Gregory Peck Net Worth

Gregory Peck's Quotes

• [when he discovered that his second wife, French journalist Veronique Peck, had passed up an opportunity to interview Albert Schweitzer at a lunch hosted by Jean-Paul Sartre in order to go out on a date with Peck] You made the right choice, kiddo!
• [on his 1962 Oscar-winning role in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)] I put everything I had into it - all my feelings and everything I'd learned in 46 years of living, about family life and fathers and children. And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity.
• They say the bad guys are more interesting to play but there is more to it than that - playing the good guys is more challenging because it's harder to make them interesting.
• I just do things I really enjoy. I enjoy acting. When I'm driving to the studio, I sing in the car. I love my work and my wife and my kids and my friends. And I think, "You're a lucky man, Gregory Peck, a damn lucky man."
• Gregory Peck is the hottest thing in town. Some say he is a second Gary Cooper. Actually, he is the first Gregory Peck.

Interesting Facts about Gregory Peck

1. His earliest movie memory is of being so scared by The Phantom of the Opera (1925) at age 9 that his grandmother allowed him to sleep in the bed with her that night.
2. Received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley (1939). He also rowed on the university's JV crew.
3. Of his own movies, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is Peck's favourite.
4. Children, with Greta Kukkonen: Jonathan Peck (b. 1944 - d. 1975), Stephen Peck (b. 1946) and Carey Paul Peck (b. 1949).
5. Children with Veronique Peck: Tony Peck (b. 1956) and Cecilia Peck (b. 1958).
6. Oldest son, Jon, committed suicide by gunshot. [1975]
7. Chairman, Motion Picture & Television Relief Fund. [1971]
8. Recipient, Presidential Medal of Freedom, nation's highest civilian award, awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson. [1969]
9. (1968-1974) Charter Member, National Council on the Arts.
10. National Chairman, American Cancer Society. [1966]
11. (1964-1966) Charter Member, National Council on the Arts.
12. (1967-1969) Chairman, American Film Institute. He was the first Chairman of the AFI.
13. Stating he was worried about the 600,000 jobs hanging on the survival of the Chrysler Corporation, he volunteered to become an unpaid TV pitchman for the company in 1980.
14. He took in former co-star Ava Gardner's housekeeper and dog after her death on January 25, 1990.
15. Was in the original version of Cape Fear (1962) in 1962, playing Sam Bowden. He was later brought back for a part in another version of Cape Fear (1991), playing Max Cady's attorney.
16. Honorary chair, Los Angeles Library Foundation. [1995]
17. Was president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) from 1967-1970. He made the decision to postpone the 1968 Oscar ceremony after Martin Luther King's assassination.
18. Chosen by producer Darryl F. Zanuck for the epic film David and Bathsheba (1951) because Zanuck thought Peck had a "biblical face".
19. His ancestry included Irish, English, some German, and distant Welsh. His paternal grandparents were Samuel Peck and Catherine Ashe, and his maternal grandparents were John Daggett Ayers and Katherine Elizabeth Forse. His paternal grandmother was an immigrant from County Kerry, Ireland. She was a relative of Thomas Ashe, an Irish patriot who fought in the Easter Rising in 1916 and died on hunger strike the following year. Many of Gregory's other ancestors were from families that had lived in New England since the 1600s.
20. Seriously considered challenging then California Governor Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign in 1970 but decided against it at the last minute despite state and national pressure from the Democrat Party of California and The Democratic National Committee.