To Kill A Mockingbird star Brock Peters dies

Actor Brock Peters, famous for his role in the film To Kill A Mockingbird, has died of complications of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 78, according to his companion, Marilyn Darby, quoted by The Associated Press.

In the 1962 classic film drama based on the Harper Lee novel, Peters played Tom Robinson, a man falsely accused of raping a white woman, while Gregory Peck played the lawyer called upon to defend him. Gregory Peck was awarded an Oscar for the best actor.

When Peck died in 2003, Peters payed a tribute to the famous actor.
"In art there is compassion, in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love. Gregory Peck gave us these attributes in full measure," Peters said.

Brock Peters made his stage debut at 15 in the 1943 Broadway production of "Porgy and Bess" in a minor role, as Jim, one of the denizens of Catfish Row. He made his film debut in 1950s. His first screen appearances were in two lavish 1950's all-black musicals directed by Otto Preminger.

Peters was also cast in the big screen versions of musicals Porgy and Bess and Carmen Jones. The talented film and versatile stage actor, singer and producer first rose to prominence in the 1960's and 70's with his powerful singing voice and touching screen portrayals of angry, belligerent black men.

In 1991 Peters won a lifetime award from the Screen Actors Guild. He also won several accolades, including a National Film Society Award and a Tony nomination and won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for outstanding performance by an actor in a musical for his Broadway performance in Lost In The Stars (1971).

Brock Peters was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1976.


His later credits include the television mini-series "Battlestar Galactica" and "Roots: The Next Generation" (both in 1979), the Emmy-nominated television musical "Polly!" (1989), as well as popular feature films like "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986) and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).