Gregory Peck

 
Quote: [on gay rights] It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all.

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Eldred Gregory Peck had Irish, English, and some German, ancestry. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother.

He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the movies every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere.

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.

Of his own movies, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) is Peck's favourite.

His character from To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Atticus Finch, was voted the greatest screen hero of all time by the American Film Institute in May 2003, only two weeks before his death (beating out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third).