Movie Star Moment: Gregory Peck

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
in "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962)

   If there was ever a case of perfect typecasting in a movie, it was Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, the Depression-Era Southern lawyer in "To Kill a Mockingbird". I'm sure other actors could've done it, but for most of us, when you think of Atticus Finch, you think of Gregory Peck. It's like Clark Gable playing Rhett Butler, or Henry Fonda playing Tom Joad. Why would you want anybody else?
    In this scene, it's night and Atticus has gone out into the backwoods of Alabama to tell the parents of Tom Robinson their son is dead. Tom's a young black man Atticus has been defending on a bogus rape charge, and he's been shot while in police custody, trying to escape. While Atticus is in the house, the rape victim's father, a man named Bob Ewell, turns up and demands to see him. Ewell is played by the character actor James Anderson. Atticus comes out and walks up to where Ewell is standing. The two stare into each other for a moment, and then in an act of undisguised hatred, Anderson spits in Peck's face. Atticus moves as if he's about to strike back, and then he pauses, checks himself, and very deliberately takes out a handkerchief and in one dismissive motion, wipes the insult away. His eyes never leave Ewell, and he never says a word. He walks past Ewell to the car where his nine-year-old son is waiting, and as he does, he throws the handkerchief in the dirt, leaving it. The gesture makes its point in no uncertain terms. It's direct. It's simple. It packs a dramatic punch, and a moral one. In the context of the scene, the story, and the whole twisted history of the South, it's absolutely the right thing for Atticus to do. 
    That's Atticus Finch. That's Gregory Peck.