'Very charming actor... wonderful host'

When Tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan was getting ready for his first American trip in the 1950s, he shortlisted some must-meet people in Hollywood.

Gregory Peck's name was among the first five.

Ganesan would remember for decades the encounter with Peck. 'Gregory very charming actor,' Ganesan would say, 'and a wonderful host.' Among the memorabilia Ganesan cherished was a photograph of Gregory Peck that the star had signed.

Later, he also received a copy of the book To Kill A Mockingbird. Peck offered one of his best performances in the movie version of the book about racial injustice in southern America. The 1962 film was a huge hit and won him an Oscar. Though he was nominated for five Oscars, Peck won it only once in a six-decade career that also saw him play an agonized, deeply conflicted sea captain in Moby Dick and the army honcho in the ill-fated MacArthur.

Tall, rugged and handsome, Peck was at times accused by critics of having rigid expressions and a poor choice of movies that included The Omen, a pale effort to capitalize on the success of the similar-themed supernatural drama, The Exorcist. One critic thought the whale in the complex Moby Dick had performed better than Peck.

But Peck, who died at age 87 on Wednesday night, is remembered for over half a dozen milestone films. One of his last significant films, Old Gringo, was produced by Jane Fonda. He played the eccentric and mysterious writer Ambrose Bierce in the 1989 film, a box-office dud. Two years later, he played a role reminiscent of the parts he had played in his early years. He was seen as a humane company owner railroaded by a hostile takeover in Other People's Money. The movie was a modest box-office success.

In India, his biggest success was Mackenna's Gold, a 1969 Western that was a big failure in the West. The film, which had a fleeting scene of a nude woman swimming, ran for over three months in several Indian cities. His hits include The Guns Of Navarone, a World War II drama, and Spellbound, a psychological thriller by Alfred Hitchcock.

Among Peck's worldwide hits is the 1953 movie Roman Holiday, in which Audrey Hepburn matched her impish charm against Peck's immense romantic image. He played a journalist and she a princess on the run. Though in the latter part of his career Peck was seen mostly in big budget and conventional films, he began working for films that were daring by Hollywood standards.

Early in his career, he had rejected his agent's caution and accepted the lead in Gentleman's Agreement in 1947, playing a magazine writer who poses as a Jew to expose anti-Semitism in America.

Peck recalled in a 1971 interview his agent telling him: 'You're just establishing yourself, and a lot of people will resent the picture. Anti-Semitism runs very deep in this country.'

Peck felt vindicated when the film earned big money and won the Oscar for Best Picture.

He played Atticus Finch, a southern lawyer in an insular small town, who defies the public to defend a black man accused of rape in To Kill A Mockingbird, based on the best-selling novel by Harper Lee. The 1962 film was one of his favourites and, in many interviews, he spoke of how he had given it all his attention and enthusiasm.

'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,' he had said in an interview about a decade ago. 'And my feelings about racial justice and inequality and opportunity.'

A few days ago, an American Film Institute listing of the top heroes in film history ranked Finch right at the top.

Peck, whose first marriage ended in divorce after about a decade, remarried in 1954. His second wife survives him along with two of their children and two stepchildren.

There are just a handful of actors of his generation who, like him, were never involved in scandals. But there was a big tragedy in his life. His eldest son committed suicide at age 30.

In another benchmark hit Cape Fear (1962), he played small-town lawyer Sam Bowden whose family is threatened by a man just released from prison and who blames him for his perceived misfortunes. When Martin Scorsese remade the film in 1991, Peck played a small part in it.

Peck, a lifelong Democrat, supported many liberal causes, but spurned suggestions that he run for political office.