BEVERLY HILLS, CA — The Beverly Hills Post Office, 325 N. Maple Drive, will host a tribute to film legend Gregory Peck with an unveiling/photo op of an enlargement of the Gregory Peck Commemorative Stamp on June 7, 2011, at 1:00 p.m. Special guests at the event will include the Peck family: Mrs. Gregory (Veronique) Peck, daughter Cecelia Peck-Voll and grandchildren Harper and Ondine Peck-Voll.
Gregory Peck was honored as the 17th inductee into the Postal Service’s celebrated Legends of Hollywood stamp series on April 28, 2011, during a ceremony in the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.
Also scheduled at the June 7 event are Beverly Hills Postmaster Koula Fuller, Beverly Hills Mayor Barry Brucker and Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge. For collectors, the coveted April 28, 2011 First Day of Issue postmark will be available and applied free of charge. This is the last day the First Day of Issue postmark is available. An autograph session will be held until 3 p.m.
The Gregory Peck commemorative stamp captures the pensive and stalwart lawyer Atticus Finch who Peck played in the Oscar-winning movie, To Kill a Mockingbird. The stamp portrait is a still photograph chosen by the Peck family from the film. Issued as a Forever stamp, the Gregory Peck stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail price.
Described as tall and strikingly handsome, with a commanding presence and distinctive voice, Peck was born in La Jolla, CA, on April 5, 1916. He appeared in more than 60 films during a remarkable career that stretched from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the emergence of independent filmmaking. Nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actor, he won the Oscar for his performance as defense attorney Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, a character that Peck said was closest to his own heart.
Peck received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1969. He will be remembered by many fans as one of the movie industry’s most distinguished and respected actors and one of America’s most benevolent activists. Peck died in 2003 at the age of 87.
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