Early life

Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916, in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, to Bernice Mae and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and pharmacist from Rochester, New York. His father was of English (paternal) and Irish (maternal) origin, while his mother was of English and Scottish descent. After she converted to her husband's faith, Catholicism, Peck was raised as a Catholic. Peck was related to Thomas Ashe (1885–1917), who took part in the Easter Rising less than three weeks after Peck's birth and died while being force-fed during a hunger strike in 1917, through his Irish-born paternal grandmother Catherine Ashe (1864–1926).

Peck was raised by his maternal grandmother, who took him to the movies once a week after his parents divorced when he was five years old. When he was ten, he was sent to St. John's Military Academy in Los Angeles, a Catholic military school. His grandmother died while Peck was a student there. He returned to San Diego at the age of fourteen to live with his father and graduated from San Diego High School in 1934. He then enrolled for a year at San Diego State Teacher's College (now known as San Diego State University). While there, he joined the track team, took his first theatrical and public-speaking classes, and pledged the Epsilon Eta fraternity. Aspiring to be a doctor, Peck eventually transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied English and pre-medical science. He rowed with the university crew and struggled to pay his tuition, which was just $26 a year. To make ends meet, he took a job as a "hasher" (kitchen helper) for the Gamma Phi Beta sorority in exchange for meals.

Peck's deep, well-modulated voice attracted attention at Berkeley, and after taking a public speaking course, he decided to try acting. An acting instructor encouraged him, viewing him as ideal material for university theater, and he developed a growing interest in the craft. During his senior year, Edwin Duerr, the university's Little Theater director, recruited him, and he appeared in five productions, including Starbuck in Moby Dick. Peck later said of his years at Berkeley, "It was an exceptional experience for me and three of the greatest years of my life. It awoke me and turned me into a human being." In 1996, Peck gave $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing team in honor of his coach, the legendary Ky Ebright.

Career

Peck was unable to graduate with his peers since he was missing one course. His college friends were worried about him and questioned how he would manage without his diploma. He told them, "I have all I need from the university." Peck dropped the name "Eldred" and relocated to New York City to study acting with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Even though he was frequently broke, he slept in Central Park on occasion. Peck worked as a barker at the 1939 World's Fair and a tour guide for NBC television at Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall. He dabbled in modeling until he landed a job at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, in 1940, where he starred in five plays, including Family Portrait and On Earth As It Is, in exchange for food.

In 1941, he made his stage debut as the secretary in George Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma, produced by Katharine Cornell. Just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the drama premiered in San Francisco. In 1942, he made his Broadway debut in Emlyn Williams' The Morning Star, followed by his second Broadway engagement that year alongside Edward Pawley in The Willow and I. Due to a back ailment sustained while receiving ballet and movement classes from Martha Graham as part of his acting training, Peck was excused from military service during World War II, and his acting abilities were in high demand. Twentieth Century Fox later claimed that he injured his back while rowing at university, but Peck stated that he "wasn't wounded at all." "I guess a dance class wasn't considered manly enough in Hollywood. For years, I've been attempting to clear up that narrative." Peck appeared in 50 plays, including three Broadway shows that were short-lived, four or five road tours, and summer theater.

Worldwide fame

At the start of the 1950s, Peck starred in two westerns, the first of which was directed by Henry King, who had previously worked with him on Twelve O'Clock High. In this film, Peck portrays an aging "Top Gun of the West" who is tired of killing and wants to retire with his attractive but sensible wife and seven-year-old son, whom he hasn't seen in years. To ensure authenticity, Peck and King conducted an extensive photographic study into the Wild West Era, noting that most cowboys had facial hair, "bowl" haircuts, and wore worn-out attire; as a result, Peck grew a mustache and wore it during filming. However, when the studio's president saw the initial film and saw the mustache, he demanded reshoots. Despite this, he backed out due to costs inflated by the production manager at King and Peck's insistence. The Gunfighter achieved a decent but unimpressive box office result, grossing $5.6 million, good for 47th place in 1951. Peck's mustache was blamed by 20th Century Fox studio boss Darryl Zanuck for the lackluster response from Peck's customary admirers, who expected to see the usual gorgeous, clean-shaven Peck, not the authentic-cowboy Peck. When The Gunfighter was released, it received "good reviews," with some writers praising Peck's performance as "earning him some of his greatest notices." "Through Mr. Peck's fine performance, a fair comprehension is conveyed of the loneliness and isolation of a man with a lurid name... an arresting and quite exciting film," the New York Times wrote. The film has since gained critical acclaim over the years and is now considered one of the all-time classic westerns. Peck's portrayal has received unanimous praise from critics in recent decades, with David Parkinson of RadioTimes stating, "Peck offers a performance of remarkable dignity and grit."