Peck Will Lead Rose Parade

Actor Gregory Peck today was chosen to lead the 99th annual Tournament of Roses Parade as grand marshal on New Year’s Day. “I cannot tell you how thrilled and delighted I am to be appointed grand marshal,” Peck, 71, said this morning at a ceremony in Pasadena.

Peck, in a dark pinstriped suit with a rose in its lapel, said he has been coming to the parade since

his youth in La Jolla, 100 miles to the south. “I only wish that my dad were here to see it and see that I’ll have the best seat in the house,” he said. Tournament of Roses President Harriman L. Cronk said Peck “is the ideal embodiment of this year’s theme, ‘Thanks to Communications.’ As an actor he has reached across continents, social classes and racial barriers.”