'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Reader Suggestion
'Trio'
DirecTV brings in a channel called 'Trio' that has been running a
program of "offensive" comedy--Lenny Bruce, TV Funhouse,
Bill Maher, and such. Some shows, some interviews. All really
good.
BTW: Thanks for the expanded listings!
Charley
Thanks, Charley. Just my luck to have 'Dish' ™ ; )
from Mark
Republican-Lite Party Mix
-Mark
Reader Comment
"Matrix Reloaded" -- Banned in Egypt
Marty,
It's very ironic that Egypt's censors have chosen to ban
the film "Matrix Reloaded". Many of the themes from
the two "Matrix" films parallel those of Gnosticism, an
early Christian heresy that viewed humans as souls
trapped in an prison-like material creation ruled by
the Demiurge, a psychotic deity; the goal of the Gnostics'
spiritual practice was to achieve liberation from our
deeply flawed reality and move into a truer reality.
The irony is that our only primary-source material on
Gnosticism was discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egpyt
in 1945, where it had been buried sometime in the
3rd or 4th century to protect it from a purge of
proscribed books.
Some things never change ...
J.
Thanks, J.!
By any chance did you see Elaine Pagels on Bill Moyers' NOW (PBS) a few weeks back? Her 'Gnostic Gospels' was the first book I read on the topic.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still overcast, but pleasant.
So, this morning the kid comes into the bedroom, and announced 'how do you like my new haircut?'. Considering what was anticipated before eyes opened, I was grateful. He'd taken his round-tipped scissors into the bathroom & trimmed his 'bangs' - they sort of make a grand arch from the far-side of one eyebrow to the far-side of the other. It
could been have a whole lot worse.
Dave Letterman just said he'd be back Monday.
Tonight, Friday, CBS starts the night with a FRESH 'Baby Bob', followed by a RERUN 'Yes, Dear', then a RERUN
'Hack', followed by '48 Hours'.
On a FRESH Dave are Lauren Ambrose and Damien Rice.
On a FRESH Craiggers are Guy Pearce and the Eels.
NBC begins the night with a 2-hour 'Dateline', followed by a RERUN 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'.
On a FRESH Jay are Martin Short, Blue Man Group, and Gavin Rossdale (Mr. Gwen Stefani).
On a FRESH Conan are Harrison Ford, Kelly Clarkson, and John Pizzarelli.
On a FRESH Carson Daly are James Van Der Beek, Sienna Miller, Train, Mike Birbiglia, and Eric "Badlands" Booker.
ABC has more NBA Finals, so primetime on the west coast will be local filler.
On a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Seth Green and Staind, with this week's guest co-host Jay Mohr.
The WB offers a RERUN 'What I Like About You', followed by another RERUN 'What I Like About You', then
a RERUN 'Reba', followed by another RERUN 'Reba'
Faux has a RERUN 'Fastlane', followed by another RERUN 'Fastlane'.
UPN has the movie 'From Russia With Lvoe' (Sean Connery as James Bond from 1963).
Check local PBS lsitings for the best show on TV - 'NOW With Bill Moyers'.
A&E has 'Biography' (Julius Caesar), followed by 'The Private Lives of Pompeii'.
AMC offers the movie 'Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddie's Revenge', followed by the movie 'Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers'.
BBC has 'Ground Force' - Southampton (7pm), 'Changing Rooms' - Salisbury (7:30pm),
'Coupling' - The Man With Two Legs (8pm), 'Absolutely Fabulous' - Mother (8:40pm),
'The Office' - Episode 2 (9pm), 'Manchild' - Episode 8 (9:40pm),
'Absolutely Fabulous' - Fear (10:20pm), 'So Graham Norton' - Kim Catrall (11pm),
'So Graham Norton' - Linda Hamilton (11:30pm), and 'The Office' - Episode 2 (12am). (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has an episode of 'Fame', followed by the movie 'Good Will Hunting'.
Discovery has a FRESH 'Danger In The O.R.'.
History offers 'History's Mysteries', 'History Undercover', and 'Modern Marvels'.
SciFi has a night of 'Stargate SG-1'.
TCM offers 2 of my favorite movies, back to back, in the afternoon. Back in 1983,
Anne Bancroft and
Mel Brooks remade
To Be or Not to Be (1983) - a troupe of stage actors are called upon to match wits with the
Nazi's in Poland.
The seldom seen original version of
To Be or Not to Be (1942), directed by
Ernst Lubitsch, and starring
Carole Lombard and
Jack Benny (yes, that Jack Benny), starts off the afternoon viewing. If you've never seen this film, and the
opportunity presents itself, it's worth the effort.
It's followed by Mary Chase's classic
Harvey (1950), starring
James Stewart (from Indiana, PA), as Elwood P. Dowd, and
Josephine Hull as his sister Veta Louise Simmons.
The first Maytag repairman, Jesse White played Wilson, the attendant who
reads the definition of pooka from the dictionary.
Elwood P. Dowd is one of my favorite philosophers.
"Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, "In this world, Elwood, you must be" -- she always called me Elwood -- "In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me."
Primetime TCM offers Bundle of Joy (1956), starring
Debbie Reynolds and
Eddie Fisher. Later that year,
Carrie Fisher was born.
It's followed by The Long, Long Trailer (1954), directed by
Vincente Minnelli, and starring
Jamestown, NY's own, Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Supposedly Foolproof
Segway
"Each board contains a Texas Instruments digital signal processor, monitoring the entire Segway HT system and checking 100 times per second for any faults or conditions that might require immediate response. It reads the information from the Balance Sensor Assembly to determine if the rider is leaning forward or backward, and instantly uses this information to deliver power from the batteries to the motors through a set of 12 high-power, high-voltage field-effect transistors (FETs). These calculations take place 100 times a second, and the motors are adjusted at up to 1,000 times per second, responding far more quickly than the human body is capable of perceiving.
The balance sensor assembly (BSA) ... (a) small cube, 3 inches on a side, is packed with five solid-state, vibrating-ring, angular-rate sensors ("gyroscopes") that use the Coriolis effect to measure rotation speed. These tiny rings are electromechanically vibrated in such a way that when they are rotated, a small force is generated that can bedetected in the internal electronics of the sensor. Each "gyro" is placed at a unique angle that allows it to measure multiple directions.
Segway's onboard computers constantly compare the data from all five gyros to determine if any of the five is supplying faulty data--in this condition, it can compensate and use data from the remaining sensors to continue balancing through a controlled safety shutdown. Two tilt sensors filled with an electrolyte fluid provide a gravity reference in the same way your inner ear does for your own sense of balance. The BSA is monitored by two independent microprocessors and is split into two independent halves for redundancy. Even the communication between sides is performed optically to avoid electrical faults on one side propagating to the other.
Volunteer Jonathan McClendon takes away bricks excavated from George Washington's whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon plantation near Washington, June 12, 2003. Mount Vernon's expert archaeologists are currently conducting excavations of two archaeological sites: George Washington's Whiskey Distillery and the South Lane fence line. Mount Vernon was home to George Washington for over 45 years. After the White House, it is the most visited historic home in America.
Photo by Yuri Gripas
Remember This Date
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Bike Week in N.H.
Peter Fonda
Peter Fonda, who played Captain America in the biker film, "Easy Rider," is in New Hampshire for Bike Week in Laconia and will be the grand marshal for Sunday's parade.
Fonda, 64, said Wednesday he's visited New Hampshire many times and the state motto "Live Free or Die" is evident in the individual spirit of riding. He said it's also relevant to the issues of the day, noting that the Patriot Act enacted after the events of Sept. 11, has unfairly infringed on Americans' everyday freedoms.
"I think New Hampshire's motto is the best of any state's," Fonda said. "Especially now, when we're losing our freedom with things like homeland security."
The nine-day annual bike rally attracts thousands of people from across the country. There are bike shows, racing and scenic tours of the state.
Peter Fonda
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
British Interview
Hillary Clinton
In an interview to be broadcast on British television Friday, Hillary Rodham Clinton, now a Democratic U.S. senator from New York, was asked if she felt sorry for Lewinsky, who now hosts a reality television series called "Mr. Personality."
"You know, I feel sorry for everyone who was caught up in this relentless partisan investigation," Clinton replied.
"What about her in particular?" broadcaster Trevor McDonald asked on ITN's "Tonight" program.
"Absolutely," Clinton said.
She said there were "so many victims" of the Lewinsky scandal, which she blamed on her husband's political enemies.
"These people were willing to destroy anyone in order to end my husband's presidency," she said. "And they continued it, even to the point where they were willing to subvert our Constitution to try to end his presidency."
Hillary Clinton
Swedish actress Anita Ekberg, at left, - who became legendary for cooling off in Rome's Trevi Fountain in Federico Fellini's 1960 film 'La Dolce Vita' - and self-described Fellini's lover Sandra Milo, pose for a photo during the presentation of 'Federico Fellini Festival', in Rome, Thursday June 12, 2003. The restored versions of five films - part of the 'Cinema Forever' project - 'Lo Sceicco Bianco', 'I Vitelloni', '81/2', 'La Dolce Vita' and 'Giulietta degli Spiriti' will be shown to commemorate the great Italian director ten years after his death, in theaters in Rome and Milan from June 16th through June 20th.
Photo by Corrado Giambalvo
Star Shares Wealth
James Gandolfini
Even as discussions heat up among the principals to commit to a sixth season of "The Sopranos," sources say the real buzz on the set of HBO's hit mob drama has been about the generous gesture made last week by James Gandolfini to more than a dozen of his fellow cast members.
Gandolfini, who had a bruising salary renegotiation with HBO earlier this year, recently received his first advance from HBO on his share of the "Sopranos" profits, and in turn, the Emmy-winning actor quietly handed out checks in the five-figure range to series regulars, including Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese and Tony Sirico.
Sources said Gandolfini ponied up about $500,000 of his own cash as a way of acknowledging that in his view, the show's success hinges on the strength of its ensemble cast.
James Gandolfini
Fest Unveils Full Lineup
'Austin City Limits'
More than 100 artists will perform on eight stages during the second annual Austin City Limits Music Festival. Set for Sept. 19-21, the event is expected to draw more than 75,000 to Zilker Park in the heart of the Texas capital.
Among the newly announced performers for the show are Dwight Yoakam, Yo La Tengo, Steve Winwood, Bela Fleck, Shawn Colvin, Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Jay Farrar, Asleep At The Wheel, Hank Williams III, the Dandy Warhols, the North Mississippi All Stars, Howie Day, Cody ChesnuTT, Spearhead, Jason Mraz, Yonder Mountain String Band, Donovan, Charlie Robison, Doyle Bramhall, and Keller Williams.
The eclectic event will also welcome R.E.M., Al Green, Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Mavis Staples, the Mavericks, Liz Phair, Ben Harper, Polyphonic Spree, Jack Johnson, String Cheese Incident, Patty Griffin, Alejandro Escovedo, Leftover Salmon, Kings Of Leon, Topaz, the Derailers, Richard Buckner, the Gourds, Robert Randolph, Ween, G. Love & Special Sauce, Spoon, Galactic, O.A.R., Gomez, Doyle Bramhall, Ian Moore, Beth Orton, Beta Band, Old 97's, Abra Moore, Ben Kweller, and the Shins.
The entire lineup is available on the Austin City Limits Music Festival Web site (
www.aclfestival.com). Also available there are $65 three-day tickets; single-day tickets will be put on sale sometime this summer.
'Austin City Limits'
Back to TV
Jane Pauley
Less than a month after departing her anchor's chair at "Dateline NBC," Jane Pauley has signed a new deal with NBC to host a syndicated daytime talk show.
"The Jane Pauley Show" is targeted to premiere in fall 2004, distributed by the network's NBC Enterprises syndication arm.
"While a daytime talk show is a dramatic departure for me, I'm thrilled that the second phase of my career begins at NBC where the first one left off," Pauley said in announcing the deal. "I look forward to a long-running conversation with other women who share many of the same issues and have lots of ideas, too."
Jane Pauley
Surprise Guest at Graduation
Adam Sandler
Comedian Adam Sandler made a surprise appearance at Manchester (N.H.) Central High School's graduation ceremony, where his nephew was one of three valedictorians.
Sandler, who graduated from the school in 1984, teased his nephew, Tyler Spindel at the Wednesday night ceremony, calling him the family's "boy genius" and describing his own role as "professional buffoon."
He said Spindel's first word, when he was a year old, was "photosynthesis," while Sandler's first word, at age 7, was "doodie," which continued to be his favorite word in life.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was originally scheduled to speak to the graduates, but had to cancel when the ceremony was moved back a day. Sandler blamed Kerry's absence on "a wicked bad case of a fake tummy ache."
Adam Sandler
Wins Temporary Halt to Spike TV
Spike Lee
A Manhattan judge on Thursday granted Lee's petition and ordered Viacom Inc. to stop using Spike TV as the new name for its TNN network, pending a trial on the issue.
State Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub ordered Lee to post a $500,000 bond to cover Viacom's losses in case the company wins.
Viacom announced the name change in April as part of its transformation of TNN into "the first network for men." Spike TV shows reruns of "The A-Team," "Baywatch" and "Miami Vice," sports entertainment such as pro wrestling and "American Gladiators" — plus an animated series featuring Pamela Anderson as the voice of Stan Lee's "Stripperella," an undercover operative who is also a stripper.
Lee's lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, said, "We're obviously elated. We had a good judge who looked at the law and at the facts."
Spike Lee
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
CNN's Newest Paula Zahn
Soledad O'Brien
CNN has hired NBC "Weekend Today" anchor Soledad O'Brien to replace Paula Zahn as co-host of its three-hour news program, "American Morning."
O'Brien will be paired with Bill Hemmer on the program, starting next month.
Previously, she worked at MSNBC and in local news in San Francisco.
"It was time to move on," she said Thursday. "Frankly, what appealed to me about CNN was the quality of journalism and the opportunity to do more hard news than I had been doing on the weekend show."
Soledad O'Brien
Two 4-month-old lion cubs await dinner at the Baghdad Zoo in May 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq. Stephan Bognar hauled raw meat across the Iraqi desert, dodge bullets and bandits, and wrestled with starving cheetahs and lions before he could assess how much it would take to rebuild the Baghdad Zoo. Bognar, a field agent for the San Francisco-based conservation group WildAid has returned to the U.S. from nearly two months in Iraq working to save the last few animals among nearly 600 that were stolen, escaped orkilled.
Photo by Stephan Bognar
Gave Birth to Twins
Joan Lunden's Surrogate
A surrogate mother has given birth to twins for former "Good Morning America" host Joan Lunden and her husband Jeffrey Konigsberg, Lunden's publicist said on Thursday.
The babies, Kate Elizabeth and Max Aaron, were born on Tuesday in Cincinnati, Ohio to surrogate mother Deborah Bolig, publicist Stan Rosenfield said.
Kate weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces and Max tipped the scales at 6 pounds, 11 ounces, Rosenfield said. Lunden and Konigsberg wed in April of 2000 and tried repeatedly to conceive via in-vitro fertilization.
The children are Konigsberg's first. Lunden said her three daughters -- Jamie, 22; Lindsay, 20; and Sarah, 15 -- from her previous marriage are "thrilled" about the new arrivals.
Joan Lunden's Surrogate
Weekly Gig on Faux
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is heading back to television. The comic-actor, last on HBO's "Dennis Miller Live" and ABC's "Monday Night Football," is expected to join the Fox News Channel as a commentator for "Hannity and Colmes."
An announcement could come as soon as today. Miller is expected to appear once a week on the 9 p.m. show, which pits conservative Sean Hannity against liberal Alan Colmes. Miller, often praised by critics as a perceptive social commentator, is to start next month.
Dennis Miller
New Postage Stamp
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn is the latest Hollywood legend to grace a first-class postage stamp — although she might have been embarrassed by the honor.
The U.S. Postal Service introduced a stamp bearing the image of the late Oscar-winning actress and humanitarian at a Hollywood ceremony Wednesday. The stamps went on sale across the country Thursday.
Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer, wearing a lapel pin with the image of the new stamp, said he was "touched at all the attention to my mother" and added she would have been "terribly embarrassed" by the honor.
Audrey Hepburn
Linkin Park Singer Released from Hospital
Chester Bennington
Linkin Park's Chester Bennington has been released from a Los Angeles hospital after suffering from severe back and abdominal pains.
Linkin Park was forced to cancel 12 European dates, which Bennington hopes will be rescheduled. "I plan on playing our warm up show in Las Vegas on June 27, and ripping everyone's face off this summer on Summer Sanitarium," he said. That trek, also featuring Metallica, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, and Mudvayne, begins July 4 in Detroit.
Chester Bennington
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Rolls Out Sean John Designer SUV
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs has partnered with Lincoln to design a Limited Edition Sean John Navigator. He was seen showcasing the $85,000 luxury ride at last week's MTV Movie Awards and his private after-party. Restricted to a production run of just 100, the vehicle will be available beginning July 1.
The special edition SUV will boast such standard features as exclusive Sean John wheels, a platinum coated logo emblem, custom tinted windows, and black chrome detailing.
Inside will be a Pioneer Premier Audio system with satellite radio, three DVD players and six TV monitors, a Playstation 2, logo-embossed leather seats, heated/vibrating driver and front passenger seats, suede covered center consoles, and black wood interior.
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs
A protester shows his sympathy by displaying pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi during a solidarity rally Thursday, June 12, 2003 in front of Myanmar Embassy in Manila. The protesters condemned the alleged brutal dispersal of the motorcade by the government that resulted in injuries to Suu Kyi. They also called for the immediate release of Suu kyi.
Photo by Pat Roque
Defecting Cuban Star Arrives in Miami
Carlos Manuel
Cuban pop star Carlos Manuel held tightly to his physical and cultural families at a press conference in his new hometown Wednesday. Standing close to his mother, Martiza Macias, who defected with him from Cuba this week, Manuel spoke of his love for his "family" of 11 million left behind.
Manuel defected from Cuba because he was "tired of all the hypocrisy," especially in light of harsh punishments of dissidents in his homeland. Though pop stars tend to live in relative luxury in Cuba, he said he found the tradeoff of personal and artistic restrictions unacceptable.
Manuel, 30, was performing in Mexico City last week with his band, "Carlos Manuel and his Clan." He told his band members he wasn't going back to Cuba. He crossed into the United States at Brownsville, Texas, late Sunday or early Monday and was granted asylum there Tuesday.
Manuel said that his intention was to remain in Mexico, but those plans changed after his Mexico City concert. At 4 a.m. Sunday, officials from the Cuban embassy showed up at his hotel, alerted to his intentions.
Carlos Manuel
Arrested After Stripping
Adam Ant
Former British pop star Adam Ant has been arrested after apparently running amok and stripping off in a London cafe.
Police said on Thursday they had arrested a 49-year-old man on suspicion of criminal damage, while The Sun newspaper showed pictures of the former 1980s heartthrob being held by two burly policemen, a blanket wrapped around his waist.
Newspapers said Ant, real name Stuart Goddard, had "gone berserk" near his north London home on Wednesday before stripping off his trousers in the cafe.
Adam Ant
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To Face Judge Again in DUI Case
Nick Nolte
Actor Nick Nolte, who pleaded no contest to driving under the influence of an illegal drug last September, was ordered to return to court on Friday to address allegations of a potential probation violation.
The actor's lawyer, Mark Werksman, was in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Malibu on Thursday to present a progress report on Nolte, 62, who was not present.
But Judge Lawrence Myra postponed the proceedings until the following day and ordered the actor to appear for a hearing to determine whether a formal probation violation hearing was warranted, Werksman said.
The syndicated television show "Celebrity Justice" cited unnamed sources as saying court officials received an anonymous telephone call Wednesday claiming Nolte had purchased liquor at a store in the San Francisco Bay area, appeared to be drunk and was seen driving off in a car with a passenger inside.
Nick Nolte
Online Art Catalog Created
J.M.W. Turner
The Tate Gallery has created the world's first comprehensive online catalog of the oil paintings, watercolors and sketches of British artist J.M.W. Turner.
The vast Internet resource includes color images and descriptions of more than 2,000 works by Turner, held in private and public collections in countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan and Greece. The catalog also has 30,000 works bequeathed to the British nation on the artist's death in 1851.
The last comprehensive catalog of Turner's work was Andrew Wilton's 1979 book, "The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner." The Internet catalog contains 500 more works, which were not considered significant in 1979, or were not previously attributed to Turner and have since been uncovered by scholarly research. Some are from collections that are rarely exhibited in public or not allowed to travel.
J.M.W. Turner
Turner Worldwide
In Memory
David Brinkley
David Brinkley, a pioneering TV journalist who became a household name delivering a sign-off he didn't even like, has died at 82.
"Neither of us liked it," Brinkley said a few years ago, referring to his NBC co-anchor Chet Huntley. "Two guys on the air saying good night to each other didn't look quite right."
But they had to close the newscast somehow, and "Good night, Chet," "Good night, David" did the trick. It also became a national catchphrase in the late 1950s as "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" fused those two newsmen into TV journalism's reigning force.
Brinkley died Wednesday at his home in Houston of complications from a fall.
He began the second act of his career in 1981 by moving to ABC News. There he flourished for another 15 years, particularly on "This Week with David Brinkley," where he reinvented the Sunday political talk show.
He won 10 Emmy awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards and, in 1992, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He is the author of four books, including the forthcoming "Brinkley's Beat: People, Places, and Events That Shaped My Time," to be published in November.
Born in Wilmington, N.C., on July 10, 1920, he was still in high school when he began writing for his hometown newspaper. He attended the University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt University, and after Army service he worked in Southern bureaus for the United Press syndicate.
During the 1964 Democratic convention, NBC, up against CBS and its anchor Walter Cronkite, won an astonishing 84 percent of the viewership.
But the fame of Huntley-Brinkley reached far beyond the realm of journalism. In 1965, a consumer-research company found that the twosome was recognized by more adult Americans than John Wayne or the Beatles.
Then, in 1970, Huntley retired. He died four years later.
Brinkley co-anchored the renamed "NBC Nightly News" with John Chancellor, then became the program's commentator. But the spell was broken. "The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" seized the ratings lead as NBC News stumbled.
After a falling out with his bosses, Brinkley gratefully moved on to ABC News, a late bloomer finally making a name for itself (thanks in part to Brinkley).
In November 1996, he stepped down as host of ABC's "This Week with David Brinkley" but continued to do commentary. He left amid a rare controversy: Late on Election Night, after a long evening, he said unkind things about President Clinton on the air, including calling him a "bore." Even so, Clinton sat for an interview for Brinkley's last show anyway, during which Brinkley apologized.
Divorced from his first wife, Ann, in the 1960s, Brinkley married Susan Benfer in 1972.
Among his four children, Alan is an American Book Award-winning historian and Joel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
A man who shot pool, rode horses and designed more than one of the houses he lived in, Brinkley aptly summed up his career and life in the subtitle of his memoir: "11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, 1 Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News and Other Stuff on Television, and 18 Years of Growing Up in North Carolina."
David Brinkley
In Memory
Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck, who embodied saintly fatherhood in
"To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) and played a range of real-life figures from Abraham Lincoln to Josef Mengele, died Thursday at 87.
With his wife of 48 years, Veronique, at his side, Peck died about 4 a.m. at his Los Angeles home, spokesman Monroe Friedman said.
Though he played a handful of villains, including the Nazi doctor Mengele in "The Boys From Brazil," Peck was best known for upright, chivalrous characters in such films as "Roman Holiday" and "Gentleman's Agreement" or stalwart heroes in "Captain Horatio Hornblower" and "Pork Chop Hill."
Nominated for Academy Awards four times early in his career, Peck finally won the best-actor honor with his fifth and final nomination for "To Kill a Mockingbird." The 1962 classic was based on Harper Lee's novel about widowed lawyer Atticus Finch, who is raising two children amid Southern racial unrest as he defends a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman.
He made his film debut in 1944's "Days of Glory," a tale of Russian peasants coping with Nazi occupation. The next year, Peck played a priest in his second film, "Keys to the Kingdom," which brought him his first Oscar nomination.
Three more nominations soon followed: for 1946's "The Yearling," the family classic about a boy and his pet fawn; for 1947's best-picture winner "Gentleman's Agreement," in which Peck played a reporter posing as a Jew to expose anti-Semitism in America; and for 1949's "Twelve O'Clock High," with Peck as a World War II flight leader coming unglued under the pressures of command.
Other films included Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound," the Ernest Hemingway adaptation "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," the corporate-America critique "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" and the nuclear-Armageddon tale "On the Beach."
Born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, Calif., Peck had a disjointed childhood after his parents divorced when he was 6. He was shuffled back and forth between them for two years, lived two more years with his maternal grandmother, then was sent at age 10 to a Roman Catholic military school in Los Angeles.
An English major at the University of California, Berkeley, Peck was lured into acting when the director of the campus little theater accosted him and said he needed a tall actor for a stage version of "Moby Dick."
After his first few films, Peck was soon under non-exclusive contracts to four studios; he refused an exclusive pact with MGM despite Louis B. Mayer's tearful pleading. With most male stars absent in the war, the studios desperately needed strong leading men. Peck was exempt from service because of an old back injury.
A Roosevelt New Dealer, Peck campaigned for Harry Truman in 1948 "at a time when nobody thought he had a chance to win." He continued championing liberal causes, producing an anti-Vietnam War film in 1972, "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine" and helping the campaign against the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987.
Peck married his first wife, Greta, in 1942 and they had three sons, Jonathan, Stephen and Carey. Jonathan, a TV reporter, committed suicide at age 30. After his divorce in 1954, Peck married Veronique Passani, a Paris reporter. They had two children, Anthony and Cecilia, both actors.
Gregory Peck
A coqui frog, left, and a greenhouse frog, right, are seen in this undated handout photo, next to a dime and a number two pencil. Two environmental groups have filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect a threatened species of the coqui frog, a national symbol of Puerto Rico. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday June 10, 2003, in U.S. District Court in Washington, accuses the federal agency of failing to draft a plan that would help the tiny frog species recover its numbers.
Photo by Lori Oberhofer
'Ark of Darkness'
"The Ark of Darkness", a Political/Science-Fiction work, in tidy, weekly installments (and updated every Friday).
Fresh on Friday
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 4
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
