Gregory Peck's 5 Children: All About His Sons and Daughter — and Why They Say the Golden Age Actor Was Just Like His Most Famous Role

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ star Gregory Peck had five kids: Jonathan, Stephen, Carey, Anthony and Cecilia

Gregory Peck played beloved father Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, and according to his children, the Oscar-winning actor wasn’t too far off the mark in real life.

“Of all the children in the world who wish they had Atticus as their father, I got to grow up with him. He really was that kind of dad,” daughter Cecilia Peck told Crave in 2012. “He was so kind and so loving. So... strict and firm with us as children, but he was very much like the dad in the book as a person as well as a father.”

She added: “I got to grow up with the best and most loving dad in the world.”

The Cape Fear actor, who died in June 2003 at age 87, first became a dad in 1944 with the birth of his son Jonathan, whom he shared with his then-wife Greta Kukkonen. The couple went on to welcome two more children together, sons Stephen in 1946 and Carey in 1949, before separating in January 1953 and divorcing in 1954, per the San Bernardino County Sun.

Gregory married French journalist Veronique Peck in 1955, and the couple welcomed two children: son Anthony in 1956 and daughter Cecilia in 1958.

The actor's firstborn, Jonathan, died by suicide in 1975. Opening up to PEOPLE over 10 years later, Gregory said: “It’s the most terrible thing that has happened to me in my life. You never get over a thing like that.”

The Spellbound star still proved to be a rock for his children after the devastating loss. As Anthony told Huffpost in 2016, “My father never let me down. Not once."

He also opened up about his relationship with his dad in a 2017 Father’s Day video for clothing company Huntsman, saying, “There’s not a decision I make, or a choice that I make, without thinking of what my father would do. No matter what is in front of me, I, without question think of what Greg would do. And if I can follow it, everything turns out just fine.”

Here is everything to know about Gregory Peck’s five children: Jonathan, Stephen, Carey, Anthony and Cecilia.

Jonathan Peck

Gregory and his then-wife Greta Kukkonen welcomed their first son, Jonathan, in 1944. The couple split when he was around 8 years old.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Gregory's oldest son was a track star in school. He was also ambitious, spending two years in Tanzania and serving six years in the Marine Corps Reserves.

After graduating from Occidental College, Jonathan began a media career with a radio job at KNX Los Angeles. He worked there for three years before becoming a local television correspondent for KCOY-TV in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Jonathan’s former colleague Bob Read spoke to the Detroit Free Press in August 1975 about his relationship with Gregory. “He and his father were very close and confided in one another regularly,” Read said of the pair.

The correspondent died by suicide on June 26, 1975, at the age of 30, per The New York Times.

Gregory, who reportedly took two years off from acting in the wake of his son’s death, expressed his great sadness that he wasn’t present for Jonathan’s last days. "My regret, that I'll live with for the rest of my life, is that I was in France instead of California,” he once said, per The Telegraph.

The Roman Holiday star also opened up about the tragedy in a 1987 interview with PEOPLE, citing overwork, arteriosclerosis and a breakup among his son’s troubles.

Stephen Peck, 78

Gregory and Kukkonen welcomed their second son, Stephen, on Aug. 16, 1946.

Though he studied film at Northwestern University, Stephen’s life was altered by a draft notice he received after his sophomore year of college. "While some guys were planning what they were going to do after college, I was wondering whether I was going to survive,” he later told his alma mater.

While Gregory publicly protested the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam, his daughter Cecilia told HuffPost in 2016, that he was “tremendously proud” of his son, who rose through the ranks to become a marine lieutenant.

Stephen returned home in 1970 to complete his graduate film education at the University of Southern California. He later went back to the school to earn a master’s degree in social work.

Stephen's entertainment career began with the ‘70s television show That’s Hollywood. In 1986, he had the chance to work with his father when he produced a recording of the New Testament as read aloud by Gregory. “The work brought us closer,” Stephen told PEOPLE the following year.

His time in the war affected him deeply, however, and he turned his attention to directing and co-producing several films on the topic, including Heart of the Warrior in 1990 and 1991’s Far from Home.

Stephen also became involved in veteran affairs, taking on a role as an outreach worker at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to Northwestern Magazine, and later became a community development director for the United States Veterans Initiative, a nonprofit that works to provide temporary housing to veterans experiencing homelessness. As of 2021, he was the company’s president and CEO.

Stephen is also a father. On March 2, 1986, he welcomed actor Ethan Peck with his then-wife Francine Matarazzo. He is now married to Kristine Kidd, with whom he shares two dogs: Atticus Finch, named for Gregory’s most famous character, and Tango.

Carey Paul Peck, 75

Gregory and Kukkonen welcomed their third son, Carey Paul, on June 17, 1949.

As a young man, he attended Georgetown University and served as a member of the Peace Corps, per The Washington Post.

Carey went on to become a politician, working in the senate office of Claiborne Pell on matters of education. In 1978, he ran in his first race for U.S. Congress with his then-wife Cathy by his side. The former couple share one daughter, Marisa Peck.

While many of his father’s famous friends contributed to his campaign, including Kirk Douglas, James Stewart and Liza Minnelli, who headlined some of Carey’s fundraisers, Carey told The Washington Post that his father wasn’t the driving force behind his race. “We worked this out as a partnership to make sure he wouldn't carry it for me,” he said. “I campaign and politic and he does not. This, after all, is my race."

As Carey told the newspaper, the ultimately unsuccessful campaign took a toll on his personal life. "[Cathy and I] spend a lot of time talking about what's happening to our marriage as a result of this campaign," he said at the time, adding, "People demand so much of you.”

Carey ran for Congress a second time and after losing, started working as a bank officer. The Los Angeles Times later reported that he was set to marry artist Lita Albuquerque, whom he had met at an art reception 15 months prior, on Dec. 31, 1989. The pair now share a son named Chris.

According to Gregory's website, Carey serves as a principal analyst and grant administrator for the Los Angeles Unified School District and focuses on after-school programs.

Anthony “Tony” Peck, 68

Gregory and his second wife, Veronique Peck, welcomed their first child, son Anthony “Tony,” on Oct. 24, 1956.

Growing up in California, Anthony was exposed to the arts through his father’s famous friends. "I thought it was normal that Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren would come for dinner, until I was about 16," he told HuffPost in 2016. “As a basis for what to look for in life, it gave me something to aim for.”

When Anthony was old enough, he went to boarding school and, later, Amherst College and The Juilliard School. According to Gregory's youngest son, he was mischievous, despite receiving hand-written letters from his dad urging him to succeed. “I pushed the Peck's bad boy role for quite some time,” he admitted to the outlet.

Anthony added, “A lot of fathers would have gotten pretty nervous. It wasn't easy on my dad.”

Having spent his summers on set with his father, including a stint in Rome for the filming of The Scarlet and the Black, Anthony got a taste for the movie industry.

He followed in Gregory’s footsteps, acting opposite Brooke Shields in Brenda Starr (1989) and starring as Barkley Nunn on Hollywood Detective (1991). Anthony most recently appeared in 2008’s The Conspiracy.

In 1991, Anthony became a father for the first time with the birth of his son Zack Peck, whom he shares with his ex-wife, model Cheryl Tiegs. Anthony later remarried, to a woman named Paula.

In 2016, he attended an event commemorating what would have been his father’s 100th birthday at the Spanish Steps in Rome with his little sister Cecilia.

Cecilia Peck, 66

Gregory and Veronique welcomed his only daughter, Cecilia, on May 1, 1958.

"I was the youngest of his five children and his only daughter. He had been hoping for a girl, and I think we had a very special relationship that only fathers and daughters can have,” Cecilia told Huffpost in 2016.

Like Anthony, the youngest Peck spent a lot of time on her father’s film sets in her youth, including To Kill a Mockingbird. “I know that I was there, but I don't remember it. I do have an image of being at the wrap party on the Universal backlot, being in my dad's arms and dancing with him,” she told Movieweb in 2012.

Cecilia also spent time with her father at their home in Los Angeles. “He always drove us to school in the mornings on his way to the studio, and he would have dinner with us at home,” Cecilia told Georgian Journal in 2022. “On Sundays, we went to the beach in a station wagon loaded up with the dogs, frisbees, footballs, and a picnic.”

When Gregory traveled for work, the family came along, with Cecilia spending her whole third-grade year in London. “We traveled a lot!” she told the publication. “We ... would move to different states or countries for weeks or months at a time.”

As a “rebellious teenager,” Cecilia said she butted heads with her father. “There were many times when he would ask me to have lunch, but I would be too busy. He never acted let down, but there was a wistful look in his eye when I would brush past him,” she recalled to Huffpost.

They grew much closer in her mid-20s, however, bonding over her chosen craft of acting. According to Cecilia, Gregory’s advice was to study theater at Princeton and “really learn” the industry, which she took to heart, graduating from the university in 1980.

Seven years later, she starred in her first movie My Best Friend Is a Vampire. Cecilia followed it up with roles in Wall Street (1987) and The Portrait (1993), in which she played Gregory’s daughter on-screen. “I learned so much from working with him, in particular seeing how much he appreciated every single person on the set, from the director to crew members to caterers,” she told Georgian Journal.

The role earned Cecilia a Golden Globe nod, but she was ready to shift her focus, making the move into documentary filmmaking. “I am interested in people who stand up for what they believe in,” she explained to Crave in 2012. “I think my dad was one. He did all these groundbreaking films that were considered controversial ... So those kinds of subjects are what I'm interested in.”

In addition to Gregory, who became the subject of Cecilia’s 1999 film A Conversation With Gregory Peck, she has made movies about The Chicks (2006’s Shut Up & Sing) and Linor Abargil (2013’s Brave Miss World), a survivor of rape who represented her country of Italy in the Miss World competition six weeks after her attack. The film earned Cecilia an Emmy nomination.

In 1999, Cecilia began a family of her own, welcoming son Harper with husband Daniel Voll. Harper was named after the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee. The couple welcomed a daughter named Ondine three years later, in 2002.