Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck): Did you rape that woman?

Tom Robinson (Brock Peters): I did not, sir!

Few who have seen Robert Mulligan's classic To Kill a Mockingbird could forget Robinson's tearful pleas of innocence on the witness stand. Sadly, the actor who gave Robinson a plainsong grace and dignity, Brock Peters, died on August 23 in his Los Angeles home of pancreatic cancer. He was 78.

He was born George Fisher to African and West Indian parentage on July 2, 1927, in New York City's Harlem district. He decided on an acting career when still a child, and attended the Music and Arts High School in New York City and majored in drama at the University of Chicago. His studies paid off and he made his Broadway debut earning a stage role in Porgy and Bess in 1949. His film debut was a strong one, that as Sergeant Brown in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones (1954) with Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte (changing his name to Brock Peters with the release of that film). He developed a friendship with Belafonte and would sing backup on his records over the next few years, including Belafonte's signature tune "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)."

He worked with Preminger again when he starred as the villianous Crown in the film adaptation of Porgy and Bess (1959); but his most memorable screen role was as Tom Robinson, the simple, southern African-American who was falsly accused of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). His performance was startling poised, and he held his own against such strong co-stars as Gregory Peck and Robert Duvall. Peters never quite found a role that scaled such dramatic heights as in Mockingbird, but he landed parts that came close: the creepy villian Rodriguez who intimidates Rod Steiger in The Pawnproker (1965); one of the passengers who confronts a pair of thugs in a New York subway car in the gritty urban drama The Incident (1967); the disbelieving Lt. Hatcher who slowly aligns himself with Charleston Heston in the futuristic thriller Soylent Green (1973); and the benign Reverend Kumalko in a reprise of his Tony-nominated role in Lost in the Stars (1974).

Always a quality actor, when the silver screen wasn't calling, Peters provided a stawart presence in a host of television programs throughout the '70s: Gunsmoke, The Streets of San Francisco, Night Gallery; and '80s: Cagney & Lacey, Murder, She Wrote, Magnum, P.I.; and he even garnered a spot as a regular for seven years in the long-running soap opera The Young and The Restless (1982-89).

Yet all the accolades pale in comparison to fans of Star Trek who grew to love him for his work in both the theatrical movies and the television series spinoffs: first as the tough, no-nonsense Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek IV (1984) and Star Trek VI (1986); and later for his performances as Joseph Sisko in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1996-98). For his contributions to film and television, he was awarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992. Brock Peters is survived by his longtime companion, Marilyn Darby, and a daughter, Lise Jo Peters.

by Michael T. Toole