0:00:25 > 0:00:28With his chiselled good looks, that distinctive voice
0:00:28 > 0:00:31and an air of strength and integrity,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34Gregory Peck was born to be a leading man.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36Throughout the 1940s and '50s,
0:00:36 > 0:00:40he was one of the movie world's biggest stars.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42A co-star once said of Peck,
0:00:42 > 0:00:47"When there's 100 people in a room or in a scene, you look at him.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50"But it's more than so-called star quality.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55"There's a quiet power in his being that is almost awesome."
0:00:55 > 0:00:57Peck was nominated for five Oscars
0:00:57 > 0:01:02and would win in 1962 for the landmark role of Atticus Finch
0:01:02 > 0:01:06in the film of Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09In 1986, to mark his 70th birthday,
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Peck appeared in a programme called A Portrait In Films,
0:01:13 > 0:01:18which began with him talking about how he got started.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Peck showed little interest in performing on the stage
0:01:21 > 0:01:24until he went as a medical student to the University of California.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29A man came and said, "I'm the director of the little theatre,
0:01:29 > 0:01:34"and I need a tall actor. And I've seen you on the campus
0:01:34 > 0:01:37"and I wonder if you'd come and have a try."
0:01:39 > 0:01:44And I don't know why I did, I just said, "Well, why not?"
0:01:45 > 0:01:47And I don't know what led me.
0:01:47 > 0:01:53If I'd said "No," or "I don't see the point of it,"
0:01:53 > 0:01:55my life would be entirely different.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58I went to New York and I went to dramatic school,
0:01:58 > 0:02:02I went through the usual months and years of being hungry at times
0:02:02 > 0:02:05and living in rented rooms.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09But eventually I began to work in the theatre. Eventually onto Broadway.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12My Broadway debut, if I can call it that,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15was with the wonderful Gladys Cooper,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18a play by Emlyn Williams called The Morning Star.
0:02:18 > 0:02:20One thing led to another
0:02:20 > 0:02:24and eventually I came out to do films and I fell in love with filmmaking.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27'Here is the true story, which could have happened in any land,
0:02:27 > 0:02:30'of a little group of free people who lived and loved and fought
0:02:30 > 0:02:32'to drive the invaders from their native soil.'
0:02:42 > 0:02:45'One of the countless thousands of those guerrilla bands, who,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48'from secret hiding places in the swamps and the great forests,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50'lived days of imperishable glory.'
0:02:55 > 0:02:57'Their leader had been left behind by the army especially
0:02:57 > 0:02:58'to organise them.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00'Vladimir, as played by Mr Gregory Peck,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03'distinguished star of the New York stage.'
0:03:03 > 0:03:07My first film director, whose name was Jacques Tourneur,
0:03:07 > 0:03:08kept saying to me,
0:03:08 > 0:03:13"Greg, could you just common up your speech a little bit?
0:03:13 > 0:03:18"Just, you know, not so many consonants.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23"Let me not hear all those Ts and Ps, and just common it up
0:03:23 > 0:03:26"a little bit, because you sound like a stage actor."
0:03:26 > 0:03:30Lie! You came five days ago! How many of you?
0:03:30 > 0:03:32- Funftausend.- 5,000.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35- Lie! 2,000. How many tanks? - Wie viele tanks?- Zweihundert.- 200.
0:03:35 > 0:03:41- 75! Lies, every word! Finish him off. - It's my right, step to one side.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Don't waste your ammunition, this is much simpler!
0:03:44 > 0:03:47'Almost immediately as a result of that first film,'
0:03:47 > 0:03:51you became hot property with various major studios bidding for you,
0:03:51 > 0:03:53including, I believe, Louis B. Mayer.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58He did say to me that he could take me and mould me
0:03:58 > 0:04:02and I could shine in the firmament of his stars with Clark Gable
0:04:02 > 0:04:05and Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo,
0:04:05 > 0:04:11if I would only sign a seven year exclusive pact with him.
0:04:11 > 0:04:12And when I said,
0:04:12 > 0:04:17"With all the respect in the world, Mr Mayer, I cannot do that.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22"I want to go back to the theatre. My ambition is not to be a movie star.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24"I hope you will ask me to make some films,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28but I cannot sign a seven year exclusive contract."
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Well, with that, much to my amazement,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34enormous tears formed in his eyes.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41He became red in the face and the tears rolled down his cheeks
0:04:41 > 0:04:43and dribbled off the end of his chin.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Then he began to pace up and down and go into a harangue
0:04:48 > 0:04:51about what a terrible mistake I was making,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54and he felt personally,
0:04:54 > 0:05:00deeply wounded that I would not allow him to manage my life.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05Well, I stuck to my guns, I suppose, and when we walked out,
0:05:05 > 0:05:09my agent and I, whose name was Leland Hayward,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13I said to him, "Well, that was a performance."
0:05:13 > 0:05:17He said, "Oh, he does that every day."
0:05:17 > 0:05:20Another movie mogul now interested in the rising star
0:05:20 > 0:05:23was David O Selznick, who hadn't liked him after a screen test
0:05:23 > 0:05:28four years before, even though he did photograph like Abraham Lincoln.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31In 1945, Selznick changed his mind and cast him
0:05:31 > 0:05:34opposite Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock's Spellbound.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36I know why you came in.
0:05:38 > 0:05:39Why?
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Because something's happened to us.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45But it doesn't happen like that...
0:05:45 > 0:05:46in a day.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49It happens in a moment sometimes.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51I felt it this afternoon.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55It was like lightning striking.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59It strikes rarely.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15In those days, Ingrid Bergman was the centre of things,
0:06:15 > 0:06:20and I think it was part of my agent's master plan to put me in
0:06:20 > 0:06:27opposite several outstanding ladies of that day.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30Greer Garson and Ingrid herself.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32I don't understand how it happened.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40He had the theory that people might come to see those beautiful ladies
0:06:40 > 0:06:45on the screen, but they could hardly escape seeing me there too!
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Perhaps it was a good theory.
0:06:50 > 0:06:56I think it fits in with a quote that I've always been fond of.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59It was a quote from Carole Lombard,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03who always said it takes ten pictures to make a star,
0:07:03 > 0:07:08so that the audience accepts you over a period of time,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10they become accustomed to seeing you on the screen.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12And if they like you a little bit,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15they're looking forward to the next picture.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18By now, Peck was an established star,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21ready to compete with older actors who were returning from the war,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24with an Oscar nomination for the Keys Of The Kingdom.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Another of Peck's most popular films was William Wyler's Roman Holiday,
0:07:27 > 0:07:30shot entirely on location in Rome
0:07:30 > 0:07:33and co-starring newcomer Audrey Hepburn.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35How did he respond to the fresh challenge
0:07:35 > 0:07:37of playing romantic comedy?
0:07:37 > 0:07:42Oh, I seized it with great enthusiasm, because I had done
0:07:42 > 0:07:48a good deal of comedy in the theatre, even some farce,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52so I jumped at the opportunity to play Roman Holiday.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56And I must say, aside from one television show,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00that I did with Jack Benny, where I played comedy sketches
0:08:00 > 0:08:04and sang and danced with Jack and George Burns,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08the most fun that I've ever had working was in Roman Holiday.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10Do you know my favourite poem?
0:08:10 > 0:08:12You already recited that for me.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15"I refuse a rose from a couch of snows
0:08:15 > 0:08:20"in the Acroceraunian Mountains..."
0:08:20 > 0:08:22- Keats.- Shelley.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24- Keats!- You just keep your mind off poetry and on the pyjamas
0:08:24 > 0:08:26and everything will be all right.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29- It's Keats.- It's Shelley. I'll be back in about ten minutes.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32Keats.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42You have my permission to withdraw.
0:08:43 > 0:08:50When we did the Mouth Of Truth scene, which is that monument in Rome,
0:08:50 > 0:08:56and the legend is if you dare to put your hand in the Mouth Of Truth,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00if you've lied, it'll bite your hand off.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03Well, we had that little scene to do
0:09:03 > 0:09:09and I remembered an old bit that Red Skelton used to do.
0:09:09 > 0:09:15When he'd shake hands with somebody, he'd come like that.
0:09:15 > 0:09:21Well, I said on the side to Willie Wyler,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24"Supposing I spring that on Audrey
0:09:24 > 0:09:27"when I put my hand in the Mouth Of Truth.
0:09:28 > 0:09:33"Is it too corny? Is it too awful?" He said, "Oh, no. Do it.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36"Let's see her reaction. But don't tell her you're going to do it."
0:09:36 > 0:09:41So when I put my hand in there and brought it out,
0:09:41 > 0:09:46well, Audrey just screamed and went bonkers.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And it was a wonderful, spontaneous moment.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51THEY SCREAM
0:09:53 > 0:09:55SHE SCREAMS
0:09:55 > 0:09:57- Hello! - You beast!
0:09:57 > 0:10:00'That was only one take.'
0:10:00 > 0:10:03- It was just a joke.- It never hurt your hand! You were bluffing!
0:10:05 > 0:10:12'About two weeks after we began, I called my agent in Hollywood,'
0:10:12 > 0:10:20and the contract had been drawn up as "Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23"and introducing Audrey Hepburn."
0:10:24 > 0:10:27And I called him and I said, "This cannot be.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31"This is going to be ridiculous.
0:10:31 > 0:10:36"This girl is going to win the Academy Award in her first role.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40"And her name must be up above the title with mine."
0:10:40 > 0:10:44'And this is not just simple altruism and generosity on my part,
0:10:44 > 0:10:46'it would look foolish any other way.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51'And she just hit the screen like a bomb.'
0:10:51 > 0:10:54It does seem from the film as if everyone is having a terrific time in Rome.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Although I gather William Wyler is quite a taskmaster as a director.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Yes, he is, but that's good, because you know that he wants the best.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06If he's hard on you, if he insists on doing it over and over again,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10it's simply because he wants you at your best
0:11:10 > 0:11:14and he wants the scene to be as good as it can possibly be.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20I always looked on it as a chance to do a little bit better
0:11:20 > 0:11:22and to search for something new,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25something that would strike him as being
0:11:25 > 0:11:30exactly right, and it wouldn't have bothered me if he'd done 127 takes.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33Would you have liked to have done more comedy,
0:11:33 > 0:11:35- more romantic comedy?- I would.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38I always felt every time someone sent me
0:11:38 > 0:11:44a comedy script, that Cary Grant had seen it first and had turned it down.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46'Around this town,
0:11:46 > 0:11:51'he had pretty much a monopoly on light romantic comedies.'
0:11:51 > 0:11:59# We're in love with a wonderful town! #
0:11:59 > 0:12:01One of Peck's finest dramatic roles,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04which at last gained him the Oscar as Best Actor,
0:12:04 > 0:12:06is as the lawyer Atticus Finch
0:12:06 > 0:12:10in To Kill A Mockingbird, based on the novel by Harper Lee.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13It's a role he was almost born to play liberal, dependable,
0:12:13 > 0:12:17righteous, with a touch of Abraham Lincoln about the character.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19And it was offered to him at the peak of his career.
0:12:19 > 0:12:24It was a true, middle-class, American small-town story,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27and those were my beginnings.
0:12:27 > 0:12:34On top of that, I was very much in sympathy with the lawyer
0:12:34 > 0:12:40who risked his personal reputation, his law practice,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43and even his personal safety and that of his children
0:12:43 > 0:12:50in defending a negro accused of rape in the South in the year 1931.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55I just seemed to fit right into the part without having to work
0:12:55 > 0:12:59too hard at it, and the emotions were there all the time.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04We had that wave of emotion that went from start to finish.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09'At Santa Monica, the Academy Awards presentation.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12'Sophia Loren happily presents Gregory Peck with his...'
0:13:12 > 0:13:17I remember hearing my name called out for the Oscar and, in a daze,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19walking up the aisle,
0:13:19 > 0:13:23and I had in my hand a gold watch that Harper Lee, the author,
0:13:23 > 0:13:28had given me, which her father had carried in the courtroom
0:13:28 > 0:13:30for 35 years, and she'd given it to me.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34And then up on the stage was none other than Sophia Loren!
0:13:34 > 0:13:39With a hug and a kiss and a gold statue. So that was a nice moment.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42I believe you almost missed the Oscar ceremony,
0:13:42 > 0:13:44and all because of a horse called Owen's Sedge.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49'The press had it that I might be the owner of
0:13:49 > 0:13:52'a winning Grand National horse on a Saturday,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56'and be back in Hollywood and win the Oscar on a Monday.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58'That, of course, was a wonderful pipe dream.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01'I wasn't actually trying to do that.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06'Owen's Sedge ran a respectable seventh
0:14:06 > 0:14:10'and came cantering in very nicely,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13'and then we flew back and the Oscar ceremony was the following Monday.'
0:14:13 > 0:14:15During the mid-1960s,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18Peck took time out from acting to involve himself in government
0:14:18 > 0:14:22sponsorship of the arts, the presidency of the Film Academy
0:14:22 > 0:14:26and charity work, for which he was awarded a special Oscar in 1968
0:14:26 > 0:14:30and honoured with a presidential medal from Lyndon Johnson.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33His reputation as a campaigner for liberal causes had become
0:14:33 > 0:14:35inseparable from his film work,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38as he discovered when a journalist put the question to him
0:14:38 > 0:14:40at a press conference in the Third World.
0:14:40 > 0:14:46"From what we hear about you, you are what they call in America a liberal.
0:14:46 > 0:14:52"You come out for civil rights legislation for the blacks.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55"You come out against anti-Semites." I said, "Yes, yes.
0:14:57 > 0:14:58"I suppose that's true."
0:14:58 > 0:15:03"All right, he said, how do you account for your appearance
0:15:03 > 0:15:07"in these racist Western films that you've made?"
0:15:08 > 0:15:12And for just a moment I drew an absolute blank,
0:15:12 > 0:15:15and I looked at the faces around me - they were all people of colour.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21And I realised that they saw the Red Indian as a person to whom
0:15:21 > 0:15:27they could relate and they saw the white man pushing them aside,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31'devastating their land, putting them in reservations.
0:15:31 > 0:15:32'And it's true,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34'we did that.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37'Well, I was certainly hung up for an answer.'
0:15:37 > 0:15:40I think an angel touched me on the shoulder,
0:15:40 > 0:15:45because I said to him, "I will never shoot another Indian any more!"
0:15:45 > 0:15:47THEY CHUCKLE
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Three years after that programme,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Peck made a rare chat show appearance here in the UK
0:15:53 > 0:15:57on the Wogan Show, and it was that Oscar-winning role
0:15:57 > 0:16:01in To Kill A Mockingbird that opened the conversation.
0:16:01 > 0:16:02CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:16:02 > 0:16:05BAND PLAYS "THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN" THEME
0:16:29 > 0:16:32- It's good to see you, welcome. - Thank you.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Is that your favourite film, To Kill A Mockingbird?
0:16:35 > 0:16:37Just about.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44It probably was closer to the real me than almost any other film.
0:16:44 > 0:16:52My childhood was small-town and my dad was not the town lawyer,
0:16:52 > 0:16:53but he was the town druggist
0:16:53 > 0:16:58and our life was not too different from what was seen in the movie.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03I... I have a wonderful recollection of the first day of filming.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08The author, as you know, is a lady, Harper Lee.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11And she was there for the first day of filming,
0:17:11 > 0:17:16and the scene was that I came home from the courthouse,
0:17:16 > 0:17:18or my law office, with my briefcase
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and my two children I was a widower -
0:17:20 > 0:17:23ran down to the end of the street and the boy took the...
0:17:23 > 0:17:28And we strolled down the street talking over the day's news,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31the camera tracking alongside of us.
0:17:31 > 0:17:34And as we were in the middle of the scene with the dialogue
0:17:34 > 0:17:40and all, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of Harper Lee
0:17:40 > 0:17:48behind the camera, and I thought I saw tears glistening on her cheeks.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52So when we finished it the director said, "Well, I think we've got it,
0:17:52 > 0:17:54"no use doing that again."
0:17:54 > 0:17:57So we felt a bit pumped up about that.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01We'd done, we thought, a very touching and moving scene.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05And I walked over to Harper Lee and I said, "Harper, I thought
0:18:05 > 0:18:09"I saw you out of the corner... and I thought there were tears.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12"What went wrong? What's wrong?"
0:18:12 > 0:18:14And she said, "Oh, Gregory,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18"you've got a little pot belly just like my daddy."
0:18:18 > 0:18:20LAUGHTER
0:18:20 > 0:18:22And...
0:18:22 > 0:18:27The highest praise. The best review I ever got.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29But the part of Atticus Finch,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32a compassionate, quietly brave and noble soul,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36is that how you see yourself?
0:18:36 > 0:18:41Compassionately...brave, quiet and noble... No, not at all!
0:18:41 > 0:18:43No.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45- No.- How do you see yourself?
0:18:47 > 0:18:54A very lucky fellow who got into, somehow, a profession that
0:18:54 > 0:18:58he loved and just kept working away at it for good Lord! -
0:18:58 > 0:19:01about 45 years now
0:19:01 > 0:19:08and have enjoyed every film, and still have enormous enthusiasm
0:19:08 > 0:19:10and still have rosy dreams
0:19:10 > 0:19:13about making the perfect movie one day.
0:19:13 > 0:19:19And so I think one is very lucky to get into a job like that,
0:19:19 > 0:19:24that one loves doing, and it's been going on quite a long time now.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28- Did you grow up with acting ambitions?- Oh, not at all, no.
0:19:28 > 0:19:36- How did you start?- Well... I graduated from college and I went...
0:19:36 > 0:19:38I was... I was...
0:19:39 > 0:19:44I fell in love with the thing, the theatre, when I was in college,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48and I thought, "Well, I'll go to New York and see what I can do.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50"I'll give it a try for a few years."
0:19:50 > 0:19:54So I went to drama school and, at the end of two years,
0:19:54 > 0:19:58they had what they called a demonstration play,
0:19:58 > 0:20:06and agents and talent scouts came to have a look and see us do our stuff.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09And then it was the custom for the students to go back to
0:20:09 > 0:20:14the school the next morning and wait for the phone calls,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16that sometimes came, sometimes didn't.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20There was a call and the receptionist put her hand over the phone
0:20:20 > 0:20:23and she looked at me and said, "It's for you."
0:20:23 > 0:20:26And it was a famous producer named Guthrie McClintic,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30interested to see me about a small role in a play
0:20:30 > 0:20:33called A Doctor's Dilemma, by Shaw.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Well, I didn't wait for the end of the sentence. I took off.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41I knew exactly where his office was, it was six blocks away.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45And for your viewers who don't know Manhattan geography,
0:20:45 > 0:20:50I dashed across 46th Street, four blocks up Sixth Avenue,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53to the building where Guthrie McClintic's office was,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55into the elevator, up to the eighth floor,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57skidded down the hall into his office.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59He's still talking on the phone to the receptionist!
0:20:59 > 0:21:02LAUGHTER
0:21:02 > 0:21:07And he just... He stared at me and there I was, the fellow that he...
0:21:07 > 0:21:14And he began to laugh and then that segued into a cough
0:21:14 > 0:21:21and he went into a kind of a fit and slid off of the seat laughing,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25coughing, and he said, "You've got the job!"
0:21:25 > 0:21:27LAUGHTER
0:21:27 > 0:21:28So that was the beginning.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30It had nothing to do with anything,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33except that I was a pretty fast runner in those days
0:21:33 > 0:21:34LAUGHTER
0:21:34 > 0:21:38But you seemed to make a lot of very successful movies
0:21:38 > 0:21:39almost from day one.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Do you remember your first movie? What was your first movie?
0:21:43 > 0:21:49- Well, I... Well, I don't think about it much.- I see.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52It was called Days Of Glory, but let's go on...
0:21:52 > 0:21:54We'll skip on over that!
0:21:54 > 0:21:57- The first one you were quite proud of?- The Keys Of The Kingdom...
0:21:57 > 0:21:59Of course.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02..was a huge success, my second role.
0:22:02 > 0:22:07And from really being broke in New York
0:22:07 > 0:22:12and wandering around producers' offices
0:22:12 > 0:22:16leaving my biography and my eight-by-ten stills...
0:22:16 > 0:22:20If I may say so, it's very hard to picture Gregory Peck
0:22:20 > 0:22:23hawking his wares around New York.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28I mean, one imagines you were a star from day one that they said,
0:22:28 > 0:22:30"It's him! Let's have him! Put him in the movies!"
0:22:30 > 0:22:34- It didn't quite happen that way. - Didn't it?- No.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38No, it took a few years of doing all that auditioning
0:22:38 > 0:22:42and knocking on doors and begging
0:22:42 > 0:22:47until finally I did get started,
0:22:47 > 0:22:53and that was due to the fact that I could run six blocks in two minutes.
0:22:53 > 0:22:54LAUGHTER
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Can you still move quite speedily? Are you nippy on the pins?
0:22:57 > 0:23:02Well, I'm not quite as nimble as I used to be. I move well, but slowly.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04LAUGHTER
0:23:05 > 0:23:06With a certain grace.
0:23:07 > 0:23:08We try.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10LAUGHTER
0:23:10 > 0:23:14I've worked with some lovely girls, with Ava Gardner...
0:23:14 > 0:23:18- You have, haven't you? - ..and Ingrid Bergman...
0:23:18 > 0:23:22and Jennifer Jones, Angie Dickinson, Lee Remick
0:23:22 > 0:23:28and probably a few others I can't think of at the moment,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30but they are all quite marvellous
0:23:30 > 0:23:34and Jane is certainly in that group of top, top film actresses.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37You wouldn't pick out one that you really...
0:23:37 > 0:23:40stimulated you above the others?
0:23:40 > 0:23:42Fine performances...
0:23:43 > 0:23:45- Oh, that's the way we're going! - No, no!
0:23:45 > 0:23:46LAUGHTER
0:23:46 > 0:23:49There isn't a hint...
0:23:49 > 0:23:51Please! There isn't a hint of smut about that question.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53I just felt...
0:23:53 > 0:23:58Did you...? Which one inspired you to your best acting performance?
0:23:58 > 0:23:59Ah.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01LAUGHTER
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Well...
0:24:05 > 0:24:11I have to say, they all did. But I would like to say...
0:24:11 > 0:24:18that there is a lady in London with whom I made three pictures,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21and I've loved her for a good many years,
0:24:21 > 0:24:26and in a way we're kind of what we call down South kissin' cousins.
0:24:26 > 0:24:32I mean to say, we're both small-town folks to start with,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and I love her dearly, and she may be listening tonight.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37And it's Ava Gardner.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41Yes, she lives in London.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43I'm sure she'll be delighted with the tribute.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Well, I'll see her soon and I'll find out whether she was or not.
0:24:46 > 0:24:47LAUGHTER
0:24:49 > 0:24:53We've had on this very programme various tributes to you.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57Sophia Loren said that no man could consider himself handsome
0:24:57 > 0:24:58unless he had your nose.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02- She said that?- She did.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04LAUGHTER
0:25:04 > 0:25:06OK.
0:25:06 > 0:25:07LAUGHTER
0:25:09 > 0:25:11Well, that's OK... Let's...
0:25:11 > 0:25:13It's very nice.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16Your voice has always been one of your great professional assets,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18I think.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21You've got the voice to go with the stature.
0:25:21 > 0:25:22No, I...
0:25:24 > 0:25:26I had nothing to do with it!
0:25:27 > 0:25:33It was just there. Something to do with the adenoids, I think.
0:25:34 > 0:25:40Er...one time I was in the film studio in Rome, Cinecitta,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44and I was walking down a corridor in the sound department
0:25:44 > 0:25:48and I heard my voice coming from behind closed doors,
0:25:48 > 0:25:53and so I opened and peeked in, and there was an Italian actor
0:25:53 > 0:25:56who was standing before the screen and recording...
0:25:57 > 0:26:01I was on screen in the film and he was recording my lines in Italian.
0:26:02 > 0:26:08So I stepped in and I met him and we shook hands and embraced.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15And he took an intense interest in the state of my health.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19He said, "Are you well, Mr Peck?" I said, "Yes, as far as I know."
0:26:19 > 0:26:22A little later he said, "Are you quite well?
0:26:22 > 0:26:28"Do you exercise, do you feel quite fit?" I said, "Yes, I think so."
0:26:28 > 0:26:32Then he said again, "Are you really well?" And I said, "Yes!
0:26:32 > 0:26:36"I'm really well! Why are you so interested in my health?"
0:26:36 > 0:26:41He said, "I have dubbed your voice in 27 movies
0:26:41 > 0:26:44"and I've raised five children doing it.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48"And I want you to stay in very good health
0:26:48 > 0:26:50"and make another 27 films."
0:26:50 > 0:26:51LAUGHTER
0:26:53 > 0:26:55And we've remained the best of friends.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57As far as I know, he's still doing it.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59You've made some pictures here,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02and I know you've a lot of friends here, and over the years
0:27:02 > 0:27:05people like David Niven and Cary Grant were great friends of yours.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10Yes, yes. I remember them with great, great affection.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14You know, Niven was really one of the most entertaining men who ever lived.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19And I will never forget being at the Oscar show
0:27:19 > 0:27:23and David was on and I was in the wings ready to hand the statue
0:27:23 > 0:27:26to somebody, and this is the famous show
0:27:26 > 0:27:31when suddenly a streaker somehow got into the theatre
0:27:31 > 0:27:34and dashed all the way across the stage behind David.
0:27:34 > 0:27:39And the crowd began to laugh and David just looked, like that
0:27:39 > 0:27:42and, without any hesitation, he said,
0:27:42 > 0:27:45"There's a man who's not concerned with his own shortcomings!"
0:27:45 > 0:27:46LAUGHTER
0:27:50 > 0:27:55I... I thought, really, it's the best ad lib that I've ever seen.
0:27:55 > 0:28:02And of course Jack Hawkins was a dear friend of mine and Laurence Olivier.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05I met him when I was quite young.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10He was already the greatest actor in the world when I met...
0:28:10 > 0:28:14Sir Laurence and Vivien Leigh and I was a bit intimidated.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16I'm not intimidated much by anybody,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19but I had such respect and reverence for this man,
0:28:19 > 0:28:23all that he'd done, in the theatre and in film, I was a bit shy.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27I didn't have much to say to him. But then, years later,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30we worked together in The Boys From Brazil and I found out
0:28:30 > 0:28:37he's one of the warmest, easiest men to be with and we became good pals.
0:28:37 > 0:28:42We had a desperate fight in The Boys From Brazil with a pack of mad dogs
0:28:42 > 0:28:49and it was all choreographed and we did four gouges
0:28:49 > 0:28:54and one kick and one punch. And the director would say, "Cut!"
0:28:54 > 0:28:58And we'd lie on the floor giggling like schoolboys in between.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03And then we do another gouge and another punch and another kick,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07with the mad dogs rushing around. Of course, the dogs, it's all pretence.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11The dogs are really pussycats in disguise.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14What they do when they leap at you
0:29:14 > 0:29:16is they are following the trainer's orders.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20They are good professional dogs. They are retrieving something.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24The trainer might say just before the take, "Fetch! Fetch!"
0:29:24 > 0:29:27And he looks at the dog and the dog sort of goes like that.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29LAUGHTER
0:29:29 > 0:29:32They turn the camera, the dog and runs at you
0:29:32 > 0:29:36and he fetches your lapel, or he tries to,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40and later they put in the barking and snarling and growling.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44And they have some contraption to lift their lips
0:29:44 > 0:29:46and make their fangs show.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49- Thank heavens! - Yes, I was glad of that too.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53The American Film Institute
0:29:53 > 0:29:56made a presentation of a Life Achievement Award.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01The Life Achievement Award has, if you think about it,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03a slightly ominous ring to it!
0:30:03 > 0:30:04LAUGHTER
0:30:04 > 0:30:07And I remember I got up there and I said...
0:30:07 > 0:30:11You know, James Mason was a friend of mine and I said...
0:30:11 > 0:30:13James was not a man with a lot of jokes,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16but he had one joke that he liked to tell.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18It had to do with his filming in Dublin,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21going out one evening for a walk and window-shopping.
0:30:21 > 0:30:26And he had a trench coat and hat. Didn't think he'd be recognised.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29And a little lady trailed along behind him,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32finally worked up the nerve and she tapped him on the shoulder
0:30:32 > 0:30:35and she said, "Begging your pardon, sir,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38"but wouldn't you be James Mason in his later years?"
0:30:38 > 0:30:40LAUGHTER
0:30:43 > 0:30:47And I like... I like that good Irish phrase "later years."
0:30:48 > 0:30:54I like it because it's candid and it's dispassionate, but it's
0:30:54 > 0:30:59comfortable, because it leaves the possibility of more to come.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02There was more to come.
0:31:02 > 0:31:07Peck continued acting and winning awards rights through the 1990s.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09He died in 2003 aged 87,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12just weeks after the American Film Institute
0:31:12 > 0:31:17had named Atticus Finch as the greatest film hero of all time.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21On hearing of his death, Harper Lee said,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24"Gregory Peck was a beautiful man.
0:31:24 > 0:31:29"Atticus Finch gave him the opportunity to play himself."
0:31:38 > 0:31:40Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd