Obit: Gregory Peck

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 08:53 PM

Well, I'll be. I just watched him playing Ambrose Bierce in "Old Gringo" (with Jimmy Smits and Jane Fonda).

"To Kill a Mockingbird", "Moby Dick", "On the Beach" (Even with Waltzing Matilda) Just one excellent film and one stunning acting job after another. I'd forgotton about "The Boys From Brazil".

Well done, Mr. Peck!

CB

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: BanjoRay
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 05:32 PM

Watch Moby Dick and you'll hear A L Lloyd singing some lovely shanties.
Ray

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 01:28 PM

I agree - it should have won an award for the most overused song in a movie. High Noon comes in a close second.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 01:03 PM

Dunno. But I just watched "On the Beach" for the first time in many years the other night and, by God, never want to hear "Waltzing Matilda" again.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 10 Dec 03 - 12:55 PM

Just raking this one up again to ask, has anyone noticed that the actor who plays Detective Foyle's side kick (in 'Foyle's War' on Channel 3 on Sunday nights here in UK) looks like a young Gregory Peck?

Sal

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 12:25 PM

Thanks burl. I always meant to keep her name in mind, but it slipped from view and this thread reminded that I'd never seen it again.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 10:07 AM

Fionn, I have to agree. Gregory Peck did have a well fulfilled life, crowned with success and recognition, and we should celebrate that fact. I think that the sadness we are expressing may be our own, that we won't see more output from this talented man. About Harper Lee, I may be wrong, and somebody please corrct me if I am, but I think that it was her only book. Burl.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 09:23 PM

I can't believe he's gone anywhere, LH, but I do find the outpouring of sadness a bit odd when it was such a fulfilled life.

It was indeed "Miss Jean Louise" in the book, Spaw, because it was a "negro" who was addressing her. It comes as quite a jolt when we've got so used to "Scout." But I don't know whether Harper Lee's subtleties survived into the film.

Thread creep: Did Harper Lee ever write anything else?

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Fiolar
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 05:25 AM

Apologies. In my posting of June 12th, I said that Gregory was a distant relation of Austin Stack. I meant Thomas Ashe (faulty memory). Ashe (1885 - 1917) died in Mountjoy jail when he was forcibly fed while on hunger strike. He was the author of the beautiful poem "Let Me Carry Your Cross for Ireland, Lord."

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 05:38 AM

Good point Ms Lemon. Movie people do have immortality. And Gregory Peck certainly was handsome. His looks, rather like Fonda and Stewart, made you feel that decency and honesty would prevail in a nasty world, that you could bet your house on his handshake. He was just the man to play Atticus Finch, and the exposer of anti-Semitism in 'Gentleman's Agreement'. Burl

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 05:18 AM

I first saw him in 'Moby Dick' when I was about 8 years old. I thought he was the best looking man alive and fell in love. I'm so glad we have the magic world of film so that wonderful people live on for ever.

Sal

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 05:01 AM

Well deserved tributes to Gregory Peck. Watching him you were concious of having seen a great actor, but he never appeared to be 'acting'. He brought integrity to every role he played. As others have stated, his Atticus Finch was awsome. I also enjoyed him in two of his lighter roles,'Roman Holiday' (a joy forever) and 'The Million Pound Note'. RIP and Thanks Gregory.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 01:13 AM

I'll never forget my first sight of him as Horatio Hornblower. I saw the movie again a few years ago, and it was much more fun than I remembered. More fun that the original books, in fact.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: alanabit
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 11:24 PM

Has anyone mentioned "Twelve o'Clock High" yet? I always admired that film very much.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: GUEST,Cookieless Mrr
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 07:41 PM

One thing about the lines in the movie - wherever possible, they quoted the book exactly. My bet is whatever Ms. Lee wrote, that is what was said up on that balcony.

I remember when I first read the book I thought he'd had a heart attack - that "passin'" meant "dyin'" - so I cried rather more than necessary. I also took 2 readings to figure out/notice that Scout was a girl - the few references to Jem's "sister" I took to be about someone who wasn't in the house right now, or something.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:40 PM

It's amazing that onone has mentioned " Duel in the Sun" ( must be an age thing ). That was such a notorious movie when I was growing up And Greg was so   "unpeckish" as the wild cowboy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 02:24 PM

I don't look upon the passing of people as "sad", because I feel that they are leaving the limitations of this Earthly life and moving grandly into the greater dimension of their living soul, just like someone leaving high school at graduation time...but...I understand that people miss them when they go.

Gregory Peck was a man of great dignity and presence. He was a delight to watch and listen to. I consider his life here to have been a triumph and I trust that he is now moving on to further triumphs and greater ones.

Bravo, Mr Peck. Well done. You will be loved and remembered for a long time by those who knew you as "Gregory Peck, the film star". It was a most interesting role, and you played it perfectly.

- LH

Subject: Obit: The very lamented Gregory Peck
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 10:48 AM

What a lovely man. No tabloid EVER said anything nasty about him. In his professional and personal life, what a gentleman, what integrity. We could all aspire to emulate that man. He will be missed.

---

I moved this message here from another thread on the same topic.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 01:01 PM

Mark, He was in a movie playing a lawyer or barrister in England--but that's about as much as I remember about it. And I don't think they tried to make him seem English. Something about his having an affair with his client.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 12:52 PM

What a beautiful speaking voice, and wonderful diction too. Also managed to enter cockney rhyming slang [according to Del Trotter] as "a pain in the Gregory" meaning a pain in the neck. This is an honour accorded to very few people. Will be much missed.
Giok

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Steve-o
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 12:39 PM

To have people know, when your life ends, that you are a great professional (actor) and also a great human being has to be as good as it gets. Gregory Peck was one of the true greats. BTW, you want to see him do "bad guy"?- check out "The Boys From Brazil", with Lawrence Olivier as the "good guy". Wow.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Tam the bam fraeSaltcoatsScotland
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 11:09 AM

So Auld Captian Ahab is dead, sad to hear of his Passing.

A true film star.
Tom

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 04:42 AM

I think you're right on the Jean Louise. I thought about that after I posted but wasn't sure. Again though, whatever it is, it's a great scene. The comments on the screenplay were interesting. There are very few movies that can remove major portions and important story lines from a book and still make me think the movie is almost an equal to the book. "Cider House Rules" is another. Takes a great book to make a screenplay so strong.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 04:37 AM

No Christmas used to be complete without the re-showing of the Guns of Navarone, before it was replaced with the Great Escape as the movie of choice for the somnolent stuffed.
   An interesting by-product of Gregory Peck's series of wonderful movies is the proliferation of Gregs in the world.I never meet Gregs older than me(I was born in 1945, just too early for my parents to have been influenced by Gregory Peck). But once the movies started little Gregorys, Gregors and Gregs started to appear in a never-ending stream.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 03:55 AM

'Spaw, I thought it was, "Stand up, Miss Jean Louise, your father's passin'." I looked in the book, and it says, "Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passin'." Maybe somebody knows for sure what the line in the movie was. Not that it matters, of course. (By the way, my paperback copy of the novel has a cover price of 75 cents!) So many memorable lines in that book and movie.

Didn't Peck play an English lawyer in a film from the 40s?

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 12:48 AM

I spoke to screen writer Horton Foote recently via a radio call-in show in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Many questions about To Kill a Mockingbird. Mine had to do with ommissions necessary and how to fit the entire story into one normal-length movie. Foote said they decided to compress three years (in the novel) into one (in the movie). And the editor dropped characters who Foote had included (Mrs. Dubose). All of us were in awe of Peck's performance. Who among us who are parents doesn't wish they could be more like Harper Lee's Atticus Finch? Peck scored a perfect "10" in his portrayal of Atticus.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 11:49 PM

And thanks to Harper Lee for the book.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: DonMeixner
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 08:43 PM

To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Yearling, PorkChop Hill, and Captain Horatio Hornblower are on my don't miss/always watch list. There are many others of Peck's films that should be on the list but I haven't seen them yet.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: C-flat
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 07:56 PM

I re-read "To Kill A Mockingbird" recently (it's my favourite book) and find that I can't read it without visualising Gregory Peck as "Atticus", such was his presence in the film version.
A truly great actor.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: michaelr
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 07:27 PM

One of the first films I remember seeing is Stanley Donen's "Arabesque", starring Gregory Peck (opposite Sofia Loren) as a college professor. At one point he is given a truth drug but it affects him as if it was LSD (this was the 60s), and he ends up bull-fighting traffic on the freeway! A fun movie.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 05:22 PM

Two of Gregory Peck's movies that I have videos of. I regard them as two of the best films of all time:—

Gregory Peck as James McKay in The Big Country. The review here is not all that complimentary to the film, but I can see where the reviewer is coming from. The Big Country contains every cliché that ever occurred in a Western movie: the mysterious misfit stranger (Peck), the ranch foreman (Charlton Heston) in love with the rich rancher's spoiled daughter (Carrol Baker), the pretty school marm (Jean Simmons), a feud over water rights (between Charles Bickford and Burl Ives), a shoot-out between McKay and Buck Hannassey (Chuck Connors)—but with dueling pistols, not six-guns—and the movie is packed full of stereotypes. But that's one of the things that makes it work. It's The Ultimate Western.

[Burl Ives got his Oscar, not for playing "Big Daddy" in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as many people think, but for playing Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country. Outstanding performance!]

And To Kill a Mockingbird. This movie is an absolute gem. Perfection. As the personification of quiet strength and rock-solid integrity, one couldn't find a better role model than Atticus Finch.

Goodbye, Mr. Peck. And thank you.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: SINSULL
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 05:13 PM

"The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit".
I would have loved to see him laugh out loud.

I agree, Linn. He was by far the best looking man in film. AND he could act. Ah well. Gone.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 05:01 PM

Not only a gentleman, but one of the handsomest men in film.

Watched "Gentlemen's Agreement" not long ago and rewatched "To Kill a Mockingbird" as I try to do on a regular basis.

Linn

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Giac
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 04:38 PM

Goodnight, Mr. Peck. Goodnight, David. Two of the greats.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 04:29 PM

There is a very good write up about him at the Miami Herald. Sounds as though he was just as much a gentleman off-camera as on. Really wonderful person.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: RangerSteve
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 04:24 PM

That he could be the greatest hero (Atticus) and one of the best obsessed maniacs (Capt. Ahab) says a lot for his acting skills. And I don't recall any scandals attached to his name. We don't too many actors like Mr. Peck anymore.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 04:23 PM

Gregory peck was always such a gentleman, for years I just assumed he was English. One of my top favorites, although, he never quite made it as Ahab. Not evil enough.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Fiolar
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 04:11 PM

So sad. Another great legend passes. His death comes less than a week after his role as Atticus Finch was voted the greatest film hero of all time. Ar Deis De le na hAnam. I understand that he was a distant relation of Austin Stack (1879 - 1929) who was the commandant of the Kerry Brigade of the Irish Volunteers in 1916.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 04:10 PM

This is truly sad. Can't think of anything to add that hasn't already been said. Incredible actor. Thank goodness we do have his performances to watch over and over. What a legacy.

I'll bet he and Brinkley are having a gentlemanly chat.

kat

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: fat B****rd
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 04:05 PM

A great actor, so long Atticus RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: alanabit
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 03:56 PM

For sure it was one of the best films ever made. I think the man had a long and happy life and he has left us some fine films which will last.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 03:51 PM

That one movie makes a whole legacy by itself (Mockingbird). I am grateful he lived as long and as well as he did.

A

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 03:25 PM

Tough day for losing legends, Peck and Brinkley.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 03:24 PM

I am sure you are right, CP, I was vaguely quoting. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 03:05 PM

Very sad. Karen and I are both huge fans. So many wonderful characters/roles.........The writer in "Gentleman's Agreement" and the general in "Twelve O'Clock High"........."Moby Dick" and "Horatio Hornblower" and "MacArthur" and "How the West Was Won" and on and on never forgetting the likes of "Roman Holiday" or "Belioved Infidel" or "The Yearling."

As PT stated, few can ever forget the his greatest role, portraying so well Harper Lee's beautiful character Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird." Had he done nothing else, that would have been enough.

BTW Peter, I may be wrong, but I think that line is "Stand Up Miz Scout...Your father's passin'." Whatever it is exactly, it still gets a tear from me.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: Alba
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 03:02 PM

A true "Star". Sad to hear of his passing.
Moby Dick and Beloved Infidel rank among my favorite Films.
He gave us many wonderful performances during his career and I Thank him for it.


A

Subject: Obit: Gregory Peck
From: GUEST,Peter T.
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 02:45 PM

Two scenes of him walking out of a room:

The last scene in Roman Holiday, where both he and Hepburn do their "duty" -- who would imagine that nowadays?

The scene in To Kill A Mockingbird that everyone knows. "Stand up, your father is leaving the court".

yours,

Peter T.