Gregory Peck, who died today at the age of 87.
David Brinkley, who died today at the age of 82.
Peck was probably best known for his portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird -- a character who was just last week named the AFI's Top Movie Hero -- and that was a great performance, but I remember Peck more for his work on The Guns of Navarone. I haven't seen that many of Peck's films -- he made a lot of them -- but his work always impressed me. He had a way of taking over the moral center of a film that was very striking.
As for Mr. Brinkley, I used to watch his Sunday morning show on ABC quite frequently. By then he was already an "elder statesman" of television news reporting, and he carried himself as such on the show. What I remember most is his clipped vocal delivery, in which he emphasized every second or third word with a unique "speeding up" of the pronunciation. No one else quite spoke like Brinkley did, although Phil Hartman did a dynamite impersonation of him on Saturday Night Live, skewering both Brinkley's delivery and supposed cynicism.
What strikes me is that with each passing year, I get closer and closer to seeing the film and television personalities I grew up with passing away.
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