Gregory Peck was a crew member and also participated in track & field. In one of his many film roles, he portrayed a sportswriter in a romantic comedy.
Born Eldred Gregory Peck in San Diego, California, in 1916, Peck rowed for the University of California, Berkeley crew team as a junior varsity rower in 1937 and 1938, serving as stroke (the number eight rower) under coach Ky Ebright. In 1996, Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing team in honor of Ebright.
Graphic courtesy of Gregory Peck’s 100 Posts on Facebook
Peck took skills from crew to the silver screen, including rhythm, harmony, and balance.
Peck also played on the track team at San Diego State University and later connected sports to his acting pursuits.
Graphic courtesy of High-Def Watch
Perhaps the most remembered example is Peck as New York sportswriter Mike Hagen in the romantic comedy Designing Women (1957). In the film, Hagen navigates a whirlwind marriage with his fashion designer wife (Lauren Bacall).
In the film, Mike covers a golf tournament and correctly picks the winning golfer in the reporters’ betting pool, winning $1,200. With the money that he won, he starts buying drinks. The next morning, he wakes up with no memory of the night before. With the excessive drinking he endured, Mike starts to believe that he did not cover the golf tournament.
As he drinks his coffee at the hotel pool, an unknown woman named Marilla Brown approaches him. While Mike is talking to this unfamiliar woman, he gets a call from his editor, who tells him he received Mike’s story, but a depraved boxing promoter is threatening him. After the call, Mike continues talking with Marilla, who explains that she helped him write his story. Marilla is nothing other than the character Bacall played, his future wife.
Gregory Peck reading the book that helped make him famous (photo, The Man Has Style)
Gregory Peck starred in many memorable films (especially note those presented in bold type), which include Days of Glory (1944), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Valley of Decision (1945), Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Duel in the Sun (1946), The Macomber Affair (1947), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Yellow Sky (1948), Twelve O’clock High (1949), The Gunfighter (1950), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), Only the Valiant (1951), David and Bathsheba (1951), The World in His Arms (1952), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), Night People (1954), The Purple Plain (1954), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), Moby Dick (1956), The Bravados (1958), The Big Country (1958), Pork Chop Hill (1959), Beloved Infidel (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), Behold a Pale Horse (1964), Mirage (1965), Arabesque (1966), The Stalking Moon (1968), Mackenna’s Gold (1969), The Chairman (1969), Marooned (1969), I Walk the Line (1970), Shoot Out (1971), Billy Two Hats (1974), The Omen (1976), MacArthur (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978), The Sea Wolves (1980), and Old Gringo (1989).
Gregory Peck lived a full life. He died in 2003 at 87.
