Eldred Gregory Peck

Born: 4/5/1916, La Jolla, CA
Died: 6/12/2003, Los Angeles, CA

Actor
Common Ancestor:
Thomas Roberts
8th Gr Grandfather
of Merle G Ladd		 7th Gr Grandfather
of Gregory Peck
 
Elizabeth Roberts Sarah Roberts
Anne Heard Samuel Royce
Jean B Cholet Bethia Rich
Marie S Cholet Samuel Sparks
Marie U Lauzon Sarah Sparks
Josephte Dicaire Eliza M Daggett
Octave Compo John D Ayres
Mary A Compo Bernice M Ayres
Edith Emma Eby E Gregory Peck
Merle G Ladd  
 
Relationship to Merle G Ladd:
8th Cousin, 1 Times Removed
Gregory Peck was born in California in 1916. His goal as a college student (or at least his father's goal for him) was to become a doctor, and while we know from his movie portrayals of physicians that he would have had a tremendous bedside manner, he gave that up to become an English major, and then an actor.

After appearing on Broadway in 1943, he headed for Hollywood, where he achieved instant stardom with an Oscar nomination for only his second film The Keys of the Kingdom (1944). He went on to receive several more nominations and finally an Oscar for his role of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, which was also nominated for Best Picture and appears on many lists of favorite classic films. Peck was once quoted as saying, "I probably, without exaggeration, have had a hundred grown men over the years come to me and say, 'I became a lawyer because of Atticus Finch'." (We're not sure whether to thank him for this or not!)

His off-screen life was in some ways a mirror of his most famous heroic characters. He was always one of Hollywood's most active people, involved in charities and politics. He was a member of the National Council on the Arts, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute and president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and even chairman of the American Cancer Society.

He earned the Medal of Freedom Award and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and received a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1989, as well as awards from the Museum of Modern Art (1990), the John F. Kennedy Center (1991) and the Film Society of Lincoln Center (1991).