The Academy Award-winning actor continued to work on both the big and small screens until his passing in 2003 at the age of 87. He appeared in numerous timeless films. Let’s look back at 20 of his best movies, from worst to best, in honour of his birthday.
He won the award for the 1962 film adaptation of Harper Lee’s cherished Civil Rights novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” He was nominated for a BAFTA and won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Atticus Finch, a quiet but tenacious Southern attorney who defends an innocent black man against rape accusations.
Peck received Emmy nominations for Best Movie/Mini Supporting Actor for “The Yearling” and the TV miniseries “Moby Dick,” which he also won more Golden Globes for. (He played Father Mapple in that adaptation; in John Huston’s 1956 film adaption, he played Captain Ahab.) He also participated in “The Boys from Brazil,” “MacArthur,” and “Captain Newman, M.D.” (1978). He received a BAFTA nomination for his performance in “Roman Holiday” (1953).
Best Movies With Gregory Peck, Check Out The List
1. THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM (1944)
With this decent (though somewhat conservative) religious film about a Catholic Priest evangelising China, Peck became an overnight success. It goes without saying that the Chinese are initially hesitant to heed his advice, but after years of conflict and hardship, the tenacious holy man wins their respect. Despite being very preachy (for lack of a better word), “The Keys of the Kingdom” showed Peck could hold his own as the star of a motion picture. Although it was originally released in 1944, Peck lost the Best Actor Oscar to Ray Milland in the following year’s Oscar competition (“The Lost Weekend”).
2. DUEL IN THE SUN (1946)
David O. Selznick’s effort to adapt his classic “Gone with the Wind” into a western, “Duel in the Sun,” was marked by the producer’s infamously intrusive micromanagement of every detail (most notably the treatment of the movie’s lead, his wife Jennifer Jones). Prerelease buzz had gotten so awful by the time it eventually hit the screens that it had little prospect of matching the box office results of his own prior successes. Despite being a mixed bag, this soapy melodrama about a stunning woman (Jones) torn between the affections of two rancher brothers (Peck and Joseph Cotten) is at least incredibly enjoyable.
3. THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952)
Peck’s special abilities are best showcased in one of Ernest Hemingway’s greatest short stories. He plays Henry Street, a writer who suffers a serious injury while on safari in Africa, in the movie “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” He contemplates a wasted life and profession while sick with a fever and dying on the mountain, including his unrequited love for Cynthia Green (Ava Gardner), a fictional character invented especially for this version. The movie received Oscar nominations for best cinematography and best art direction. It was primarily filmed on location in Kenya and Egypt.
4. ARABESQUE (1966)
Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren take on the roles of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen’s “Arabesque,” which sees him returning to the genre he excelled with “Charade” (1963). (albeit somewhat reversed). When requested to decipher a secret Arabian message, Peck, a professor of hieroglyphics, finds himself caught up in a web of international intrigue. Loren is the mysterious beauty who assists Peck. The picture is a lovely diversion that makes effective use of its leading man and woman’s star personas, even though it falls short of matching the sparkle and humour of Donen’s earlier Hitchcock parody.
5. THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT (1956)
In this drawn-out adaptation of Sloan Wilson’s best-selling book, Peck plays an ex-soldier who is battling to provide for his wife (Jennifer Jones) and kids. He secures a lucrative position writing speeches for his boss (Fredric March), whose dedication to his career has cost him contentment at home. We learn of Peck’s involvement in World War II through flashbacks, where he had an illegitimate child with a stunning Italian woman (Marisa Paven). In his role as a man torn apart by his moral commitments, Gregory Peck is excellent, and “Mad Men” director Nunnally Johnson does a masterful job of capturing Madison Avenue New York during that time.
6. THE GUNFIGHTER (1950)
For “The Gunslinger,” a tightly packed western with a nearly singular concentration, Peck dons his six-shooter. Jimmy Ringo (Peck), a famed gunslinger, finds his wife Peggy (Helen Westcott), who has abandoned him, when he rides into town to look for her. Even if he doesn’t seek it out, a number of the town’s residents who want him dead bring trouble to him. The Oscar-nominated script by William Bowers and William Sellers, which is only 85 minutes long yet covers a lot of information, is tight and lean.
7. THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978)
An excellent melodramatic thriller that draws influence from some real-life monsters, “The Boys from Brazil” is a potboiler. Ezra Lieberman, played by Laurence Olivier, is an elderly Nazi hunter who discovers a scheme to rekindle the Third Reich. Dr. Joseph Mengele, the notoriously insane Auschwitz doctor who carried out horrifying experiments on Jews in concentration camps, is portrayed by Gregory Peck. James Mason, who plays Eduard Seibert, Mengele’s main contact, chews the scenery like candy. Although Peck was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globes, Olivier competed at the Oscars.
8. THE BIG COUNTRY (1958)
The New England sea captain played by Gregory Peck in William Wyler’s Technicolor epic sails to the West to wed a rancher’s daughter (Carroll Baker), but soon finds himself caught up in a land dispute between two families. As Steve Leech, the combative and fiercely devoted overseer of the Terrill family estate, Charlton Heston steals the show. Burl Ives received the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal as Rufus Hannassey, the patriarch of the struggling rival clan. The Big Country has some spectacular panoramic cinematography and excellent performances, but it’s too long for its own good.
9. THE YEARLING (1946)
One of the best family entertainments is “The Yearling,” a loving version of Marjorie Kinnan Rawling’s best-selling book. The story revolves around a little kid named Claude Jarman Jr. who develops a bond with a deer in post-Civil War Florida. He persuades his loving father (Peck), an ex-Confederate soldier, and mother (Jane Wyman), to adopt the animal and raise him on their farm. A tranquil village hidden in the woods is created by the stunning Technicolor cinematography and art direction (both of which received Oscars). Five further nominations were given to the movie, including Best Picture, Clarence Brown’s direction, Peck and Wyman’s major roles, and film editing. Peck won the Golden Globe, but Fredric March (“The Best Years of Our Lives”) won the Academy Award.
10. MACARTHUR (1977)
This biographical drama about the illustrious military leader, from his years in World War II until his tenure in the Korean War, is dominated by Peck. Joseph Sargent, a multiple-Emmy winner, directs it like an expensive television movie, but there is nothing particularly noteworthy about his work. But Peck triumphs, effortlessly assuming the role of the general who smokes a pipe and wears sunglasses while also expressing the fiery energy that led to his removal from office by President Truman due to insubordination (Ed Flanders). He received a Golden Globe nomination for the part, but the Academy passed him by.
