Gregory Peck (1916-2003)
June 12, 2003 12:26 PM Subscribe
Actor Gregory Peck, whose role as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) won him the Academy Award for Best Actor--and ranking earlier this month as "the greatest hero in 100 years of film history" by the American Film Institute--passed away at age 87.
Uh-oh. If they died on the same day, that means they were the same person, like Jim Henson and Sammy Davis, Jr.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:37 PM on June 12, 2003
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:37 PM on June 12, 2003
MrMoonPie: That's how I knew that Leon Redbone wasn't really Frank Zappa (pardon the Flash-heavy site) in disguise.
posted by alumshubby at 1:00 PM on June 12, 2003
posted by alumshubby at 1:00 PM on June 12, 2003
Classy guy -- *great* voice. My favorite film of his was a delightful little comedy from 1957 called "Designing Woman," with Lauren Bacall.
posted by davidmsc at 1:00 PM on June 12, 2003
posted by davidmsc at 1:00 PM on June 12, 2003
Today the celebrities are dying off like flies.
Is it related somehow to that weird Gambian Pouched Rat phenomenon?
posted by troutfishing at 1:26 PM on June 12, 2003
Is it related somehow to that weird Gambian Pouched Rat phenomenon?
posted by troutfishing at 1:26 PM on June 12, 2003
I never much cared for To Kill a Mockingbird. Roman Holliday was his best, I think. RIP.
posted by electro at 1:32 PM on June 12, 2003
posted by electro at 1:32 PM on June 12, 2003
This makes me sad. No celebrity today--not even Pacino or DeNiro--has as much character as Peck or Bogey or Marylin or Satchmo or Cary Grant or Audrey Hepburn or Uncle Miltie or Mathau or Lemmon or Sammy Davis Jr or any of them...
Where are all the characters these days? What has happened to our celebrities? Today's cookie-cutter pretty faces just don't stand up. I guess it has something to do with the times.
posted by Shane at 1:34 PM on June 12, 2003
Where are all the characters these days? What has happened to our celebrities? Today's cookie-cutter pretty faces just don't stand up. I guess it has something to do with the times.
posted by Shane at 1:34 PM on June 12, 2003
My favorite Peck movies have always been the aforementioned Roman Holiday, and The Boys From Brazil, which just shows the range Peck had as an actor.
...
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:58 PM on June 12, 2003
...
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:58 PM on June 12, 2003
Well, that makes two. Wonder who the third will be...
Hint: we will be subjected to another round of "THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES" headlines...
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:04 PM on June 12, 2003
Hint: we will be subjected to another round of "THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES" headlines...
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:04 PM on June 12, 2003
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posted by Yelling At Nothing at 2:53 PM on June 12, 2003
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 2:53 PM on June 12, 2003
David Finch dead at 82. Gregory Peck lost at 87. Where is the surprise here? In truth, we lost these people years ago. In old age, death is to be expected, and often welcomed. I don't see the loss here.
When James Dean died, that was a loss. Old people dying is just business as usual. (Unless you are also old and it's your spouse, maybe.)
posted by son_of_minya at 2:58 PM on June 12, 2003
When James Dean died, that was a loss. Old people dying is just business as usual. (Unless you are also old and it's your spouse, maybe.)
posted by son_of_minya at 2:58 PM on June 12, 2003
He will be missed...
My sentiments exactly Shane, today's crop of stars seem cheap and transparent as compared to those greats of the past. In addition to all those films already mentioned, check him out in Arabesque and The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.
posted by beatnik808 at 3:02 PM on June 12, 2003
My sentiments exactly Shane, today's crop of stars seem cheap and transparent as compared to those greats of the past. In addition to all those films already mentioned, check him out in Arabesque and The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit.
posted by beatnik808 at 3:02 PM on June 12, 2003
Wow. Not like To Kill a Mockingbird? One of the all-time great film adaptations of a novel.
Peck was great at expressing a range of emotion with very little "acting."
posted by divrsional at 3:12 PM on June 12, 2003
Peck was great at expressing a range of emotion with very little "acting."
posted by divrsional at 3:12 PM on June 12, 2003
Oh, how I loved Roman Holiday. The look on his face at the end, as Audrey Hepburn shakes his hand and says "So happy..."
I melt every time. Gregory Peck was one of my favorite actors.
Speaking of "wherefore the stars of yesteryear", I recently re-watched "From Here To Eternity". Burt Lancaster sure was a stud, wasn't he?
posted by padraigin at 3:12 PM on June 12, 2003
I melt every time. Gregory Peck was one of my favorite actors.
Speaking of "wherefore the stars of yesteryear", I recently re-watched "From Here To Eternity". Burt Lancaster sure was a stud, wasn't he?
posted by padraigin at 3:12 PM on June 12, 2003
It's not a question of surprise son_of_minya. Get this: we are all going to die, so where's the surprise in anyone's passing?
While a young death may be untimely, that doesn't invalidate someone's desire to pay tribute, mourn, or acknowledge the passing of any person, no matter how old they may be - or to feel a sense of loss at their passing either!
posted by madamjujujive at 3:18 PM on June 12, 2003
While a young death may be untimely, that doesn't invalidate someone's desire to pay tribute, mourn, or acknowledge the passing of any person, no matter how old they may be - or to feel a sense of loss at their passing either!
posted by madamjujujive at 3:18 PM on June 12, 2003
WolfDaddy: Screw you. And I do not mean that literally.
I meant to write "David Brinkley," but I guess that shows how little I care about the guy dying.
Bah humbug.
posted by son_of_minya at 3:32 PM on June 12, 2003
I meant to write "David Brinkley," but I guess that shows how little I care about the guy dying.
Bah humbug.
posted by son_of_minya at 3:32 PM on June 12, 2003
I meant to write "David Brinkley,"
Here I was afraid we wouldn't get "Fight Club II".
posted by yerfatma at 3:37 PM on June 12, 2003
Here I was afraid we wouldn't get "Fight Club II".
posted by yerfatma at 3:37 PM on June 12, 2003
For great Gregory Peck films, there's also William Wyler's 1958 anti-western, The Big Country. Gregory Peck was my favorite. sniff.
posted by win_k at 4:55 PM on June 12, 2003
posted by win_k at 4:55 PM on June 12, 2003
When James Dean died, that was a loss. Au contraire, he died young--and Jim Morrison, too--so both could be forever commodified to succeeding generations of the callow, shallow and unwrinkled. Of course, if Morrison had lived, he'd make David Crosby look svelte and Dean would look something like Christopher Lloyd--no poster sales there! Can't be a cult figure if you actually do get a life.
I remember watching Gregory Peck at the Kennedy honors for Bob Dylan--now if he'd died in his motorcyle accident in '67, there'd be some fantasy poster action, if not churches built--where he made a presentation as a sort of payback for Dylan's tribute to the Gunfighter in Brownsville Girl with it's immortal Oh if there's an original thought out there, I could use it right now.
And now I will remember
There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice.
I don't remember who I was or where I was bound.
All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun and he was shot in the back.
Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down.
for ahile as well.
posted by y2karl at 5:06 PM on June 12, 2003
I remember watching Gregory Peck at the Kennedy honors for Bob Dylan--now if he'd died in his motorcyle accident in '67, there'd be some fantasy poster action, if not churches built--where he made a presentation as a sort of payback for Dylan's tribute to the Gunfighter in Brownsville Girl with it's immortal Oh if there's an original thought out there, I could use it right now.
And now I will remember
There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice.
I don't remember who I was or where I was bound.
All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun and he was shot in the back.
Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down.
for ahile as well.
posted by y2karl at 5:06 PM on June 12, 2003
My favs: The Guns of Navarone (great adventure flick before they became today's cliches) and Spellbound (romantic thriller -- claptrap psychiatry and all -- with Ingrid Bergman, with Hitchcock directing).
(I haven't seen To Kill a Mockingbird yet. I need to.)
posted by pmurray63 at 9:07 PM on June 12, 2003
(I haven't seen To Kill a Mockingbird yet. I need to.)
posted by pmurray63 at 9:07 PM on June 12, 2003
It is worth noting today that Gregory Peck's first movie role was that of a Russian partisan leader fighting the Nazis in a 1943 pro-Soviet propaganda film "Days of Glory."
Yes, old gringo, you were once the man in the grey flannel suit on a Roman holiday who made a gentleman's agreement with Moby Dick and became just one of the boys from Brazil: an omen to kill a mockingbird, if not the guns of Navarone. We were spellbound by your arabesque, and we will never forget you.
posted by rdone at 9:30 PM on June 12, 2003
Yes, old gringo, you were once the man in the grey flannel suit on a Roman holiday who made a gentleman's agreement with Moby Dick and became just one of the boys from Brazil: an omen to kill a mockingbird, if not the guns of Navarone. We were spellbound by your arabesque, and we will never forget you.
posted by rdone at 9:30 PM on June 12, 2003
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posted by Ufez Jones at 12:32 PM on June 12, 2003