Editing Gregory Peck (section)

== Early life ==
Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916, in the neighborhood of [[La Jolla]] in San Diego, California,<ref>{{Cite web|date=September 14, 2017|title=How to Get to La Jolla Cove {{!}} La Jolla Cove Directions|url=https://www.lajolla.com/article/la-jolla-cove-directions/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204051801/https://www.lajolla.com/article/la-jolla-cove-directions/|archive-date=December 4, 2020|access-date=June 14, 2021|website=LaJolla.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=June 14, 2003|title=Gregory Peck obituary|url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jun/14/guardianobituaries.film|access-date=June 14, 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> to Bernice Mae "Bunny" (née Ayres; 1894–1992), and Gregory Pearl Peck (1886–1962), a [[Rochester, New York]]–born chemist and pharmacist. His father was of English (paternal) and Irish (maternal) heritage,{{sfn|Freedland|1980|p=10}}<ref>United States Census records for La Jolla, California 1910</ref> and his mother was of English and Scots ancestry.<ref>United States Census records for [[St. Louis, Missouri]] – 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910</ref> She converted to her husband's religion, [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]], and Peck was raised as a Catholic. Through his Irish-born paternal grandmother Catherine Ashe (1864–1926), Peck was related to [[Thomas Ashe]] (1885–1917), who participated in the [[Easter Rising]] less than three weeks after Peck's birth and died while being force-fed during a hunger strike in 1917.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/star-made-proud-pilgrimage-to-grannys-kerry-roots-and-links-to-a-famed-patriot/25942918.html|title=Star made proud pilgrimage to granny's Kerry roots and links to a famed patriot|publisher=Irish Independent|date=June 13, 2003}}</ref>

[[File:Gregory Peck with father.png|thumb|Peck (right) with his father, {{circa}} 1930]]

Peck's parents divorced when he was five, and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother, who took him to the movies every week.<ref name="Ronald Bergan">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jun/14/guardianobituaries.film|title=Gregory Peck obituary|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=June 13, 2003|last=Bergan|first=Ronald |author1-link=Ronald Bergan |access-date=October 19, 2018}}</ref>{{sfn|Freedland|1980|pp=12–18}} At the age of 10, he was sent to a Catholic military school, St. John's Military Academy in Los Angeles. While he was a student there, his grandmother died. At 14, he moved back to San Diego to live with his father. He attended [[San Diego High School]]{{sfn|Freedland|1980|pp=16–19}} and, after graduating in 1934, enrolled for one year at San Diego State Teacher's College (now known as [[San Diego State University]]). While there, he joined the track team, took his first theatre and public-speaking courses, and pledged the Epsilon Eta fraternity.{{sfn|Fishgall|2002|pp=36–37}} Peck had ambitions to be a doctor and later transferred to the [[University of California, Berkeley]],<ref>Thomas, Tony. ''Gregory Peck''. Pyramid Publications, 1977, p. 16</ref> as an English major and [[pre-medical]] student. Standing {{convert|6|ft|3|in|m|abbr=on}}, he [[College rowing (United States)|rowed on the university crew]]. Although his tuition fee was only $26 per year, Peck still struggled to pay and took a job as a "hasher" (kitchen helper) for the [[Alpha Gamma Delta]] [[sorority]] in exchange for meals.<ref name="02.21.96 - 'Just One of the Guys'">{{Cite web|title=02.21.96 - >'Just One of the Guys'|url=https://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1996/0221/guys.html|access-date=September 16, 2020|website=berkeley.edu}}</ref>

At Berkeley, Peck's deep, well-modulated voice gained him attention, and after participating in a public speaking course, he decided to try acting. He was encouraged by an acting coach, who saw in him perfect material for university theatre, and he became more and more interested in acting. He was recruited by [[Edwin Duerr]], director of the university's Little Theater, and appeared in five plays during his senior year, including as Starbuck in ''Moby Dick''.<ref name="Monush, Barry">{{cite book|last=Monush|first=Barry|year=2003|title=The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors|location=New York|publisher=[[Hal Leonard LLC|Applause Theatre and Cinema Books]]|isbn=1-557-83551-9|page=589|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=toTIb1Ek2WwC}}</ref> Peck later said about his years at Berkeley that "it was a very special experience for me and three of the greatest years of my life. It woke me up and made me a human being."<ref name="berkmag">{{cite web|url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/magazine/summer_96/departments/aroundcal/peck.html|title="Gregory Peck comes home", ''Berkeley Magazine'', Summer 1996|publisher=Berkeley.edu|date=July 4, 2000}}</ref> In 1996, Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing crew in honor of his coach, [[Ky Ebright]].<ref name="02.21.96 - 'Just One of the Guys'"/>