Gregory Peck- A Charmed Life

by Lynn Haney

  Before leaving the United States, the Pecks packed large stores of food for the children, which turned out to be completely unnecessary. Jonathan, eight, and Stephen, six, went pasta crazy. Even little Carey, age three, learned to love Italian dishes. Greta hired a tutor, a Mr Ricknor, and the children took to him right away. They were even managing to pick up a little Italian. Greg beamed with pride when his two older boys taught some Italian youths how to play baseball.

  Reporting to the Cinecittà Studios, Rome’s biggest film complex, Greg joined other members of the cast who gathered around William Wyler for a quick meeting before launching into the film. ‘Now, boys and girls,’ said the director, ‘there’s just one prima donna on this picture and I’m that one. And I want that understood from the beginning!’

  Nobody questioned Wyler’s authority to pull rank. He may have been irascible, tempestuous and highly demanding, but he was also a superb craftsman and one of the most inventive stylists of the American screen. Some of the best-loved movies of the 1930s and 1940s were Wyler films. He had racked up eight Academy Award nominations for Best Director prior to Roman Holiday, winning his Oscars for Mrs Miniver (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Known for his sensitive direction of great actors, he worked with some of the best, including John Barrymore, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Myrna Loy.

  His ascent to the peaks of Hollywood began in a gingerly fashion. His daughter, film producer Kathryn Wyler, remembered: ‘His very early start came when he rigged up a smoking machine for an editor who was editing nitrate film which was very combustible, and the guy was dying for a smoke. So, my father, as a young twerp at the studio, rigged up a long piece of metal pipe. He could have a cigarette out the window and be inside and smoke. And that was my father’s entrée into the editing room.’

  Greg knew going into the project that the story was really about the princess. In fact, Cary Grant had turned down the role for just that reason. He was willing to accept this limitation because he wanted to play comedy. Nothing prepared him, however, for the allure of his co-star. The princess role was perfect for her. She was stunningly beautiful, a gamine with a long neck and thick eyebrows that drew attention to huge limpid eyes. Everybody on the set fell in love with her; and it quickly became obvious that the public was going to be enchanted.

  With a mischievous glint in his eyes, he said to Wyler: ‘Willie, this new girl is stealing the movie right under our noses. Don’t bother about camera angles. Just shoot the picture fast!’

  Greg, of course, knew that his name on the marquee carried the film’s value, but it didn’t seem fair to Hepburn. He explained: ‘I called my agent after two weeks, and I said, “George, you’ve got to change the billing.” The billing was to be “Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday.” He said, “Why? What’s the matter with you?” I said, “Nothing’s the matter with me, but I’m smart enough to know this girl’s going to win the Oscar in her first picture, and I’m going to look like a damn fool if her name is not up there on top with mine.”’

  For the rest of her career, Hepburn expressed gratitude to Greg for such a magnanimous gesture. And, considering the vanity of movie stars, it was a definite show of gallantry even if she was going to win an Academy Award.

  Screenwriter Garson Kanin once tried to encourage Spencer Tracy to show similar generosity toward Katharine Hepburn since the two were paired so often on screen and were lovers in private. ‘It was always Tracy and Hepburn. I chided him once about his insistence on first billing. “Why not?” he asked. “Well, after all,” I argued, “she’s the lady. You’re the man. Ladies first?” He said, “This is a movie, chowderhead, not a lifeboat.”’

  Chris Chase, a struggling actress during the 1950s, took Audrey Hepburn’s good fortune personally. Writing about her own picaresque adventures in How to Be a Movie Star, or A Terrible Beauty is Born, she describes sitting in a darkened movie theater watching Audrey Hepburn playing opposite Greg in Roman Holiday: ‘. . . I realized there were first breaks and first breaks. There was a girl being given her baptism by silver screen, and it wasn’t in any alley with a NO TOILET sign. The director had set her, like a jewel, into the middle of beautiful Rome, with beautiful clothes and beautiful Gregory Peck, and it made me sick.’

  In the script of Roman Holiday, Hepburn’s Princess Anne pretends to be a student and tells Greg’s Joe Bradley she would like to do what her heart dictates for at least one Roman holiday. Joe goes along with her and they make the scenic rounds of Rome with Eddie Albert, as ‘fotog’, tailing along with his cameras. (Bradley extracted a promise of a $5,000 bonus from his editor for an exclusive account of the princess’s real personality.) It is a gay, fancy-free day for Princess Anne and Joe Bradley. They have pleasant adventures, dance on a barge in the Tiber, tangle with secret service agents and become affectionate.

  Exhilarated by shooting outdoors, Wyler used the ancient buildings and streets of Rome as a colorful and beautiful backdrop for his production and direction, and the Eternal City is an unusually effective part of the entertainment. He shows the workaday Rome; of sidewalk cafés, of the Pantheon, of the Forum, of such various landmarks as the Castel San Angelo and the rococo, mirrored grandeur of the Colonna, Brancaccio and Barberini Palazzi.

  Wyler deftly used ordinary Italians, not professional actors, to play themselves in the picture with a fluency not often found in films. There is a cab driver, for example, who refuses to be responsible for the seemingly intoxicated girl, thus forcing Joe to put her up for the night in his own room. There is the barber, played by Paolo Carlini, who cuts her hair reluctantly and then invites her to dance with him by the river. Rome’s citizens loved the spectacle and joined in the spirit of the film. Greg recalled acting in front of ‘a gallery of about 5,000 Italians, every one a critic and actor.’

  Greg holds the collar of his best friend Bud. A mutt with Airedale in the mix, Bud could outdistance Greg’s father’s car going 30 miles an hour.

  A pharmacist in San Diego, Gregory Peck Sr. stands next to his pride and joy. Hoping his college age son would become a doctor, he tried to steer him away from acting. He warned: ‘You’ll be broke at 35 and you’ll end up borrowing from me.’

  A fleeting presence in his youth, Greg’s mother, Bernice Peck Maysuch, relishes the role of grandmother. As Greg tries to calm his sons, Bernice (nicknamed Bunny) holds Jonathan and Stephen.

  Greg attends a soiree with second wife Veronique and their daughter Cecilia, accompanied by actor Adrian Passer. He regarded Veronique - a clever, cultivated French woman - as the great love of his life.

  Greg shares a light-hearted moment with first wife Greta and sons Jonathan and Stephen. She supported Greg in his journey from unknown actor to one of Hollywood’s hottest stars.

  Veterans Day 2000. Steve Peck, 54, joins Greg, 84, and Greta, 89, at a reception honoring servicemen. Although divorced, Greta remained loyal to Greg.

  Jonathan Peck committed suicide in 1975 at age 31. The tragedy almost destroyed Greg.

  London, 1960. Hearty laughs on the set of The Guns of Navarone (1961). Greg and Stanley Baker trade quips with David Niven, who is dressed in formal attire for a day at the races.

  Wrapping up Roman Holiday, Greg embarked on a whirlwind romance with June Dally-Watkins. He invited the Australian model to follow him from Rome to Paris. She refused.

  Greg took a fatherly interest in Kansas student Jeff Lang, who created a website dedicated to the star. He cited Lang as ‘the reason I’m famous on the Internet.’

  On the set of Spellbound (1945), Ingrid Bergman and Greg take direction from Alfred Hitchcock. The sexual heat generated between the two actors raised eyebrows on the set.

  Playing lascivious Lewt McCanles (a role he loved) in Duel in the Sun (1947), Greg is united in death with sultry Pearl Chavez, portrayed by Jennifer Jones. Dubbed lust-in-the-dust, this high camp Western incurred the wrath of film censors.

  As swashbuckling hero Horatio Hornblower, Greg braves the high seas with radiant beauty Vi
rginia Mayo. He was ideally suited to play the courageous captain, who exudes leadership but is plagued by self-.

  Portraying Hemingway’s hard-living protagonist Harry in The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Greg meets his match in Cynthia, played by tempestuous Ava Gardner. The two stars developed a deep friendship. Greg appreciated Gardner’s unflinching candor and ribald sense of humor. He often called her his favorite leading lady.

  Maverick director John Huston adjusts Greg’s unruly hair during filming of Moby Dick (1956). Though intrigued by Huston’s wild imagination and reckless approach to life, Greg eventually called it quits to their friendship. Nonetheless, Huston claimed: ‘Greg is one of the nicest, straightest guys I ever knew, and there’s a size to him.’

  What’s a Western without a fistfight? Here, Greg slugs Chuck Connors in The Big Country (1958). Off-screen, Greg feuded bitterly with brilliant director William Wyler with whom he co-produced the film.

  Sophia Loren and Greg go belly down in Arabesque (1966), a cunning spy caper directed by Stanley Donen. Reviewers criticized it as a Hitchcock knock-off.

  During a break in filming location shooting for The Guns of Navarone on the island of Rhodes in Greece, Greg faces down master chess player Anthony Quinn as Anthony Quale studies their moves. Navarone proved to be one of the most popular World War Two movies ever made. It garnered seven Academy Awards.

  As southern lawyer Atticus Finch, who defends a black man accused of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird, Greg plays the quintessential American hero. He identified completely with the part.

  Omar Sharif played a priest and Greg an anti-Fascist hero in the Spanish Civil War film Behold a Pale Horse (1964). Directed by Fred Zinnemann, the film faltered at the box office. Surmized Greg: ‘It lacked passion and that’s a big lack.’

  In The Omen (1976), a horror film with a Satanic twist, Greg plays the Devil’s foster dad. Co-star Lee Remick was an elegant Yankee beauty, who started out playing saucy flirts.

  Harrison Ford and his girlfriend Calista Flockhart join leading movie industry figures and the general public for a memorial service honoring Greg at Our Lady of Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. Among the approximately 3,000 mourners were Harry Belafonte, Anjelica Huston, Brock Peters and Michael Jackson.

  In Roman Holiday (1952), Greg plays a dashing journalist in love with a princess. Smitten with his co-star Audrey Hepburn, Greg admitted: ‘I liked her a lot. In fact I loved Audrey. It was easy to love her.’

  A scene just about everybody remembers from the movie is the scooter ride. Greg careens through the streets, alleys and market places with Hepburn shrieking with delight and bear-hugging him for dear life.

  This was Americans’ first exposure to the jaunty Italian Vespa. The movie launched a trend. For several decades it was the cool means of transportation for American college students, academics and artists. The Italians loved that Americans adopted their motor scooter. For people living in Italy the Vespa is a piece of their history. ‘It symbolizes the reconstruction of Italy after the war,’ said Roberto Leardi, head of the Vespa Club of Italy. ‘I can still remember the days when a family of four would pile on to a Vespa. The father driving, the mother behind and the children on both ends.’

  Greg threw himself into the spirit of the street theater. ‘I’ve lost 16 pounds, worked every day, from dawn to long after dark, grabbed a sandwich on the run, and have been so exhausted I couldn’t sleep, but every second has been worth it. In Hollywood you get ingrown. Here, working in the natural settings with live audiences, has been wonderful. The other day Audrey and I did a cozy little love scene with 4,000 Romans crowded around us.’

  The Italians couldn’t get enough of the friendly Yank they called ‘Gregori Peek.’ Everywhere he went mobs of people followed him. The American Weekly newspaper said he was the most popular American ever to visit and work in Italy. A member of the US Embassy admitted that Greg’s behavior toward the Italian people had probably done more to make friends for Uncle Sam than the entire diplomatic corps. ‘He became one of them overnight,’ he said.

  Greg thrived on the adulation. ‘The Italians sure do love me,’ he said with a wide smile. ‘Let me tell you about the first time I really got caught in a mob after a baseball game between an Italian and Spanish team. I threw out the first ball and sat in the box but after the game the crowd got out of hand and 25 police helped me get into a room with a heavy door.’

  It was tough finding time to see his family. When they filmed at the Coliseum, he worked 24 hours straight. And it was difficult making the commute to and from Albino. Once his car broke down and he was an hour late to the set. Wyler forgave him but Greg was so mortified he never forgot it. When he did have an afternoon off, he and Greta, with Jonathan and Stephen, wandered about the city snapping pictures, always followed closely by mobs of people, young and old. The newspapers freely speculated about a romance between Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. And that can not have enhanced domestic relations.

  In the middle of July 1952, Greta flew with the boys to London to join her 74-year-old mother, Emily Piipari, who was arriving there after having taken her first plane ride. Mrs Piipari was a homebody who seldom ventured from her 127-acre farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. She loved crocheting and knitting. In fact, she crocheted 20 pairs of curtains for the windows of her farmhouse. But that wasn’t her only forte; she also spoke four languages – Finnish, Swedish, Russian and English – fluently, and had studied German. Although she was eager to venture out and practice her language skills, she was anxious about the trip. To ease her apprehensions, Greg had sent Mrs Piipari a number of cards and letters explaining in detail everything she would need to know in order to have a good time. While in London, mother and daughter saw Call Me Madam and The Deep Blue Sea at the Duchess Theater.

  From there they journeyed to Helsinki for the XV Olympic Games and a visit with relatives. Mother and daughter hadn’t been back to Helsinki since Greta was a child. What a fascinating time to check into the old hometown. The Soviets were returning to the Olympic fold after a 40-year absence. Ironically, they chose to make their comeback in Finland, a country they had invaded twice during the Second World War. The competition of East versus West dominated the atmosphere. Bob Hope single-handedly intensified the Cold War when he said on a telethon to raise money for the US team: ‘I guess old Joe Stalin thinks he is going to show up our soft, capitalistic Americans. We’ve got to cut him down to size.’

  At Greg’s request, Paramount studios arranged for Greta and her mother to be greeted with bouquets of red roses and furnished with an automobile. Emily Piipari attended four of the Olympic events and Greta watched them all. If she was worried about Greg’s wandering eye, she didn’t show it. With her characteristic effervescence, she strengthened the bonds with her large Finnish family. For their part, they were thrilled she’d married a movie star.

  Back in Rome, Greg was doing his best to turn in a fine performance for William Wyler. A perfectionist and a taskmaster, Wyler had acquired the nickname ‘90-take Wyler’ for the many takes he filmed of every shot until he was satisfied that he had achieved a desired effect or nuance. Many performers resented his tyranny on the set but being a perfectionist himself, Greg didn’t mind.

  There wasn’t the smallest detail that escaped Wyler’s attention. He molded the performance of his actors as a sculptor molds his clay, until after innumerable takes he got what he wanted. Someone asked Greg: ‘How can you stand working with a director who insists on 37 takes for a two-line scene? Doesn’t it drive you right round the bend?’ To which Greg simply countered: ‘I want to reach for my ultimate best. Once it’s on film, it’s there forever.’

  Buoyed by the on-screen romance and the after-hours adulation from the 23-year-old Hepburn, Greg did all he could to help her turn in a polished performance despite her inexperience. There was nothing of the hardened professional about Hepburn and it wasn’t just a matter of her youth. Greg could see that in her character she didn’t have any bac
kstabbing, grasping, petty or gossipy aspects. And that was very rare in an actress. He recalled warmly: ‘It was my good luck, during that wonderful summer in Rome, to be the first of her screen fellows, to hold out my hand, and help her keep her balance as she did her spins and pirouettes. Those months [were] probably the happiest experience I ever had making movies.’

  Another time he reflected: ‘Everyone on the set of Roman Holiday was in love with Audrey. We did that one picture together, and I think it was the happiest experience I ever had on a movie set. There were a lot of tender feelings that we projected on to the screen.’ The two stars frequently dined together.

  Although their names lit up the tabloids, a good guess is nothing happened beyond heavy flirting and perhaps a few stolen kisses. Hepburn told writer Michael Munn: ‘If there was anything going on, it didn’t last long because most of our time was taken up with work. It’s true that I had an enormous crush on him. But I was engaged at the time [to Jimmy Hanson, son of a wealthy Huddersfield businessman] and I even had my wedding gown hanging in the wardrobe of my Roman hotel room. And Greg was married to Greta. I knew that he wasn’t happy, that his marriage was not good even though they had three lovely children. Maybe he did feel something for me, maybe there was a little chemistry between us that made our scenes work. I was in Rome, being treated like a princess, and it was not difficult for me to believe I was the princess in the film, and it was not difficult for me to believe I was in love with Gregory Peck.’

  In the meantime, Veronique Passani had managed to get herself the assignment from France Soir to write a story on Roman Holiday. It’s not clear how much time she spent with Greg that summer in Rome. Observers said she became infatuated with Greg and stayed in Rome to be near him. And around this time, Greg started backing off from the press. An editorial in a Rome newspaper took him to task for being a ‘temperamental representative from Hollywood, who refuses to cooperate with, or even to see, Italian reporters.’ How could this be? Greg was once voted ‘most cooperative actor’ by the Hollywood Women’s Press Club.