Every Gregory Peck Movie Ranked Worst To Best

The 1940s, '50s, and '60s were truly the Golden Age of Hollywood: an era when motion pictures came into their own, became more than glorified stage plays, and produced a new generation of on-screen superstars. Following in the footsteps of Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, a new star emerged in this era named Gregory Peck. 

Debuting in a leading role in 1944, he shot to stardom after just a few films, as his debonair looks, natural charm, and dominating screen presence made him a favorite of directors everywhere. In fact, Peck wound up working with many of the best of his generation, and seemed to favor working with filmmakers he'd had success with in the past. He starred in multiple films for the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Henry King, William Wyler, and J. Lee Thompson, and appeared on screen opposite some of his day's biggest leading ladies.

Today, Peck's Hollywood legacy lives on in the form of his grandson Ethan Peck, star of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds." Many of his films, meanwhile, have become iconic in their own right, and continue to be watched by new generations of fans. From Westerns and war movies to some of the finest rom-coms in Tinseltown, we've ranked every Gregory Peck film, worst to best.

A late career return to the screen and his final leading role, "The Portrait" is a 1993 made-for-television movie starring Gregory Peck and his real-life daughter Cecilia Peck during her brief attempt to launch a Hollywood career in front of the camera. The younger Peck is the star of the film, playing a portrait painter named Margaret Church. In a possible case of calling in some familial favors, Gregory Peck appears as her father and his "Designing Woman" co-star Lauren Bacall returns to his side to play his wife and Margaret's mother.

This sappy TNT original movie was adapted from the Arthur Penn play "Painting Churches" and sees Margaret arrive to paint a portrait of her aging parents for a project she's working on back in New York. But during the visit, Margaret is surprised to learn that her parents are preparing to move from her childhood home, and out of the well-to-do community where father Gardner has lived throughout his successful career as a poet. As she reconnects with them both, though, she slowly realizes they are not the active and vibrant parents she remembers.

Despite a pair of Hollywood icons, "The Portrait" is a pale imitation of Penn's play, and as a television production it's all awkwardly staged and haphazardly constructed. Unless you're a diehard Peck fan, this one is an easy skip.

The 1987 family drama "Amazing Grace and Chuck" isn't quite a Gregory Peck movie, with the former "Moby Dick" star only playing a minor supporting role. But the part he plays is an important one, as he takes on the role of the President of the United States. The movie stars Jamie Lee Curtis ("Halloween") and William Petersen ("CSI") in an all-ages story that speaks to America's very real worries about nuclear proliferation in the 1980s before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The story centers on a 12-year-old little leaguer named Chuck Murdock (Joshua Zuehlke), who becomes so concerned about nuclear weapons that he refuses to take the field for a big game, forcing his team to forfeit. When his silent protest makes the news, it catches the attention of star NBA player "Amazing Grace" Smith (Alex English), who takes the heartfelt message to the national level when he too refuses to play. As more and more pro athletes join their movement, Smith's sports agent (Curtis) is unsure of where the protest will end. Eventually, little Chuck winds up with a meeting at the White House, where he's applauded for his message of peace by the U.S. President. 

The final product is a well-meaning but limp drama with a preposterous premise. "'Amazing Grace' is destined to go down in history as the camp classic of the anti-nuke genre," wrote Variety. "As amazingly bad as it is audacious, [it] will live forever in the hearts of connoisseurs of Hollywood's most memorably outrageous moments."

The lone outer space movie in Gregory Peck's filmography, the 1969 movie "Marooned" wound up being a well-timed release, just months following the first moon landing. What might be more noteworthy about its timing, however, is that the space-based disaster movie tells a story that is eerily prescient in hindsight. Chronicling an Apollo mission gone wrong, it dropped less than four months before the real-life Apollo 13 mission left three astronauts marooned themselves.

Peck stars as NASA director Charles Kieth, who is left to orchestrate a rescue when the Apollo spacecraft Ironman One suffers a critical systems failure. As the situation deteriorates, Kieth realizes that the ship doesn't have enough fuel to get back to Earth, and they may have to take bold action to save astronauts Buzz Lloyd (Gene Hackman), Clayton Stone (James Franciscus), and Jim Pruett (Richard Crenna). While their wives worry about the astronauts' fate, Kieth prepares to launch an experimental new craft into orbit to retrieve them, but an approaching weather system threatens to derail the mission.

Though the effects were first rate (earning it an Academy Award), it's a surprisingly dull film that doesn't seem any more impressive today with Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" doing everything it did but better. In the end, it was bad enough to be lampooned on "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

After playing a Nazi villain in "The Boys from Brazil" two years earlier, Peck returned to play a war hero from the other side of World War II in the 1980 film "The Sea Wolves." The story follows a heavily fictionalized real-life raid by a team of British and Scottish reserve soldiers on a Nazi merchant ship that was known to be coordinating U-boat attacks. Known as Operation Creek, it proved instrumental in the Allies' dominance at sea, as U-boat attacks largely ceased following the encounter (per Defense Media Network).

"The Sea Wolves" sees German attack boats devastating British shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean, with the Allied Forces seemingly powerless to stop them. When they get intelligence suggesting that a German merchant vessel may contain a secret transmitter that is coordinating the attacks, British SOE sets out to stop them. But because the territory is neutral, no national military force can be sent in. Gregory Peck plays Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Henry Owain Pugh, a British officer tasked with training and leading a mostly volunteer force comprised of the Calcutta Light Horse and Calcutta Scottish against the Nazi merchant ship Ehrenfels.

With a cast of English stars including Roger Moore and David Niven, the film was loaded with talent, but the results were less than the sum of its parts.

Though at the time of its release, the 1969 Western "McKenna's Gold" was a big-budget adventure with a major Hollywood star, it's best known today for something else entirely. Famously, it was the subject of a behind-the-scenes documentary film by a young George Lucas titled "6-18-67." He picked a good film to chronicle too, because it had a notoriously troubled production (per Turner Classic Movies). Originally shot in 70mm, the first cut reportedly ran nearly three hours, forcing a nervous studio to chop it up and show it in 35mm widescreen.

The film is adapted from a book by Heck Allen, and follows a group of people seeking their fortune in the mountains hoping to find gold in a lost canyon said to be swimming in it. But it's Marshal Sam McKenna (Peck) who, after defeating a fierce Apache Warrior named Prairie Dog, obtains a map that could lead him straight to it. McKenna learns he wasn't the only one who knew of Prairie Dog's map, and now he finds himself being hunted by Mexican outlaw John Colorado (Omar Sharif), the U.S. Cavalry led by Sgt. Tibbs (Telly Savalas), and a rag-tag bunch of frontier gold hunters.

A promising concept, however, is let down by a plodding plot and a nonsensical script, with the New York Times calling it "a Western of truly stunning absurdity." Releasing the same year as other greats like "True Grit" didn't help.

In his first role opposite leading lady Ava Gardner, Gregory Peck starred in "The Great Sinner," a big screen version of Dostoyevsky's 1866 novel "The Gambler," even if the on-screen credits never say it (via TCM). This big-budget 1949 period film adaptation boasted lavish production values, and while never credited to the great writer, does note in its prologue that it was inspired by an acclaimed author who was himself a big gambler.

Peck plays Fedya, a successful writer who is working on his memoirs, as he looks back upon his life. The film then recounts Fedya's earlier years, and how he met and fell in love with Pauline, a compulsive gambler and daughter of a prominent general. Fascinated by her addiction to gambling, Fedya begins to explore the pastime on his own and slowly becomes consumed with it himself. As his life spirals out of control, he also discovers that Pauline is arranged to marry another man.

Mixing "The Gambler" with elements of Dostoyevsky's own life left audiences and critics confused. Despite its grand production and big names in the cast, the film failed to succeed at the box office. As Time Magazine wrote, "The rich, exuberant flow of dialogue, incident and atmosphere characteristic of the Russian master has been choked to a pedestrian trickle."

There are all manner of thrillers in Hollywood history, and "The Stalking Moon" is the rare one of the Western variety. This story, based on a book by Theodore Victor Olsen, acts as an early slasher flick of sorts, with a deadly killer haunting the heroes and out for blood. But instead of teens in suburbia or a group of friends in a cabin in the woods, this time it's an American scout, a young woman, and her son trying to escape the bloodthirsty clutches of a ruthless killer across the Western plains.

The story begins when cavalry scout Sam Varner, while helping move a group of Apache to a reservation, discovers an American woman named Sarah Carver among them. With her is her half-Native American son, and Varner is ordered to take them both back to civilization. But Sarah is terrified of something, and as they traverse the frontier Varner learns just what is hunting her: an Apache warrior who is also the father of her son, and he will stop at nothing to get them back.

It may not be a great Western or a great thriller, but it is definitely something bold and unique. Unfortunately, there's also a certain amount of racism that definitely doesn't help it hold up on modern rewatches.

"Beloved Infidel" is a 1959 biopic of acclaimed author F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose works included "The Great Gatsby" and "This Side of Paradise." The film follows the latter days of Fitzgerald's life, in particular his relationship with columnist Sheilah Graham, who is played by Deborah Kerr.  The film's title is owed to it being based on the real Graham's autobiography of the same name, published a year earlier.

When we meet Fitzgerald in the film he's already a renowned author, but his best days are behind him. His wife, fellow author Zelda, resides in a psychiatric facility after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now, Fitzgerald works in Hollywood working on movie scripts when he meets a young British ex-pat named Sheilah Graham, and the two quickly become inseparable. But their relationship is no paradise, as Fitzgerald turns out to be abusive and obsessive. Eventually, Sheilah must decide whether to leave him, a choice not made any easier by his deteriorating health.

A sweeping melodrama, "Beloved Infidel" tries to tackle some weighty issues. But whatever success it achieves is largely thanks to Peck and Kerr, who make a captivating on-screen couple.

An odd loophole in the tax code in the 1950s led several big stars to briefly relocate overseas and film movies outside of Hollywood (via Turner Classic Movies). Gregory Peck was one of them, and in 1953 he signed a two-picture deal in England which produced "The Million Pound Note" that same year, and the 1954 war movie "The Purple Plain." The film tells the story of a Royal Air Force pilot during the Second World War, and is notable for Peck's demand that his Asian love interest be played by an Asian actress, newcomer Win Min Than, in her first and only role.

Set during the Burma Campaign in Southeast Asia in the waning days of the war, we meet RCAF pilot Bill Forrester (Peck), who has become emotionally compromised after the death of his wife in the London Blitz. Though he hopes he can find death in combat, he finds only medals and accolades for his skill and gallantry in war. Noticing Forrester's recklessness, squad physician Dr. Harris (Bernard Lee) sends him to a remote village where he meets Anna (Min Than), a reserved young Burmese woman who rekindles his lust for life and love. 

More an emotional character drama than an action-packed war picture, "The Purple Plain" is a different kind of movie than you might expect, ultimately becoming a thoughtful look at the emotional complexities of war.

Based on a 1933 novel of the same name, "The Paradine Case" is a film noir courtroom drama, and Gregory Peck's second film with acclaimed director Alfred Hitchcock after the 1945 classic "Spellbound." Though the lead role was originally envisioned for superstar John Barrymore, Peck — a younger rising star at the time — stepped in, while John's sister Ethel wound up in the film in a smaller supporting role (via TCM).

The movie centers on London socialite Mrs. Paradine (Alida Valli), who is the prime suspect in the murder of her older, blind husband who was poisoned under suspicious circumstances. Renowned attorney Anthony Keane is hired to defend her, but despite being married himself becomes instantly infatuated with her beauty and grace. Determined to find her innocent, he sets up the Paradines' servant to cast doubt on her innocence, but when the case goes off the rails, it threatens to destroy all of their lives.

Though "The Paradine Case" never became a classic, it's still a good thriller, as you'd expect from the master of suspense.

Based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway, the 1952 movie "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is focused on a writer and war correspondent named Harry Street. Mostly told in flashback, the beleaguered Street is first seen suffering from a severe wound he suffered while on safari in Africa. Though just a thorn prick, the wound has become infected, leaving him mostly bedridden. While awaiting what he expects will be a slow and agonizing death, Harry is tended to by Helen (Susan Heyward), who listens as he tells her the story of the last few years of his life and the many loves he's had.

As Harry reflects, we learn that he was once involved with a woman named Cynthia Green (Ava Gardner), who was the muse for many of his early stories. We learn of his near-marriage to the Countess Elizabeth, his enlistment in the Spanish army, and eventually his meeting Helen and his trip to Kenya, where he hopes to solve an age old mystery.

Though a big hit in its day and well-reviewed by critics on its release, the film has aged poorly in the years since. Modern audience reviews point to its stiff screenplay and its failure to capture the heart of Hemingway, earning a place closer to the middle of Peck's filmography today. 

A trailblazing film that set the stage for a new subgenre of film and television, "Captain Newman, M.D." was highly influential — not just for its disillusioned tone towards war and combat, but for its focus on the doctor's role in war. In fact, this 1963 film starring Gregory Peck is often seen as the precursor to the likes of "Catch-22" for its cynicism (per TCM), and to "M*A*S*H" due to its focus on a military hospital and doctors doing more than just treating wounds, but caring for the mental health of soldiers as well. 

The film's cast was rounded out by a laundry list of stars that included Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Dick Sargent, and a young Robert Duvall, but Gregory Peck stars as the eponymous Captain Newman. A noble psychiatrist working for the Air Force during World War II, his role is to help soldiers recover from the mental scars of combat. But Newman struggles with his job because it means sending these young men — damaged by the atrocities they've experienced — right back into the war zone only to go through it all over again.

Inspirational and influential, "Captain Newman, M.D." was Peck's first role after his Oscar-winning performance in "To Kill a Mockingbird." A worthy follow-up, Peck is once again at the top of his game as a morally upstanding hero who challenges the system.

A tragic and doomed romance set in the old West, the 1946 movie "Duel in the Sun" was one of the first films after Peck's star-making performance in the Hitchcock thriller "Spellbound" just a year earlier. An age-old story of obsession and taboo love, it explores a controversial interracial romance between a white man (Peck) and a Native American woman (Jennifer Jones) in 19th century America. A sweeping epic tale, it was produced by David O. Selznick, known for similarly star-crossed romances like "Gone with the Wind" and "Rebecca." 

Following her mother's murder at the hands of her father, orphaned Pearl Chavez (Jones) goes to live with her aristocratic white family in Texas. On their sprawling southern ranch, Pearl becomes the subject of everyone's attention: lusted after by the womanizing Lewt (Peck), mentored by cousin Laura Belle (Lillian Gish), and ruled over by gunslinging preacher Jubal Crabbe (Walter Huston). But when Pearl rejects Lewt for another man, the jilted lover becomes consumed with getting her back, even if it means spilling blood.

A divisive picture in its day, dueling reviews from The New York Times and Variety alternatively knocked and praised it for its salaciousness and visual splendor. Modern critics largely see it as a stylishly directed melodrama and a classic of the era.

Based on a novel by author Ira Levin, "The Boys from Brazil" takes Gregory Peck and turns him into one of mankind's greatest real-life villains, Nazi mastermind Josef Mengele. While it's best known for a bizarre, surrealist plot involving the monstrous Mengele, a despicable real-life figure who here becomes a maniacal supervillain, it's also a movie steeped in Hollywood royalty. The top billed cast of this 1978 thriller might be among the best in Peck's filmography, as he's joined by Laurence Olivier ("Wuthering Heights") and James Mason ("North by Northwest").

It begins with Mengele having escaped Nazi Germany after the fall of Adolf Hitler's regime at the end of World War II, escaping to Brazil. There he is determined to resurrect not just the Third Reich, but Hitler himself, using experimental cloning technology to create nearly 100 identical copies of the Führer. These "Boys from Brazil," as they became known, are central to Mengele's planned Fourth Reich, but when notorious Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Olivier) discovers Mengele's scheme, he sets out to take him down.

While there had been other films about resurrecting Adolf Hitler, "The Boys from Brazil" took the concept more seriously. For its efforts, the movie received three Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actor nom for Olivier.

Based on a bestselling book by Sloan Wilson, "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" was inspired by the author's own life experiences, while its title later became a catchphrase in its day to denote all manner of corporate conformity (via TCM). The story of a man struggling with life after his time in the service, the book was a smash it, and this film version came just a year after its publication. 

It begins with husband, father, and war veteran Tom Rath (Gregory Peck) struggling to cope with his experiences during WWII. His marriage is suffering due to his reflections over a wartime affair with a young Italian woman named Maria (Marisa Pavan), and disturbing flashbacks to his combat experiences interfere with his everyday life. But when his wife (Jennifer Jones) pushes him into a better paying but more stressful job, he's pulled into the unfamiliar world of fast-paced office life. When he learns that his fling with his European lover Maria resulted in an illegitimate son, though, he's forced to make a difficult choice.

Called "mature, tender, and touching" by The New York Times, "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" has become much more than a treatise on post-war veterans, proving relatable to anyone familiar with the turbulent life of the American office worker.

Adapted from the epic novel by A.J. Cronin, "The Keys to the Kingdom" is a sweeping religious tale that tells the story of a man called Father Chisholm, a Roman Catholic priest. Played in his youth by a teenaged Roddy McDowall ("Planet of the Apes"), Chisholm is portrayed in adulthood by Gregory Peck, then in just his second feature film. Horror icon Vincent Price, "High Noon" star Thomas Mitchell, and Hitchcock favorite Edmund Gwenn also star, while Rose Stradner appears in her final film role.

At the outset of the movie we meet a young Francis Chisholm (McDowall), who is orphaned when his parents are killed in a storm, leaving him to be raised in a seminary. When he's older, the now-Father Chisolm (Peck) is pressed into volunteering for missionary work overseas, and is sent to far flung China. But when he arrives, Chisholm discovers the mission there has been all but destroyed by recent floods, leaving him a lone religious proselytizer who is mocked by the local community. With few choices, Chisholm decides to rebuild the church and continue his work.

A story about the power of faith, "The Keys to the Kingdom" is the movie that brought Peck to prominence, as in his sophomore big screen effort he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Three highly regarded Hollywood superstars of the day led "Behold a Pale Hale," a 1964 drama adapted from a novel loosely based on the life of Spanish maquis guerrilla Francesc Sabaté Llopart. Set some years after the Spanish Civil War, it stars Gregory Peck as a veteran guerrilla named Manuel Artiguez, Anthony Quinn as his rival Captain Viñolas, and Omar Sharif as father Francisco, a local priest.  

More than just a seasoned revolutionary, Artiguez is one of the most revered and legendary fighters, such that enemy Francoists in Spain still want him dead years after the fighting has stopped. Tasked with tracking him down is Viñolas, whose latest trap is set when he learns that Artiguez's mother is on her death bed, knowing it will draw the feared guerrilla fighter out into the open.

"Behold a Pale Horse" has aged like fine wine since its release, appreciated more now than in its day. Modern reviewers like Dennis Schwartz often point to star Peck's fine performance as Artiguez as one of the many once-overlooked highlights, as well as its focus on character over politics.

Following a six-year hiatus from the genre, Gregory Peck made his triumphant return to the Western in the 1958 outlaw adventure "The Bravados." In his fourth of six collaborations with director Henry King — who had also helmed his cowboy classic "The Gunfighter" — Peck plays a wild Western rancher named Jim Douglass, whose wife has recently been murdered by a band of vicious outlaws. The film features Hollywood legend Joan Collins ("Dynasty"), renowned character actor Henry Silva ("The Manchurian Candidate"), and Western great Lee Van Cleef ("The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly")

Douglass is an expert tracker and cowboy who has been hunting four fugitive killers and rides into town to find them already captured and awaiting execution. But just as they're about to be hanged, the four men execute a daring escape and kidnap a young girl named Emma. Now and it's up to Douglass to hunt them down and prove they're the men who killed his wife. 

A grizzly tale of vengeance with a bevy of gunslinging action and a few genuine surprises, "The Bravados" might not be the best Western in Peck's catalog, but it's an awfully good one.

An unusual and unique epic Western unlike any other, "How the West Was Won" tells five separate but often interconnected stories. Though it's never been considered among the finest in the genre, the film was made by three acclaimed directors responsible for some films that are recognized as masterpieces: Henry Hathaway ("True Grit"), John Ford ("The Searchers"), and George Marshall ("The Sheepman"). 

In addition to the incredible talent behind the camera, the film also featured one of the biggest rosters of on-screen talent a Western had ever seen, with a list of stars that included Gregory Peck, James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Lee Van Cleef, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Eli Wallach, and Agnes Moorehead. It begins with Stewart, who stars as mountain man Linus Prescott, and much of the film traces the journey of the Prescott family across the West. Eventually, Linus marries Eve (Carroll Baker) and fights in the Civil War, while his sister-in-law Lily (Reynolds) becomes involved with a mysterious hustler (Peck).

But despite all the star power surrounding the picture and its engaging story structure, the most incredible thing about the film is its original presentation. Filmed using a short-lived process called Cinerama, it was designed to be projected on a massive curved screen that surrounded the audience (via Slate). While this made the original theatrical release a stunning experience, it made recapturing its grandeur on home video nearly impossible.

A jaw-dropping neo-noir thriller, "Mirage" was released in 1965 and left audiences' mouths agape. A convoluted tale of mystery and murder, its cast is led by stars Gregory Peck, Walter Matthau, and Diane Baker. It all centers on a complex puzzle that unfolds layer by layer, with shocking twists and mind-blowing reveals that arrive on screen with regularity. 

As the story opens, we meet Peck in the role of an accountant named David Stillwell, who, during an evacuation of his office building, finds a dead body on the street outside. Not long after, he finds himself the target of sinister agents who want him dead too, and he has no idea why. But when he tries to get answers, he comes to the realization that his entire life appears to be nothing but an elaborate deception: his job doesn't exist and people he's never met claim to know him intimately, including an apparent former lover (Baker). Hiring a private detective to help him get to the bottom of what's happening to him, he soon discovers that there's much more at stake than a case of amnesia.

Confusing at times, contrived at others, "Mirage" is nevertheless a brilliantly written whodunit thriller that will keep viewers guessing as much today as it did in the '60s.

Next to "The Exorcist," the most iconic supernatural horror film of the 1970s has to be "The Omen," the story of a little boy who is seemingly an incarnation of pure evil. At this point in his career, Gregory Peck was Hollywood royalty, and his addition to the cast lent the film an air of sophistication and respectability not often seen in low-budget frighteners of its sort. Perhaps owed in part to his star power, the film was widely seen and became a groundbreaking entry in the genre that sparked a trend of similar nightmarish thrillers.

Peck stars as Robert Thorn, whose newborn baby dies shortly after birth. Wishing to spare his wife Katherine grief, Thorn secretly adopts another newborn at the suggestion of the hospital chaplain: a mysterious boy named Damien. Keeping the child's origin a secret, Thorn and his wife raise the child as their own, with Katherine never knowing he isn't of her blood. But as Damien grows older she soon discovers something is very wrong with him. Animals avoid him, those around him suffer horrible fates, and the two parents must face up to the fact that their son may in fact be the spawn of Satan himself.

One of the most famous horror movies ever made, it's not just that it's shocking like "Poltergeist" or bloody like "Friday the 13th," but also a brilliantly made psychological horror thriller. Spawning a franchise, it received three sequels and a remake in 2006 starring Liev Schreiber.

A family film favorite, the 1946 movie "The Yearling" was based on an acclaimed book by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. One of star Gregory Peck's early films, it paired him with co-star Jane Wyman and director Clarence Brown, fresh off his Oscar nomination for the Elizabeth Taylor drama "National Velvet." It's the story of a young boy from a poor Florida family who adopts a wild deer. But long before Peck, Wyman, and Brown even signed on, the film was already notorious in Hollywood for its troubled production, as chronicled by Turner Classic Movies.

Beginning filming in the early part of the decade, the project originally starred Spencer Tracy, but problems behind the scenes delayed the project. Eventually, so much time had passed that all new animal actors had to be found as young fawns had "aged out" of their roles. As the production languished, everything fell apart, and filming didn't resume until it was essentially an all new production with Brown in the director's chair and Gregory Peck leading the film.

Problems or not, "The Yearling" wound up an all-time classic and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and a Best Actor nom for Peck. 

William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" has served as the basis for films in several different genres (per TCM), one being the 1956 science fiction epic "Forbidden Planet," inspired by its tale of a mad sorcerer who lives on a remote island with his protective daughter. Several years earlier, though, it was also the starting point for a film in another genre, with the Gregory Peck Western "Yellow Sky" telling a similar story. This time, the sorcerer is an old prospector (James Barton) who has made a home in a forgotten ghost town where he resides with his gunslinger daughter Mae (Anne Baxter).

Peck plays James "Stretch" Dawson, leader of a group of Wild West bandits on the run from the law. Having just robbed a bank, a band of soldiers is hot on their tail, and Stretch leads them through the heat of Death Valley, where they discover what appear to be the remnants of a dusty, deserted old town. The only people they find there are Constance "Mike" Mae (Baxter), caretaker of her aging prospector father. Though the gang agrees to help him mine for gold and split the take, conflict within the group threatens them all.

A top-notch Western that is elevated by its high quality production, it was later remade as "The Jackals" in 1967 starring Robert Gunner and Vincent Price.

Gregory Peck made a number of war films in his long career, but few can compare with the 1961 film "The Guns of Navarone." An epic old school adventure, it co-stars David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Richard Harris, and James Darrin, in a story adapted from a 1957 novel of the same name by Alistair MacLean ("Where Eagles Dare"). The World War II story has a somewhat more light-hearted bent than one might expect, and sees a ragtag group of soldiers on a critical mission. 

The year is 1943, and the Second World War is raging across the globe when the enemy plans a daring attack on a small island as a show of force. Circumstances prevent a standard rescue of the 2,000 British soldiers trapped there, so the Allies assemble an elite squad of commandos on a mission to the nearby Navarone island, where they must disable enemy guns and allow a larger force to bring home their men. The team is led by Major Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle), and his men include intelligence agent Kieth Mallory (Peck), explosives expert John Miller (Niven), engineer Butcher Brown (Stanley Baker), and the steely-eyed Colonel Stavros (Quinn). 

One of the top grossing films of the year, it was a spectacular hit, beloved by audiences and praised by critics for nothing less than its sheer fun factor. A belated sequel arrived nearly two decades later, but the entire cast was replaced, with Robert Shaw standing in for Peck.

The finest war movie in Gregory Peck's lengthy catalog of films, "Twelve O'Clock High" was the first of six films pairing the actor with director Henry King, and it remained their best production together. Set during World War II, the film was a groundbreaking aerial combat movie about Air Force pilots and their daring runs over Nazi Germany. Influential in Hollywood, it helped inspire George Lucas during the making of the first "Star Wars" film, such that he even used snippets of the movie itself during early cuts of the sci-fi epic before VFX had been completed (via /Film).

Centered on an American Air Force squadron during the Second World War, the film shows how the prolonged conflict has taken its toll on the men in the skies. Dispirited and losing hope as the war has dragged on, the squadron is assigned a new commander, General Frank Savage (Peck), an intimidating leader who rubs everyone the wrong way. But together, Savage and his men will soon become the most feared flyers in the skies above Germany.

Lauded by critics for its sensitive approach to the troubles faced by wartime soldiers, "Twelve O'Clock High" was another multiple Academy Award winner, though Peck himself would lose out on the Oscar for Best Actor.

Just a year after their successful pairing on "Twelve O'Clock High," director Henry King and Gregory Peck re-teamed for what remains one of the best Westerns ever made, the 1950 classic "The Gunfighter." Centered on a notorious gunslinger and fastest draw in the West, the leading role was originally offered to Western icon John Wayne, who passed on the script and opened the part for Gregory Peck to step into (via TCM). With a focus on realism, the film eschewed the glossier style of other films in the genre, and went for a darker, more sobering tone.

An impeccable, gritty Western, "The Gunfighter" tells the story of Jimmy Ringo, a beleaguered cowboy who becomes the target of every pistol-packing scoundrel and outlaw in the land. It isn't about revenge and it isn't for money — it's simply because he's the most legendary sharp-shooter in history, and out-drawing him could make a man famous ... or leave him dead. But all Jimmy wants is to retire to a quiet life with the woman he loves, despite the fact that his attempts at settling down are interrupted when those seeking to make their name come gunning for him.

Reviews of "The Gunfighter" on its release from outlets like The New York Times heaped praise on the film's unique protagonist, with Peck applauded for his performance as the legendary gunslinger who wants to move beyond his violent, bloody past.

Released just two years after the book won a Pulitzer Prize, an adaptation of Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" starred living legend Gregory Peck, and became nearly as famous as the original text. Like "Moby Dick" before it, the story and film are both considered American classics, with the film nominated for seven Academy Awards and winning three, including one for Gregory Peck for Best Actor, the first and only Oscar he'd take home during his illustrious career. 

Peck stars as Atticus Finch, a highly respected lawyer who takes on the controversial defense of a Black man named Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) who is wrongly accused of the violent assault of a young white woman in the still-segregated Southern United States. Now, Atticus and his children Scout and Jem (Mary Badham and Philip Alford) are forced to confront the racism, hatred, and violence that exist in their own community, directed at them simply because he is representing Robinson.

Examining taboo subjects at the height of the Civil Rights movement, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was thought-provoking film that did justice to the original novel, something not easy to do. But with Peck leading the way and a powerful performance from Brock Peters, the film has gone down as one of the best treatises on prejudice — and one of the greatest courtroom dramas — in movie history.