“Hardly a day passes that I don’t think how lucky I was to be cast in that film. I recently sat at a dinner next to a woman who saw it when she was 14 years old, and she said it changed her life.” – Gregory Peck (1997 interview)
Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, winner of 3, including the Best Actor statuette for Gregory Peck!
Stars Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, Collin Wilcox, Robert Duvall, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee, the film To Kill a Mockingbird was chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1995 as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
As the small town of Maycomb, Alabama struggles to survive during the Great Depression, the townsfolk are thrown into further turmoil when they must face their own deep-seated bigotry.
Upstanding lawyer and widower, Atticus Finch signs on to defend black laborer, Tom Robinson who is accused of sexual assault by Mayella Ewell. The townspeople turn on Finch, and he and his children, Jean Louise, nicknamed “Scout,” and older brother Jem become targets of their verbal abuse and physical threats. But Finch, a principled man, is determined to prove Robinson’s innocence despite the outrage and outright hatred. To Kill a Mockingbird is a layered and intense story of racial prejudice, injustice, and the psychological dynamics of a close-knit community.
This film not only had an impact on the lives of movie goers, but also on its actors.
Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, and Brock Peters remained close friends for life.
Gregory Peck died in 2003, and Peters gave the eulogy at his funeral. Peters died two years later.
After the film, Badham and Peck always called each other by their Mockingbird character names, Scout and Atticus, never by their real names.
“It certainly is one of my proudest achievements in life, one of the happiest participations in film or theater I have experienced.” – Brock Peters, on playing the role of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird
Brace yourself! A must-see movie!
