US actor Gregory Peck, long a major star and one of the most popular actors in American film history, has died at age 87 at his home in Los Angeles.
He died peacefully with his wife of 48 years, Veronique, at his side, his spokesman said.
Peck won an Oscar for best actor for his 1962 performance as the small town Southern lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Peck's craggy good looks, grace and measured speech contributed to his screen image as the decent, courageous man of action.
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Gregory Peck
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From his film debut in 1944 with
Days of Glory
, he was never less than a star. He was nominated for an Oscar five times, and his range of roles was astonishing.
He portrayed a priest in Keys of the Kingdom, combat heroes in Twelve O'Clock Highand Pork Chop Hill, Westerners in Yellow Skyand The Gunfighter, a romantic in Roman Holiday.
His commanding presence suited him for legendary characters: King David in David and Bathsheba, sea captains in Captain Horatio Hornblowerand Moby Dick, F. Scott Fitzgerald in Beloved Infidel, the war leader MacArthur, and Abraham Lincoln in the TV mini-series The Blue and the Grey.
Peck's rare attempts at unsympathetic roles usually failed. He played the renegade son in the Western Duel in the Sonand the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil.
Off-screen as well as on, Peck conveyed a quiet dignity. He had one amicable divorce, and scandal never touched him. He served as president of the Motion Picture Academy and was active in the Motion Picture and Television Fund, American Cancer Society, National Endowment for the Arts and other causes.
"I'm not a do-gooder," he insisted after learning of the Academy's Jean Hersholt humanitarian award in 1968. "It embarrassed me to be classified as a humanitarian. I simply take part in activities that I believe in."