Gregory Peck Quotes

Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor who was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck continued to play major film roles until the late 1980s. His performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He had also been nominated for an Oscar for the same category for The Keys of the Kingdom , The Yearling , Gentleman's Agreement and Twelve O'Clock High . Other notable films he appeared in include Spellbound , Roman Holiday , Moby Dick , Pork Chop Hill , The Guns of Navarone , Cape Fear , How the West Was Won , The Omen and The Boys from Brazil .

U.S. President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema, ranking at No. 12.

✵ 5. April 1916 – 12. June 2003
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Gregory Peck: 14   quotes 5   likes

Famous Gregory Peck Quotes

“You have to dream, you have to have a vision, and you have to set a goal for yourself that might even scare you a little because sometimes that seems far beyond your reach.”

As quoted in The ArtSlut's Guide to Makin' It — As a Visual Artist‎ (2007) by Barb Benson
Context: You have to dream, you have to have a vision, and you have to set a goal for yourself that might even scare you a little because sometimes that seems far beyond your reach. Then I think you have to develop a kind of resistance to rejection, and to the disappointments that are sure to come your way.

“If I have to tell him who I am, then I'm not.”

Source: Explaining to a friend why he didn't identify himself to the maitre 'd who told them they'd have to wait in line; as quoted in 3 on a Toothbrush (1963) by Jack Paar, p. 274

“I'm not a do-gooder. It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in.”

After receiving a humanitarian award from Motion Picture Academy in 1968, as quoted in "Gregory Peck - the 'decent man of Hollywood'" by Richard Alleyne in 'The Telegraph (13 June 2003) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1432914/Gregory-Peck---the-decent-man-of-Hollywood.html

Gregory Peck Quotes about thinking

“I don't think I could stay interested for a couple of months in a character of mean motivation.”

Source: On usually playing likable characters, as quoted in "Gregory Peck, a Star of Quiet Dignity, Dies at 87" by William Grimes in The New York Times (13 June 2003)

Gregory Peck Quotes

“It just seems silly to me that something so right and simple has to be fought for at all.”

Speaking at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation awards, as quoted in "Majestic presence" in The Hindu (20 June 2003) http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2003/06/20/stories/2003062001400100.htm

“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.”

As quoted in "Gregory Peck : Story of a legendary hero" in The Daily Star (15 June 2006) http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/06/15/d606151407162.htm

“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.”

On his role as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, in a 1989 CNN interview, quoted in "Oscar-winner Gregory Peck dies at age 87" in USA Today (12 June 2003) http://www.usatoday.com/life/2003-06-12-peck-obit_x.htm

“Entertainment is all right, but entertainment with an idea behind it is much more important.”

On exposing antisemitism in Gentleman's Agreement. Gregory Peck: A Charmed Life by Lynn Haney (2003). page 148. ISBN 0786714735.

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