gregory peck award
for excellence in the art of film /
STEPHEN FREARS
The Phoenix Cinema - Sat 20th March - 7pm
€15 - includes access to The Public Enemy and Festival Club
Go to Sat 20th March, Public Enemy to purchase your ticket
Stephen Frears is one of Britain’s most distinctive and provocative directors.
"Gregory had the greatest admiration for Stephen Frears as a
filmmaker and fellow storyteller, and he had truly hoped that they
would make a film together. Though they were never able to
collaborate, it's especially meaningful to our family that this award
in Gregory's name will be given to Stephen Frears in Gregory's
ancestral home of Dingle." Veronique Peck
Born in Leicester in 1941, he studied law at Cambridge University before working in the theatre at the Royal Court and then working as Assistant Director to Karel Reisz on MORGAN and to Lindsay Anderson on IF.
In the 70’s, he directed many notable television plays, written by Alan Bennett, Tom Stoppard, Peter Prince, Neville Smith and Adrian Mitchell.
His breakthrough as a feature film director came with the low budget hit MY BEAUTFIUL LAUNDRETTE in 1985. Initially intended for television and written by Hanif Kureishi, the film was given an international release and became a critical and commercial success.
Stephen made his Hollywood debut with DANGEROUS LIAISONS in 1989, which received six Oscar nominations, followed by THE GRIFTERS, produced by Martin Scorsese, which gained him an Oscar nomination for Best Director in 1991. He directed the 20th century western THE HI LO COUNTRY in 1998, returning to more familiar territory with HI FIDELITY, a humorous look at the nature of commitment.
In 2003, Stephen returned to British television to direct THE DEAL, which looked at a pivotal moment in the relationship between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair and was the first time the two figures had been represented on TV. Featuring Michael Sheen as Tony Blair and written by Peter Morgan the film won a BAFTA award for Best Single Drama in 2004.
In 2005, he directed Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins in MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS followed by THE QUEEN with Helen Mirren, which has been highly acclaimed both commercially and critically,earned him an Oscar Nomination, was awarded a BAFTA for Best Film and for which Helen Mirren won an Oscar.
Last year he directed CHERI adapted from the Colette book by Christopher Hampton starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend about an ageing courtesan in turn of the century Paris and her love affair with the young son of her friend.
gregory peck biography
Academy Award winner Gregory Peck worked in films for more than fifty years
and reached a singular stature in the motion picture industry. It was his classic
portrayal of the Lincolnesque Southern lawyer in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ that
won him the Academy Award for Best Performance by an actor in 1962. Previously, he had received four Best Actor Oscar nominations for 'The Keys of the Kingdom,’ ‘The Yearling’, ‘Gentleman's Agreement’, and ‘Twelve O'Clock High.’
The recipient of the American Film Institute's prestigious Life Achievement
Award in 1989, Gregory Peck also received the Kennedy Center Honors in
Washington, DC (December 1991), and the New York Film Society of Lincoln
Center Lifetime Achievement Award (April 1992). He received the Legion
d’Honneur from the French Republic (199 ), and later was elevated to the rank
of Commandeur by President Jacques Chirac (199 ). He was honored for Life
Achievement with the US National Medal of the Arts (November 1998) in
Presidential ceremonies at the White House. Through the years he was the
recipient of the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor, and has also received similar Best Actor accolades from film critics in England, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, India and Japan. His talent has been both unique and universal.
His numerous screen credits provide a cross-section of Hollywood's finest cinematic contributions. These include ‘Duel in the Sun’, ‘The Gunfighter’, ‘Roman Holiday’, ‘Spellbound’, ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘The Guns of Navarone.’
As a motion picture producer and executive, Gregory Peck produced or coproduced: ‘Pork Chop Hill’, ‘Cape Fear’, ‘The Big Country’, ‘The Guns of Navarone’, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, ‘Captain Newman, MD’, ‘Behold a Pale Horse’, ‘The Trial of the Catonsville Nine’ and ‘The Dove.’
Born in La Jolla, California, April , 1916, the son of Gregory and Bernice Peck, he attended schools in La Jolla and San Diego, as well as St. John's Military Academy in Los Angeles. Originally intending to become a physician, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. At an athletic six-foot-two-and a-half inches, he was a university oarsman. Also active in college theatricals (an early campus role was as Starbuck, First Mate of the Pequod, in a staged presentation of ‘Moby Dick’. Later, he would more famously portray Captain Ahab in ‘Moby Dick,’ for director John Huston, and ultimately the firebrand whaling preacher Father Mapple in a television mini-series of the same Melville classic). He was given such enthusiastic encouragement that he soon decided to shift his focus from medicine to drama, and, later, armed with a letter of introduction to a business friend of his father's, he set out for Broadway after graduation in 19 9. The letter got him a job - as a barker at an attraction in the amusement zone at the New York World's Fair. He subsequently worked as a tour guide at Manhattan's famed Radio City. Meanwhile, he had won an audition for a scholarship at the renowned Neighborhood Playhouse, and after that he garnered an invitation from the notable Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia where he performed in a variety of roles as he honed his stagecraft. Guthrie McClintic then engaged him for a US National Tour with Katharine Cornell in ‘The Doctor's Dilemma’. Word of this talented young actor spread rapidly; his first big break came when he signed for the Broadway production of ‘Morning Star’, which later led to the lead role opposite Geraldine Fitzgerald in Irwin Shaw's play, ‘Sons and Soldiers.’
His early theatrical successes brought Hollywood attention, his first motion
picture assignment between stage commitments being the lead in ‘Days of
Glory.’ At barely 2 years, he quickly rocketed to the top rank among stars in
his second appearance on the screen in ‘The Keys of the Kingdom’. The rest,
as they say, is motion picture history.
Gregory Peck had three sons from his first marriage - Jonathan, Stephen and
Carey. In December 19 , he married the French journalist, Veronique Passani.
The have a son, Anthony, and a daughter, Cecilia.
Among Gregory Peck's diverse activities and commendations are the
following:
- Member of the US National Council on the Arts (twice appointed by
President Lyndon B. Johnson: 196 -1966 and 1968-19 )
- Recipient of the US Medal of Freedom (1969), the Nation's highest
civilian decoration
- President, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (196 -19 0)
- Recipient, Jean Hersholt Memorial Award (Oscar) from the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1968)
- National Chairman, American Cancer Society (1966)
- Producer, 0th Anniversary Gala of the Motion Picture and Television -
Relief Fund at the Los Angeles Music Center (19 1)
- Co-Founder, La Jolla Playhouse
- Founding Chairman, American Film Institute
- Founding Patron, Film Studies Program, University College Dublin (1992)
- Named 'Greatest Hero of Film' (200 ) for his portrayal of Atticus in
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in a poll of film historians and critics conducted
by the American Film Institute.
- Founded and Hosted Gregory Peck Reading Series at the Los Angeles.
Central Library (199 to present) - a virtual Who's-who of the greatest
performing artists of stage, screen and television in 'live ‘theatrical
presentations benefitting the Library Foundation (Gabriel Byrne
appeared in October 199 )