Gregory Peck Goes First-Class Forever

Movie Icon is 17th Inductee into Legends of Hollywood Stamp Series

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., April 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Postal Service welcomed Gregory Peck to its celebrated Legends of Hollywood stamp series today with the issuance of a new Forever stamp honoring the Academy Award-winning actor.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110428/DC91973)

Elected the greatest screen hero of all time by the American Film Institute (AFI), Peck joins Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and other cinematic greats, as the 17th inductee in the series.

The first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony took place at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, CA, and the Forever Stamp goes on sale nationwide and online at usps.com/shop. Forever Stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail price. The stamp, designed by Phil Jordan, captures the pensive and stalwart lawyer Atticus Finch who Peck played in the Oscar-winning movie, To Kill a Mockingbird. The stamp portrait is a still photograph from the film.

"In so many of his roles, Mr. Peck portrayed brave, effective men of great moral conviction with an ease that suggested there was a thin line between the movie role and the off-screen personality. According to the old cliche, art imitates life — and in Gregory Peck's case, it's an excellent fit," said Dennis Toner, U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors member, in dedicating the stamp.

Joining Toner were actor Sharon Stone, who served as master of ceremonies, and actors Morgan Freeman and Laura Dern, who all are friends of the Peck family; singer Natalie Maines, a close friend of Peck's daughter, Cecilia Peck; and Christopher Dodd, chairman and chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. and a former U.S. senator.

Described as tall and strikingly handsome, with a commanding presence and distinctive voice, Peck was born in La Jolla, CA, on April 5, 1916. He appeared in more than 60 films during a remarkable career that stretched from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the emergence of independent filmmaking. Nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actor, he won the Oscar for his performance as defense attorney Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, a character that Peck said was closest to his own heart.

Peck was president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1967 to 1970 and also served as a longtime Academy governor. He was an inaugural member of the National Council on the Arts and the founding chairman of the AFI.

In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Peck the Presidential Medal of Freedom as "an artist who had brought new dignity to the actor's profession," and in 1970, Peck received the Screen Actors Guild award for "outstanding achievement in fostering the ideals of the acting profession." In 1989, he received the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, followed by the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991 and the National Medal of Arts in 1998.

Peck will be remembered by many fans as one of the movie industry's most distinguished and respected actors and one of America's most benevolent activists. He died in 2003 at the age of 87.

How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark

Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at local Post Offices, at The Postal Store website at www.usps.com/shop, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in larger envelopes addressed to:

Gregory Peck Stamp
Los Angeles Marketing Department
7001 S. Central Ave., #307
Los Angeles, CA 90052-9998

After applying first-day-of-issue postmarks, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark. All orders must be postmarked by June 28, 2011.

How to Order First-Day Covers

The U.S. Postal Service also offers first-day covers and other collectible products for new stamp issues and postal stationery items. Each product has an individual item number and is offered for sale from the online postal store at www.usps.com/shop or through the quarterly USA Philatelic Catalog. Customers may request a free catalog by calling 800-STAMP-24 or writing to:

Information Fulfillment
Dept. 6270
U.S. Postal Service
PO Box 219014
Kansas City, MO  64121-9014

Philatelic Products

There are six philatelic products available for this stamp issue:

• 466461, First-Day Cover, $0.88.
• 466462, First-Day Cancellation Full Sheet, $11.30.
• 466465, Digital Color Postmark First Day Cover, $1.60.
• 466484, Uncut Press Sheet, $35.20.
• 466491, Ceremony Program, $6.95.
• 466499, Keepsake: Mint Stamp Pane w/Digital Color Postmark First Day Cover, $10.95.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.

SOURCE U.S. Postal Service