LOS ANGELES, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Veronique Peck, the widow of
screen legend Gregory Peck, has died at age 80 of heart failure
at her home in Los Angeles, a spokesman for her family said on
Saturday.
She passed away on Friday, said her representative Monroe
Friedman.
Born in Paris as Veronique Passani, she became a reporter
for the daily newspaper France Soir and met Peck in 1953 when
she interviewed him for a story. They were married on Dec. 31
that year, the day after Peck's divorce from his first wife,
Greta Kukkonen, was finalized.
Veronique Peck, who became a U.S. citizen in 1976, worked on
a number of philanthropic causes, including working to establish
the Los Angeles Music Center and an interracial theater group,
Inner City Cultural Center.
When her husband died in 2003 at age 87, she took over
producing the Gregory Peck Reading Series, a star-laden program
that has featured the likes of Quincy Jones and Sharon Stone and
raises funds for the Los Angeles Public Library.
The French film writer Henry-Jean Servat, who knew Veronique
Peck, on Saturday broke the news of her death with a post on his
Twitter page.
She is survived by her two children, the writer and producer
Anthony Peck and documentary filmmaker Cecilia Peck Voll, and by
her brother and three grandchildren.
Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his role as the heroic
Southern lawyer Atticus Finch in the 1962 film "To Kill a
Mockingbird," was one of the most admired actors in Hollywood
history. His other best known films are "Gentleman's Agreement,"
"The Guns of Navarone" and "Spellbound."
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and
Jackie Frank)