Sal Mineo

In the 1960s, rumors about his sexual orientation began to spread, prompting Hollywood's increasing reluctance to cast him in A-list movies. Cary Peck was defeated on both accounts in Southern California, in 1978 and in 1980, by conservative Congressman Robert K. Mineo's slightly exotic good looks also earned him roles such as those of an Indian boy in Tonka or of a Jewish emigrant in Otto Preminger's Exodus, for which he received another Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor. Peck encouraged his son, Cary, to run for national political office. Mineo was later reunited with Dean in Giant, albeit only in a few scenes. In an interview with the Irish media, Peck revealed that former President Lyndon Johnson had told him that, had he sought re-election, he intended to offer Peck the post of US ambassador to Ireland - a post Peck, on account of his Irish ancestry, said he might well have taken, saying "it would have been a great adventure". While explicit mention of homosexuality was not permissible in Hollywood movies at the time, the reportedly bisexual James Dean dared Mineo to let his real-life desires for Dean shine through considerably in the scenes between them. A lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, he was suggested once as a possible Democratic candidate to run against Ronald Reagan for the office of Governor of California.

After a few lesser films, his breakthrough was Rebel Without A Cause (1955), in which he gave an impressive performance as "John 'Plato' Crawford", the unstated but apparently gay teenager smitten with James Dean's "Jim Stark". Peck retired from active film-making in the early 1990s, having received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1989. He also played the young prince opposite Yul Brynner in the stage musical The King And I. He also starred in the TV film The Scarlet and The Black, about a real-life Catholic priest in the Vatican who smuggled Jews and other refugees away from the Nazis during World War II. In 1950, he had his first stage appearance in The Rose Tattoo, a play by Tennessee Williams. In the 1980s he moved to television, where he starred in the mini-series The Blue and the Gray, playing Abraham Lincoln. Mineo, born in The Bronx, New York City as the son of Sicilian emigrants, was enrolled by his mother in dancing and acting school at an early age. He was outspoken against the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son, Stephen, who was fighting there. In 1972 Peck produced the film version of Philip Berrigan's play The Trial of the Catonsville Nine about the prosecution of a group of Vietnam protesters for civil disobedience.

Salvatore Mineo, Jr. (January 10, 1939 - February 12, 1976) was an American actor and theater director, famous for his Academy Award-nominated performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without A Cause. In 1947, while many Hollywood figures were being blacklisted for similar activities, he signed a letter deploring a House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of alleged communists in the film industry. His other popular films include Roman Holiday, in which he appeared as a reporter alongside Audrey Hepburn in her Oscar-winning debut. In 2003, Atticus Finch was named the top film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute. Released in 1962 during the height of the US civil rights movement in the South; this movie is said to have been Peck's favorite.

Peck won the award for his fifth nomination, playing the role of Atticus Finch, a Depression-era lawyer and widowed father, in the film adaptation of the Harper Lee novel To Kill a Mockingbird. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor five times, four of which came in his first five years of film acting: for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). Peck's first film was Days of Glory, released in 1944. I've been trying to straighten out that story for years.".

In Peck's words, "In Hollywood, they didn't think a dance class was macho enough, I guess. Twentieth Century Fox claimed he had injured his back while rowing a boat at university. Peck's acting abilities were in high demand during World War II, since he was exempt from military service due to a back injury suffered while receiving dance and movement lessons from Martha Graham as part of his acting training. His second Broadway performance that year was in 'The Willow and I' with Edward Pawley.

He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams' "Morning Star" in 1942. He worked at the 1939 World's Fair and as a tour guide for NBC television. He was often broke and sometimes slept in Central Park. After graduation, Peck dropped the name "Eldred" and headed to New York City in 1939 to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

He was recruited by the school's Little Theater and appeared in five plays his senior year. He majored in English and rowed on the university crew. In 1936, he enrolled as a pre-med student at the University of California, Berkeley. For a short time, he took a job driving a truck for an oil company.

When he graduated, he went to San Diego State University, but dropped out a year later. Peck was sent to a Roman Catholic military school in Los Angeles at the age of 10. Peck's parents divorced when he was five and he was reared by his grandmother. Catherine Ashe was related to the Irish patriot Thomas Ashe, who took part in the Irish Easter Rising in the year of Peck's birth and died on hunger strike in 1917.

Born Eldred Gregory Peck in La Jolla, California, he was the son of a Missouri mother and a chemist called Gregory Peck, whose mother Catherine Ashe was an Irish immigrant from County Kerry. Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 - June 12, 2003) was an American film actor. Mackenna's Gold. The Boys from Brazil.

MacArthur. The Omen. Mirage. Cape Fear.

The Guns of Navarone. On the Beach. The Big Country. Designing Woman.

Moby Dick. Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.. The Gunfighter. The Paradine Case.

Duel in the Sun. Spellbound.