Bob Peck

Bob Peck was an English actor born Robert Peck on 23 August 1945 in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, into a working-class family. He attended Leeds Modern School in Lawnswood and, at the age of 15, spent six weeks performing with the National Youth Theatre. He subsequently studied at Leeds College of Art, earning a Diploma in Art and Design, and participated in student amateur dramatics during that time. He died on 4 April 1999, at the age of 53, at his home in Kingston upon Thames, London, following a cancer diagnosis he had received in November 1994.

Peck built his early career as a regular member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, working alongside Ian McKellen, Donald Sinden, and Judi Dench. From 1979 to 1980 he played Iago opposite Donald Sinden in productions of Othello staged in both Stratford and London. He appeared as Macduff in Trevor Nunn's 1976 stage and television productions of Macbeth, and returned to the play in 1982 in the title role of Macbeth. McKellen has cited Peck as the actor from whom he learned the most.

Among Peck's most prominent stage work was the RSC production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel, in which he played two roles: the boisterous Yorkshireman John Browdie and the predatory Sir Mulberry Hawk. He brought both characters to Broadway in 1981 and reprised them again when the production was filmed for television in 1982. Throughout his stage career, Peck received three Laurence Olivier Award nominations.

His television work began in the 1970s, with an appearance in the BBC's Thirty-Minute Theatre anthology series in 1972, specifically in the episode "Bypass." He also appeared in Z-Cars and Play for Today during that decade, as well as in the films Royal Flash and Parker. In 1985, writer Troy Kennedy Martin cast Peck in the lead role of policeman Ronald Craven in the BBC Two miniseries Edge of Darkness, a six-episode crime drama and political thriller that aired from 4 November to 9 December 1985. The series followed Craven's investigation into the murder of his daughter, played by Joanne Whalley, with Joe Don Baker, Charles Kay, and Ian McNeice among his co-stars. The show drew four million viewers and earned Peck the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor.

Following his success in Edge of Darkness, Peck transitioned more fully into film. In 1987 he appeared in The Kitchen Toto, playing a policeman named John Graham based in Kenya in 1950, and in On the Black Hill, adapted from Bruce Chatwin's 1982 novel of the same name. He portrayed the android Byron in the 1989 science-fiction film Slipstream, appearing alongside Mark Hamill, Bill Paxton, F. Murray Abraham, Ben Kingsley, and Robbie Coltrane. In 1990 he played the unnamed marine officer in Lord of the Flies and voiced all male characters in the BBC children's series Forget Me Not Farm. His most widely seen film role came in 1993, when he was cast as park game warden Robert Muldoon in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

Also in 1993, Peck played General Targo in one episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and portrayed Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi in a television film documenting the composer's life. His later film appearances included roles in Surviving Picasso, Smilla's Sense of Snow, FairyTale: A True Story, and The Opium War, as well as the direct-to-TV film The Scold's Bridle in 1998. The stop-motion animated film The Miracle Maker, released in 2000 after his death, featured Peck voicing the character of Joseph of Arimathea, and the film was dedicated to his memory.

In his personal life, Peck was married to actress Jill Baker from 1982 until his death in 1999, a period of 17 years. They had three children: Hannah, born in 1983; George, born in 1986; and Milly, born in 1990. His funeral was held in London, where his close friend and Edge of Darkness co-star Ian McNeice delivered a eulogy. Peck was cremated in London and his ashes were given to his family.