The World of the Cinema — Gregory Peck: The Shy Man Behind This Great Fame

If we may judge by the letters of admiration that arrived in the mailboxes of the big motion-picture companies for the year 1956, we would decide beyond a doubt that the foremost actor, the one who has met with the greatest success and the widest popularity, is Gregory Peck and no one else. For this brilliant actor of forty springs has now spent thirteen years on the screen, during which he has played the leading roles in 23 films, the most outstanding of which were "The Man in the Gray Suit" and "Moby Dick."

The director of these two films affirms that Greg reached this high standing thanks to his diligence: he never undertook to play any role without laboring over it and giving it its fill of study and scrutiny, and without discussing with those in charge technical details in which the last word was always his..

And this vigilance of Greg's over the course of a film's action goes beyond his own role to the other secondary roles — a thing known of him by everyone who has worked with him, whether actors, directors, or assistants. He is a quiet man, intelligent and sensitive, whose motto is: "silent, earnest work."

Some people trace this application to Greg's slight confidence in his own ability, and to the severity with which he calls himself to account. While the crowds cheer his scenes with "Great! Magnificent!" he contents himself with saying: "Not bad!"

The truth is that the success he won in the film "The Man in the Gray Suit" is owing to the hero's having there the very nature of Greg himself, so that he lived his role as a conservative and strict man. He is paid 107,000 lira per film

and owns, out of his income, an immense fortune; and he always insists on choosing the best directors for his films.

Nor should it be forgotten that Gregory Peck, on the purely artistic level, is not the equal of actors of the first order such as Brando, Donat, Tracy, or March; and in the depths of his heart he too, no doubt, knows it. But the crowds look on him with the utmost admiration... to them he is that captivating man who unites in his manliness Abraham Lincoln and Gary Cooper... he is the man of feeling who dies to save his beloved, and who is a master at stirring the emotions.

In Hollywood they consider Greg intelligent, of a quiet temper, ruling his life and his manner of living as he pleases. He has not many friends... he prefers to keep to himself and not to confide to the newspapermen the joys of his heart or its sorrows!

And one thing he certainly lacks: the love of a joke... or of adventure... The women reporters of the star papers affirm that diving for pearls is far easier than snatching a joke from Greg's mouth!

But the shy actor did not hide from the newspapermen the news of his recent marriage to the beauty of twenty-four, Véronique Passani... She was a simple reporter for the paper "Paris-Presse" who came to interview him and to ask of him what all others had failed to obtain! And so their destiny was sealed! That is all Greg reveals of his private life..

What, then, is the secret behind Greg's reticence and his withdrawal into himself? It may be a residue of earliest childhood... His father was a successful pharmacist who won fame and glory in the game of football; but he did not get on with his wife, and she asked for a divorce and lived with her son Greg, working to support him... And perhaps in this tragedy lies the source of the handsome actor's bitterness and his distance from people... "It is a black period of my life that I do not like to speak of."

At school Greg excelled at the game

of basketball and sang in the school choir, but his acting talents had not yet unfolded. His mother had married again; and he failed to pursue the study of medicine his father had wanted for him, so he entered the University of California, graduating from it in 1939.

How did he begin acting?

Because of his tall stature and his handsome looks, he was entrusted in his last university year with a simple role in which he caught attention; and thus he began to think seriously of becoming a professional of the cinema. As for the stage, it did not draw him.. because his shy nature avoids appearing before crowds.

And Greg stormed Hollywood with hopes in his head that he dared not declare or speak of, and he climbed the ladder rung by rung, with great pains and with patience... He began his work at a weekly salary of six dollars, and today he draws about 179 thousand dollars a year!! What an enormous difference!

And Greg's eye settled on the screen, and his figure began to draw attention, and his voice as well; and it is no wonder that after two years of struggle, study, and training in acting he became the object of the interest of five Hollywood studios!

Meanwhile Greg met the young beauty "Greta"; he quickly fell in love with her and married her, and their marriage bore fruit in three sons whose ages range between 11 and 6 years. But this marriage soon collapsed and ended in divorce...

"But my children," Greta affirms, "are fortunate in a father like Greg, for he takes the greatest care of his own character, and so he takes the greatest care in building the characters of his children."