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June 29 - July 6,2003 |
Outtakes
Hollwood bids farewell to Peck
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2003-06-22
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Gregory Peck
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Celebrities Michael Jackson, Harrison Ford and Lauren Bacall were among 3,000 friends, family and fans who bade farewell to Hollywood legend Gregory Peck. The memorial service at Los Angeles's Catholic cathedral earlier this week followed a family burial for the actor, who died last week at the age of 87.
Ford and his girlfriend, Calista Flockhart, Bacall and Anjelica Huston joined other celebrities including singers Harry Belafonte and Lionel Ritchie in paying homage to the life and work of one of Hollywood's best-loved screen heroes.
Brock Peters, Peck's co-star in his most hailed movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, conducted the eulogy, while the actor's children, Anthony, Cecelia and Cary, all gave readings. Peters played an unjustly accused black man defended in the movie by Peck's character, the right-minded southern lawyer Atticus Finch. The film, which provided Peck with his greatest screen role and won him the best actor Oscar, became a focus of the memorial service.
The service ended with a film-clip showing an interview with the actor in which he said he wanted to be remembered as a good husband, father and storyteller.
Peck's wife of 48 years, Veronique, attended the service, along with the actor's four children and his grandchildren. Peck was holding Veronique's hand when he died beside her.
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Since its inception, Cinematheque Ontario has wanted to present a retrospective of the films of Danish master Carl-Theodor Dreyer, but his most famous films have been without distribution in North America for over a decade. Thanks to the Danish Film Institute, a touring retrospective titled Flesh and Soul: The Films of Carl-Theodor Dreyer, stops over in Toronto from July 4 to August 15.
Among the director's most famous films is 1928's The Passion of Joan of Arc (July 9), starring Renee Falconetti as the martyred saint during her final eight hours of life; 1932's Vampyr (July 4), about a travelling man who encounters an ancient vampire; 1943's Day of Wrath (July 16), about a medieval widow branded as a witch by the villagers; and 1964's Gertrud (Aug. 15), Dreyer's final film about a retired opera singer trapped in a loveless marriage.
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