Gregory Peck was living in France in 1975, and it was there that he learned his son, Jonathan, had died by suicide. According to Michael Freedland’s biography, “Gregory Peck,” Peck had always been close to all of his children. He had known Jonathan was dealing with a lot, including the end of a relationship, the stress that went along with working in the news industry, health-related problems that included vascular disease, and the suicide of a former girlfriend. Peck had even given his son money and instructions to find and speak with a therapist.
According to Michael Freedland’s book “Gregory Peck,” that time was one of Peck’s greatest regrets. “My regret that I’ll live with for the rest of my life was that I was in France instead of here. I felt certain that had I been in Los Angeles he would have called me, because he often dropped in and talked things over with me. If only he could have picked up the phone and said, ‘Things are just bearing down so much on me tonight, that I can’t stand it,’ I would have said, ‘Stay where you are, I’ll be there.'”
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Peck was married to his second wife, Veronique Passani, at the time, and she described the grief as insurmountable. It led Peck down the road of questioning: What kind of father was he, what had he done wrong, what could he have done better? There were, of course, no easy answers, and Passani suggested that the only way he got through it was with the strength of the family.
