MovieChat Forums > Gregory Peck Discussion > Some odd discrepancy in the trivia secti...

Some odd discrepancy in the trivia section on Peck's college dates

posted 9 years ago by ZolotoyRetriever
1 reply | jump to latest

I was wondering when Gregory Peck attended college at UC Berkeley. I noticed in the trivia section here that there seems to be a glaring discrepancy about his date of graduation from UC Berkeley. One entry has him graduating in 1939:
U.C. Berkeley graduate (BA '39), oarsman on Cal's JV crew
And another:
In the spring of 1939, Peck skipped graduation at the University of California at Berkeley and, with $160 and a letter of introduction in his pocket, went by train to New York, traveling coach, to embark on his acting career.
But another entry has something different:
He is listed in the Cal Berkeley Alumni roster as a graduate of the Class of 1942 who studied as an English major and where he acted in plays at the Associated Students sponsored 'Little Theatre' on campus. Incidentally while under the watch of the University's Committee on Music and Drama led by Professor William Popper as chairman, the University's Department of Dramatic Arts was just being established towards the end of his student tenure in 1941.
I'm pretty sure those 1941 and 1942 college dates are incorrect, because I think he had already left for New York City - he even worked at the New York World's Fair (the Fair was in 1939).

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

Yeah, those 1940s dates are wrong. Peck was well established on the Broadway stage by then. He enrolled in Berkeley in 1936 and was Class of 1939, and referred to his time at Berkeley as three of the happiest in his life -- he obviously got out in three. I think he may have skipped the graduation ceremony itself (not sure) but he did graduate.

Anyhow, he left for New York in '39 after getting his degree in English, and did indeed work at the 1939 World's Fair and later at Radio City in 1940. He began his Broadway career in 1941 and was definitely not attending school, let alone on the West Coast, in 1942. He did appear in college stage productions, but those were in the late 30s.