LOS ANGELES, June 12 (UPI) -- Gregory Peck died at his Los Angeles home, just days after he was named the greatest hero in Hollywood history. He was 87.
The veteran actor died Wednesday night. He was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning the Oscar in 1963 as best actor for playing the upstanding, down-to-earth attorney Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Recently, Peck topped the American Film Institute's list of top 100 movie heroes for that portrayal, in which he played a genteel, small-town lawyer defending a black man accused of raping a white woman.
With his rugged good looks and resonant voice, Peck was a star within a year after arriving in Hollywood in the early 1940s. He usually played men of particular moral fiber, often characters who reflected his own liberal political views.
The handsome, lanky, dark-haired actor began performing professionally on the New York stage before turning to the film industry. A shoulder and spine injury he incurred while an oarsman on a college racing team kept him out of the service in World War II.
Born in La Jolla, Calif., Peck was a pre-med student at UCLA Berkeley when he tried acting.
His first Oscar nomination came in 1946 for "Keys of the Kingdom." He was nominated three more times in the next four years, for "Twelve O'Clock High," "Gentleman's Agreement" and "The Yearling," cementing his role as Hollywood royalty.
