Gregory Peck - Politics

Politics

In 1947, while many Hollywood figures were being blacklisted for similar activities, Peck signed a letter deploring a House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of alleged communists in the film industry. President Richard Nixon placed Peck on his enemies list due to his liberal activism.

A lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, Peck was suggested in 1970 as a possible Democratic candidate to run against Ronald Reagan for the office of Governor of California. Although he later admitted that he had no interest in being a candidate himself for public office, Peck encouraged one of his sons, Carey Peck, to run for political office. Carey was defeated both times by slim margin in races in 1978 and 1980 against Republican U.S. Representative Bob Dornan, a former actor.

In an interview with the Irish media, Peck revealed that former President Lyndon Johnson had told him that, had he sought re-election in 1968, he intended to offer Peck the post of U.S. ambassador to Ireland – a post Peck, due to his Irish ancestry, said he might well have taken, saying " would have been a great adventure". Author Michael Freedland, in his biography of Peck, substantiates the report and says that Johnson indicated that his presentation of the Medal of Freedom to Peck would perhaps make up for his inability to confer the ambassadorship.

Peck was outspoken against the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son, Stephen, who fought there. In 1972 Peck produced the film version of Daniel Berrigan's play The Trial of the Catonsville Nine about the prosecution of a group of Vietnam protesters for civil disobedience. Despite his reservations about American general Douglas MacArthur as a man, Peck had long wanted to play him on film, and did so in MacArthur in 1976.

In 1978, Peck traveled to Alabama, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird to campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Donald W. Stewart of Anniston, who defeated the Republican candidate, James D. Martin, a former U.S. representative from Gadsden.

In 1987, Peck did the voice-over on television commercials opposing President Reagan's Supreme Court nomination of conservative jurist Robert Bork. Bork's nomination was defeated. Peck was also a vocal supporter of ridding the world of nuclear weapons.