Top 10 Films: Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck was the cinematic personification of moral strength and dignity. Often playing heroes that possess a quiet strength and strong convictions, Gregory Peck's screen persona was that of a force for good that audiences could trust implicitly. Which made it all the more effective when he, occasionally, played against type in more villainous roles. His good looks and incredible speaking voice made Greg an easy choice for romantic roles, but Peck also possessed an air of authority and nobility that made him uniquely suited to play military commanders and father figures.
In real life, he served as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1967 to 1970. Peck was actually the one who decided to postpone the 1968 Academy Awards in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. You'll often hear the words "decency" and "integrity" thrown around when speaking about Gregory Peck (both onscreen and off) and after seeing a couple of his movies, you'll quickly understand why that is. But, which Gregory Peck movies have remained the most popular in 2026...??
10. The Gunfighter (1950)
This intimate Western stars Gregory Peck as Jimmy Ringo, a legendary gunfighter who has become disillusioned with his reputation as the fastest gun in the West, due to its tendency to attract younger gunfighters hoping to take his title. After Ringo is provoked into yet another shootout that ends in the death of a young gunslinger, the gunslinger’s brothers pursue Ringo in search of revenge. He manages to evade them for a time and heads to the town of Cheyenne where his old friend, Mark, is the marshal. Mark doesn’t want any of the trouble that Ringo tends to attract coming to his town so, he urges him to keep moving. But, Ringo refuses to leave until he is allowed to see his wife and son, who also live there. The problem is that Ringo hasn’t seen his wife in eight years and his young son doesn’t even know that his father is the infamous Jimmy Ringo.
Originally, the role of Jimmy Ringo was intended for legendary Western star John Wayne. Wayne was, actually, very interested in the part but, he turned it down due to his personal dislike of Columbia Pictures’ studio head, Harry Cohn (Wayne had held a grudge against Cohn ever since his early days as a Columbia contract player). Ironically, Columbia actually ended up selling the project to 20th Century Fox after Wayne had already turned it down, allowing Gregory Peck the opportunity to take the role instead.
The character of Jimmy Ringo was partially inspired by real-life Wild West outlaw Johnny Ringo, known for his confrontations with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. The mustache Peck wears in the film is, actually, very similar to the one that was sported by the real Johnny Ringo. However, Fox's head of production, Spyros P. Skouras, hated the mustache and Peck was only allowed to keep it because Skouras found out about it too late into filming to have any say in the matter. When the film didn't do very well at the box office, Skouras always blamed it entirely on Peck's mustache. Of course, The Gunfighter enjoys much greater popularity and prestige today (despite the presence of Gregory Peck's mustache).
9. Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Based on the book by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay, Jr. and adapted by them for the screen, Twelve O’Clock High revolves around the men of the U.S. Army’s 8th Air Force, who have the dangerous task of flying daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany in World War II. Gregory Peck plays Brigadier General Frank Savage, brought in as the new commanding officer of the 918th Bomb Group after the previous commanding officer was deemed "too soft." The 918th is referred to as “a hard luck group” due to the high number of casualties and injuries they’ve already suffered. Savage is determined to whip the men into shape, however, his tough demeanor immediately causes the emotionally exhausted men to rebel. So, the General must find a way to win his men’s trust before all of their transfers go through.
Although a number of different real-life Air Force commanders influenced the fictional character of Frank Savage, he was primarily based on Colonel Frank A. Armstrong, who commanded the 306th Bomb Group. The name “Savage” was actually chosen as a subtle nod to Armstrong’s Cherokee ancestry. In the book, Savage actually has a love interest, but the romantic subplot was deleted for the film in order to focus on the themes of leadership and the psychological toll of war. In fact, Twelve O’Clock High was one of the first films to focus on the psychological effect of battle, rather than the actual battles themselves.
Veterans of the “heavy bomber campaign” often credited this film as the only accurate Hollywood depiction of their wartime experiences. The movie's big air battle scene even incorporates real documentary footage of air combat between the U.S. and Germany (a fact that makes the scene that much more intense). For a time, Twelve O’Clock High was required viewing at all U.S. service academies as an example of “situational leadership theory” and it’s still occasionally used in leadership training today.
8. Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
Based on the first three novels of C.S. Forester’s classic Horatio Hornblower series (Beat To Quarters, Ship of the Line, and Flying Colors), this heroic swashbuckler stars Gregory Peck as the titular Hornblower, a captain in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars of the 1800s. Captain Hornblower’s ship, the HMS Lydia, has been tasked with a secret mission to Nicaragua with the captain alone privy to the journey’s true purpose. Once they arrive at their destination, Captain Hornblower informs the crew that they are there to supply arms to the forces of Don Julian Alvarado, an enemy of Spain who plans on attacking the Spanish on the North American front. As an ally of France, Spain is Britain’s enemy in the war, which makes Don Alvarado an ally of Britain by default.
Captain Hornblower wants to appease the psychotic Don Alvarado (or “El Supremo”, as he prefers to call himself) in order to prevent bloodshed and hopefully gain an upper hand in the war against France. So, when the Lydia captures a large Spanish ship while in Nicaraguan waters, Captain Hornblower, immediately hands the ship over to “El Supremo” as a sign of goodwill. But, shortly after leaving “El Supremo,” the Lydia comes across a smaller Spanish vessel waving a white flag. The passengers inform Captain Hornblower that Spain has switched sides and is now an ally of Britain’s against France, which means that Hornblower has just supplied one of Britain’s enemies with a very well-supplied and extremely powerful war ship.
Despite being adapted from a combination of three books, Captain Horatio Hornblower manages to stay pretty true to its source material thanks to the involvement of the novels’ original author, C.S. Forester, who helped with this adaptation. And if the HMS Lydia looks vaguely familiar to classic Disney fans, that’s because the set had originally been used as the Hispaniola in Walt Disney’s 1950 adaptation of Treasure Island.
7. Yellow Sky (1948)
Set in the 1860s, this atmospheric film is basically a Western adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic play, The Tempest. It stars Gregory Peck as James “Stretch” Dawson, the leader of a gang of desperados who successfully rob a bank in a small Western town and attempt to make their escape by cutting through Death Valley. But, this proves to be a big mistake when the journey ends up being much more harrowing than they expected.
After losing one of their horses and nearly collapsing from dehydration, the men finally reach a ghost town named Yellow Sky. The only people left in the town are a woman named Mike (Anne Baxter) and her elderly grandfather. Mike leads the men to a nearby spring to recover but, she’s quite wary of them. And it turns out that she has very good reason to be wary. The men are already unsettled after their journey and only become more volatile when they discover that Mike and her grandfather are prospecting for gold. While Stretch attempts to negotiate a deal to split the gold, other members of the gang may not be willing to be quite so generous.
Filmed on location within (what is now) Death Valley National Park, Yellow Sky has become known for its stunning black-and-white cinematography and sophisticated visual storytelling. During filming, the cast and crew all stayed at Death Valley's Furnace Creek Inn (now known as The Oasis at Death Valley). This location actually holds the record of the highest temperature ever recorded on earth (134.1 degrees Fahrenheit in July 1913). While shooting one of his riding scenes, Greg accidentally fell off of his horse and broke his ankle in 3 places. This meant that his stunt double had to take over for some of Stretch’s more physical fight scenes, including a short fight scene with Anne Baxter. Although Gregory Peck often enjoyed close friendships with his leading ladies, he and Baxter didn't get along well at all. Director William Wellman actually warned Greg to be very careful about doing any fight scenes with her, since he believed that she might genuinely try to hurt him if given the chance.
6. The Big Country (1958)
Co-produced by Gregory Peck and director William Wyler, this Western epic features an incredible cast that includes Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Chuck Connors, Charlton Heston, and Burl Ives (in an Oscar-winning performance). Peck stars as James McKay, a New England sea captain who has traveled West to join his fiancée, Pat (Baker), at her father’s ranch. It’s soon clear that Jim’s mild-mannered ways stand at stark contrast to the aggressive cowboy culture Pat is used to.
The self-assured Jim is cool under pressure and not very easily bullied into participating in petty fights. However, Pat’s pride is more easily wounded and she can’t understand why her fiancé doesn't immediately side with her family in their long-standing feud against the rough-and-tumble Hannassey clan. Jim isn’t so easily swayed and he begins to suspect that both sides of this feud may actually be in the wrong.
Based on Donald Hamilton's short story, Ambush At Blanco Canyon (later extended into the novel, The Big Country), this film was a humongous success when it was first released. Shot entirely around California at various locations (including Red Rock Canyon State Park and the Sierra Foothills), The Big Country features gorgeous cinematography paired with an unforgettable score by Jerome Moross. The film is sometimes credited as starting a new trend of so-called “pacifist Westerns.” Interestingly, Wyler originally conceived the film as an allegory for the Cold War, with Pat’s father representing Dwight D. Eisenhower (making it very ironic that The Big Country later became Eisenhower’s favorite movie).
5. The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Based on the novel by Alistair MacLean, this classic WWII adventure film features a talented ensemble that includes Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, and David Niven. Gregory Peck plays the role of Captain Keith Mallory, a renowned spy and mountaineer recruited by Allied Intelligence to join a team of commandos led by Major Roy Franklin (Quayle). Their mission is to destroy two massive guns the Axis powers’ have stationed on the Greek island of Navarone. If the guns are destroyed, the British Royal Navy can prevent an assault on the nearby island of Keros, where 2,000 British soldiers are currently marooned.
Inspired by the real World War II Battle of Leros, The Guns of Navarone was filmed mostly on location on the Greek island of Rhodes (since “Navarone" was a fictional island). Behind the scenes, the cast bonded by playing chess against each other, merely tapping out whenever they were needed on set. Director J. Lee Thompson has stated that it often looked more like they were playing a chess tournament than making a movie due to the sheer number of chess boards they had set up. As an American, Greg felt a bit miscast in the role of Mallory, but chose not to affect an accent, since he thought it would be better to just use his real voice rather than fail at attempting a British accent. This proved to be the right choice since most viewers simply assume that Mallory is supposed to be an American. In actuality, Mallory’s nationality is never even mentioned in the film but, in the novel, he was actually a New Zealander.
While filming The Guns of Navarone, Greg developed a close friendship with co-star David Niven. During production, Niven actually contracted a near-fatal lip infection. He was supposed to stay in the hospital even longer, but came back early to finish shooting against the advice of his doctors. This rash decision cost Niven later. He ended up having a relapse, which put him in the hospital for seven weeks after filming ended.
4. Cape Fear (1962)
Based on the novel, The Executioners by John D. MacDonald, this psychological thriller proved to be the last movie made through Gregory Peck’s production company, Melville Productions. Greg stars as Sam Bowden, a respected lawyer living in Georgia with his wife, Peggy, and teenage daughter, Nancy. Eight years earlier, Bowden had testified against a rapist named Max Cady (Robert Mitchum), after witnessing him attack a girl in a parking lot.
Now Max Cady has been released and he holds Bowden personally responsible for his conviction. Determined to get even, Cady begins to subtly threaten and stalk Bowden’s family, giving particular emphasis to Nancy. What’s worse is that Cady did his homework while incarcerated, giving him the tools necessary to keep the law on his side. So, even while Cady terrorizes his family, Bowden is left seemingly powerless to stop whatever ultimate revenge Cady has planned.
This tense film is very similar in tone to Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and director J. Lee Thompson deliberately intended Cape Fear to have the visual style of Hitchcock’s classic black-and-white thrillers. The film’s score was even composed by Hitchcock's frequent collaborator Bernard Hermann. Hermann’s score was so good, Martin Scorsese, actually, ended up re-using it 30 years later for his 1991 Cape Fear remake. The film’s title actually comes from Gregory Peck, himself. He wasn't a fan of the original novel’s title and started looking for an interesting-sounding place name to use instead. He discovered the real Cape Fear River in North Carolina while scanning over a US map and knew it would be the absolutely perfect title for this cinematic thriller.
3. The Omen (1976)
A true horror classic, this British/American co-production was the breakout film for director Richard Donner (who would later become famous for directing the original Superman and Lethal Weapon). The Omen was, actually, the first film Gregory Peck had made in seven years. He stars as American diplomat Robert Thorn, whose wife, Kathy (Lee Remick), gives birth to a baby boy while the couple are living in Rome. Unfortunately, shortly after the birth, Robert is told that his son has died. Hoping to shield Kathy from the pain of losing a child, Robert is convinced by the hospital’s chaplain to secretly adopt another baby boy whose mother died in childbirth. So, the adoption goes through and Kathy is none the wiser. They name the boy Damien and 5 years later the family is living happily in London with Robert working as the U.S. Ambassador to Britain. But, starting on Damien’s 5th birthday, strange and insidious happenings begin to occur. When a priest named Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton) shows up at Robert’s office adamantly stating that Damien is not human, naturally, Robert kicks him out, convinced that the overzealous priest is crazy. But, then he starts to wonder: what if he’s right?
The unsettling quality of The Omen owes a great deal to its Oscar-winning score by Jerry Goldsmith. His haunting music brings a real sense of dread to the film that helps elevate the scares. Although much of the movie’s storyline revolves around a supposedly Biblical passage detailing the rise of the Devil, the passage in question was actually made up entirely for the film.
The Omen’s production was infamously plagued by strange accidents, prompting some people to believe the film was, actually, cursed. Some of the odd happenings include:
Both Gregory Peck's and screenwriter David Seltzer's planes being struck by lightning on their way to filming, despite traveling on entirely separate flights.
Producer Harvey Bernhard nearly being struck by lightning in Rome.
Richard Donner’s hotel being bombed by the IRA.
An experienced stunt double getting badly injured during a dog attack scene.
Several crew members getting into a head-on collision car crash on the very first day of shooting.
2. Roman Holiday (1953)
Arguably one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made, Roman Holiday gave Gregory Peck his first chance to appear in a cinematic comedy and it has since become one of his most beloved films. Produced and directed by William Wyler, the movie tells the story of Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn in her Oscar-winning Hollywood film debut), the crown princess of an unnamed European country who is in the middle of a diplomatic tour of Europe. As such, Ann has been spending all of her time giving speeches, accepting gifts, and making public appearances. By the time she arrives in Rome, she’s become emotionally exhausted by her tight schedule and lack of freedom. So, one night (after a small nervous breakdown), she decides to sneak out to explore Rome for a few hours. However, Ann doesn’t realize that her doctor had already given her a sedative and it starts to kick in shortly after she manages to “escape.” She’s soon found fast sleep on a public fountain by Joe Bradley (Greg), an American news reporter currently living and working in Rome.
Reluctantly, Joe allows the woozy mystery girl to sleep on his couch, only to realize the next morning who she really is. Not knowing that Joe is a reporter or that he has already guessed her secret, Ann introduces herself under the alias “Anya Smith,” a student who has run away from boarding school. Joe plays along and encourages “Anya” to take the whole day off to explore Rome, secretly hoping that he'll be able to get a great story for his paper out of it. He even enlists his photographer friend, Irving (Eddie Albert), to take stealth pictures of their excursions. But, in the end, this little Roman holiday may turn into more than just another story for Joe.
Shot completely on location in Rome, Roman Holiday was a welcome change of pace for both Gregory Peck and director William Wyler. Wyler hadn’t directed a comedy since the 1930s and was looking for the chance to return to the genre, while Greg was thrilled to, finally, be offered a comedy script at all. Originally, Greg was to be given sole star credit for the film with Audrey Hepburn’s name listed below the movie's title. But, Greg recognized that this film would make Hepburn a star and insisted the newbie actress be given star billing alongside him. When asked about it later, he would always simply state that it would’ve looked ridiculous for him to be given star status without her.
1. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, this classic courtroom drama features Gregory Peck in what easily became his most iconic role (as well as his personal favorite). Set in the 1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird is told from the point of view of 6-year-old Jean Louise Finch (known as “Scout”) who, along with her older brother Jem, lives with her widower father, Atticus (Greg), in a small Alabama town. Atticus is a well-respected lawyer, but his abilities are severely tested when he takes on the difficult task of defending Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a local Black man accused of raping a White woman.
A movie that touches on human decency, family, racial injustice, and empathy, To Kill a Mockingbird is both beautiful and powerful. The film won Gregory Peck his first and only Oscar for Best Actor and everyone from his co-stars, to his own children, to Harper Lee, herself, agreed that he was Atticus Finch, both onscreen and off. The character was named by the American Film Institute as the greatest cinematic hero of the 20th Century and, indeed, it's the quiet strength and conviction of Greg's performance that helps hold this classic film together.
The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was semi-autobiographical, with the steadfast Atticus clearly written in loving tribute to Harper Lee’s real-life lawyer father, Amasa Lee. Greg reminded Harper Lee so much of her father that she actually gave him her father’s watch after filming wrapped and Greg was even wearing the watch when he won his Oscar. Gregory Peck, actually, made a number of lifelong friends while making this film. Not only Harper Lee, but also Brock Peters and Mary Badham (who played Scout). Throughout his life, Peck and Badham would still always call each other "Scout" and "Atticus," while Brock Peters even gave the eulogy at Greg's funeral many years later.
Honorable Mention:
gentleman's Agreement (1947)
To finish up this Gregory Peck Top Ten, I decided to choose this groundbreaking film based on the novel by Laura Z. Hobson. It stars Greg as Philip Green, a widowed journalist who has moved to New York City with his mother and young son to work for a prestigious magazine.
The publisher, John Minify, informs Phil that he's been assigned to write a series of articles about anti-Semitism. Phil struggles to find an original angle at first, but then realizes that there is only one way to write the article from a truthful and human point of view: to live as a Jewish man and experience anti-Semitism firsthand.
Gentleman’s Agreement was the first major film to address the issue of anti-Semitism and many of the other studio heads—most of whom were Jewish—tried to convince 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck to stay away from the controversial subject.
They were concerned that calling attention to the issue would stir up trouble. Even though Zanuck himself was not Jewish, he was inspired to make the film after he was denied membership to the Los Angeles Country Club when it was assumed he was Jewish due to his foreign-sounding name.
Zanuck had the last laugh because Gentleman’s Agreement became one of the highest-grossing films of the year and won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Elia Kazan), and Best Supporting Actress (Celeste Holm, as the liberal fashion editor, Anne Dettrey).
Unfortunately, Gregory Peck and Elia Kazan did not get along very well during filming. Peck later said that although he thought Kazan was the perfect choice to direct the film, the two of them were just not suited for one another, stating that “emotionally, we were not on the same wavelength."
To see this list on Letterboxd: https://boxd.it/Bfwte$EfSGqJKS9q3xJdb0
Which Gregory Peck Movie Is Your Favorite?
0%To Kill A Mockingbird
0%The Gunfighter
0%Gentleman's Agreement
0%Roman Holiday
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