US actor Brock Peters dies at 78

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Actor Brock Peters, who portrayed a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman in the classic film "To Kill a Mockingbird," has died at age 78, the Screen Actors Guild said.

Peters, ill with cancer for several months, passed away Tuesday, the Guild said.

Peters appeared in some 50 movies including Otto Preminger's "Porgy and Bess" in 1959. He also worked in television and theater and did extensive voice-over work.

His best-known role was alongside Gregory Peck in "Mockingbird," in 1962, a story adapted from the novel by Harper Lee of racism in Alabama in the 1930s.

Over a long and versatile career, Peters won numerous accolades, including an Emmy for his television work, a Tony nomination for best stage actor, and a Screen...