Gregory Peck Dead at 87
June 12 -- Oscar-winning actor Gregory Peck, star of Roman Holiday and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, has died, just just days after his character in To Kill a Mockingbird was voted the greatest hero in Hollywood history. He was 87.
Peck brought quiet strength and dignity to so many larger-than-life roles, but he was probably best known for his 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird. He won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, a genteel Southern lawyer defending a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman.
Peck died overnight at his Los Angeles home, with his wife, Veronique, at his side, said family spokesman Monroe Friedman.
"She told me very briefly that he died peacefully. 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," Friedman said.
On Monday, the American Film Institute announced that Peck's turn as Atticus Finch had earned him the top spot on the group's list of top 100 movie heroes. He edged out Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Sean Connery's James Bond from Dr. No, who were second and third on the list.
Tall, Dark and Handsome Activist
Peck, a five-time Oscar nominee, had been known as an activist and served as a producer of Mockingbird. He frequently parleyed his star power to support progressive movies, and the film, adapted from Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, became a milestone in the civil rights movement.
"There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son," Peck says as Atticus Finch. "I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible."
In another daring career move, Peck starred in Gentlemen's Agreement, one of the first films to dealt with anti-Semitism. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role as a reporter who pretends to be Jewish in order to expose bigotry.
Peck always seemed to be playing the tall, dark and handsome good guy who battled adversity or confronted a moral dilemma. In The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, he played a World War II vet trying to provide for his wife and children as he grapples with ethical questions and wartime memories.
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