Brown on the film The Pup, dated 1946. He meets Hitchcock once again on his way to The Paradine case. He starred with Elia Kazan for Invisible Barrier the following year, thanks to which he obtained his third consecutive Oscar nomination. It touches on the delicate theme of anti-Semitism.

One of the partners with whom Gregory Peck had the greatest affinity on the set and certainly Ava Gardner, whom he finds in at least 3 films. The war film Cielo di fuoco of ’49 earned him his fourth Oscar nomination.

Gregory Peck from the 1950s and 1960s

The 1950s only reinforce Gregory Peck’s image and popularity among the crowd. He plays the role of Hemingway in The Snows of Chilimanjaro with actresses Susan Hayward and Ava Gardner alongside him.

He then joined Audrey Hepburn in the legendary Roman Holiday of 1953. He is a journalist, she is a princess. He mythical the scene of the escape on a vespa through the Roman streets.

Renowned directors compete to grab it and assign it the most poignant and committed parts possible, even on a social level. This is why Gregory Peck’s interpretations always appear morally and professionally impeccable.

Darkness Beyond the Hedge , directed by Robert Mulligan, is the most important film in Peck’s career. If only because it allows him to finally snatch the Oscar for best actor in 1963 .

One of the last professional shots of this great actor. Towards the middle of the 1960s its downward parable officially begins. He shoots the latest cartridges through, for example, the well-known thriller The Omen.

The last years and his death in 2003

At the beginning of the 90s he tried to work alongside actors of the caliber of Robert De Niro , Nick Nolte and others in order to regain some lost popularity. But the effect is not the desired one and those years redefine an avenue of the sunset already foretold.

Gregory Peck had 3 children in his life. A rather tormented private life, almost definitively marked by the death of the firstborn dated June 26, 1975. It is hypothesized that he committed suicide.

The American actor, on the other hand, died on June 12, 2003 in his home in Los Angeles, definitively hit by a severe form of bronchopneumonia. 

Today he rests in the mausoleum crypt of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.

Film Gregory Peck

Here is Gregory Peck’s complete filmography, in chronological order:

1. Tamara, Daughter of the Steppe (Days of Glory), by Jacques Tourneur (1944)
2. The Keys of the Kingdom, by John M. Stahl (1944)
3. The Valley of Decision, directed by Tay Garnett (1945)
4. Spellbound, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1945)
5. The Yearling, by Clarence Brown (1946)
6. Duel in the Sun, by King Vidor (1946)
7. Wild Passion (The Macomber Affair), by Zoltan Korda (1947)
8. Invisible Barrier (Gentleman’s Agreement), by Elia Kazan (1947)
9. The Paradine Case (The Paradine Case), directed by Alfred Hitchcock (1947)
10. Yellow Sky, by William A. Wellman (1948)
11. The Great Sinner, by Robert Siodmak (1949)
12. Twelve O’Clock High, by Henry King (1949)
13. The Gunfighter, by Henry King (1950)
14. The Adventures of Captain Hornblower, the Daredevil (Captain Horatio Hornblower RN), by Raoul Walsh (1951)
15. Only the Valiant, by Gordon Douglas (1951)
16. David e Betsabea (David and Bathsheba), regia di Henry King (1951)
17. The World in His Arms, by Raoul Walsh (1952)
18. Le nevi del Chilimanjaro (The Snows of Kilimanjaro), directed by Henry King (1952)
19. Roman Holiday, by William Wyler (1953)
20. The Million Pound Note, by Ronald Neame (1953)
21. Night People, by Nunnally Johnson (1954)
22. The Purple Plain, directed by Robert Parrish (1954)
23. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Nunnally Johnson (1956)
24. Moby Dick, the White Whale (Moby Dick), by John Huston (1956)
25. Designing Woman, by Vincente Minnelli (1957)
26. Bravados (The Bravados), regia di Henry King (1958)
27. The Big Country, by William Wyler (1958)
28. 38th parallel: mission accomplished (Pork Chop Hill), directed by Lewis Milestone (1959)
29. Beloved Infidel, by Henry King (1959)
30. On the Beach, by Stanley Kramer (1959)
31. The Guns of Navarone, directed by J. Lee Thompson (1961)
32. Cape Fear, by J. Lee Thompson (1962)
33. La conquista del West (How the West Was Won), regia di John Ford, Henry Hathaway e George Marshall (1962)
34. To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Robert Mulligan (1962)
35. Capitan Newman (Captain Newman, M.D.), regia di David Miller (1963)
36. … and the Day of Vengeance Came (Behold a Pale Horse), directed by Fred Zinnemann (1964)
37. Mirage, by Edward Dmytryk (1965)
38. Arabesque, directed by Stanley Donen (1966)
39. The Stalking Moon, by Robert Mulligan (1968)
40. Mackenna’s Gold, directed by J. Lee Thompson (1969)
41. The long yellow shadow (The Chairman), by J. Lee Thompson (1969)
42. Marooned, by John Sturges (1969)
43. I Walk the Line, by John Frankenheimer (1970)
44. The Solitaire in Rio Grande (Shoot Out), by Henry Hathaway (1971)
45. Billy Two Hats, directed by Ted Kotcheff (1974)
46. The Omen, by Richard Donner (1976)
47. MacArthur the Rebel General (MacArthur), by Joseph Sargent (1977)
48. The Boys from Brazil, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (1978)
49. The Wild Goose Strikes Again (The Sea Wolves), directed by Andrew V. McLaglen (1980)
50. Amazing Grace and Chuck, directed by Mike Newell (1987)
51. Old Gringo – Il vecchio gringo (Old Gringo), directed by Luis Puenzo (1989)
52. Other People’s Money, by Norman Jewison (1991)
53. Cape Fear – Cape Fear, directed by Martin Scorsese (1991)
54. The Last Word – The True Story of Dalton Trumbo (Trumbo), directed by Jay Roach (2015) (repertoire)