A Reflection on Gregory Peck
The Children of Mockingbird Call Him Atticus
The election of Barack Obama, our first African-American President, brought to mind the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" and the great actor, Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his role as Atticus Finch in 1962.
Gregory Peck plays a widower with two children in a small Southern town during the Depression. He is an attorney and decides to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a white woman. Atticus Finch represents the highest ideals of a human being, someone who is not only handsome and charismatic but a decent, courageous man of action. Those are the kinds of roles that Gregory Peck primarily played throughout his acting career. He was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, California. "My mother had found 'Eldred' in a phone book, and I was stuck with it," he said. In the spring of 1939, as he was graduating from Berkeley with a B.A., Peck sold his Model A, and, with $160 in his pocket, he took a train to New York to seek his fortune as actor. On the three-day journey, he changed his name to Gregory Peck. Peck missed World War II military service because he ruptured a disk in a dance class with Martha Graham, when she put her knee against his back and pulled, trying to help him bend. Because most of Hollywood's leading men were at war, Peck became popular as a leading man. In the years to follow, he would play many roles, including that of a priest, combat heroes, westerners, King David, sea captains, F. Scott Fitzgerald (author of the short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") and Abraham Lincoln. But the apex of his career came in 1962, "To Kill a Mockingbird." Peck said: "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." Here is part of his speech from "To Kill a Mockingbird", "The defendant is not guilty. But someone in this courtroom is... Now I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence that you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this man to his family. In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson." Tragically, even with all the evidence in Tom Robinson's favor, the jury ends up convicting him, and he is shot to death while trying to escape from prison. Gregory Peck seemed to embody those qualities that made Atticus Finch such a beloved character. A committed liberal and defender of human rights throughout his life, he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights and almost ran for Governor of California against Ronald Reagan. I wish he had, as Reagan almost single-handedly dismantled social services for people who truly need it and now many are homeless who should be treated in mental hospitals. In 2003 when Peck was 87, he died in his home. Almost 3,000 people attended Peck's funeral. Let me conclude with the eulogy which Brock Peters, who played Tom Robinson, gave at Gregory Peck's funeral:
"In art there is compassion, in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love. Gregory Peck gave us these attributes in full measure. To this day the children of Mockingbird ... call him Atticus."
Patty Mooney has been writing since the age of 16. Her favorite topics include women's issues, homelessness, homeless veterans, the arts, cinema, biographies, nature and video production. Her work has appeared in many publications around the world, including the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Reader, Create Magazine, Post Magazine, Women's Sports & Fitness, Yoga Journal and others. You can read her blog, "A Diary Left Open" at http://www.sandiegovideoproduction.blogspot.com Her business site is http://www.crystalpyramid.com
Article Source: Patty Mooney
A Reflection on Gregory Peck: The Children of Mockingbird Call Him Atticus