justthinkingabouthamsandwiches asked: What makes you say G. Peck was a racist? My understanding had always been that was fairly anti-racist, politically speaking.
I didn’t say G. Peck, I said J. Stewart. There’s a lot of talk that he was racist in the extreme, including a black actor who says Jimmy fired him from his show just because he was black, and a black actor in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance says Jimmy was racist towards him on the set, in his autobiography.
The other evidence is mostly anecdotal, I believe, and he has defenders. But it’s not in question that he was a regular informant to J. Edgar Hoover on leftists in Hollywood, or that he was a staunch right winger who was not a fan of progressive politics in any way.
He lived a very impressive life, did a lot of great stuff, and was my favorite actor for ages. But if what the black actors who worked with him said is true, he was also clearly a racist. And that’s inexcusable because even considering the times, many actors of the day, even his close friends like Henry Fonda, were strictly against racism. So it’s not as if EVERYONE felt as he did (allegedly, anyway).
EDIT: Said the wrong Henry…thanks for the correction. Meant FONDA not FORD.
