Harper Lee Gregory Peck To Kill a Mockingbird

Universal Pictures

Harper Lee not only dramatically altered the conversation on race in America with her book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but she also wholeheartedly approved of the 1962 film adaptation.

Jeff Pirtle, the director of NBCUniversal archives and collections, cracked open the studio vault to share stories about Lee’s visit to the set during production.

“She was just glowing about everything that had to do with the production,” Pirtle said. “She loved the script…She loved the casting of the two children, who were not professionals. She loved Gregory Peck‘s wardrobe.”

Also Read: Harper Lee, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Author, Dies at 89

“[Producer] Alan J. Pakula said she was ‘the most novel novelist who ever came to Hollywood,’ because she really liked everything that the production was doing,” he continued.

The film adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” premiered on Christmas Day, 1962. It went on to win three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck‘s portrayal of Atticus Finch.

“I don’t think anyone really anticipated how impactful it would become,” Pirtle said. “With the subsequent Civil Rights Act, which was passed a year and a half later, as well as Alabama being such a flashpoint for so many events in the Civil Rights movement. I think for those reasons, it sort of spurred on the Civil Rights movement and continues to resonate today.”

Also Read: Harper Lee Didn't Belong to Us

Pirtle went on to say that he believes the film still connects with audiences because of its timeless message.

“It has such a great message of love and understanding,” he said. “There’s the quote where Gregory Peck says, ‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.’ I think it’s so relevant even today.”

He also said that while comparisons to other classic films of American history are inevitable, this one in particular is something special.

Also Read: Aaron Sorkin to Adapt Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for Broadway

“I usually say it’s the crown jewel of Universal’s film library, just because it’s such a great film,” he said. “Even if there was a film like ‘Citizen Kane,’ I don’t think the societal impact of a film like that was as great as ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ So really it’s in a class all by itself. It’s a masterpiece.”

Lee died on Friday morning in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, which served as the basis for the town of Maycomb from the book.

21 Times Hollywood Tackled Race Issues (Photos)

Selma (2014) - David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader's role in the 1965 Selma protests.
Harpo Films/ Plan B Entertainment
Dear White People (2014) - This biting satire follows four black college students making their way in "post-racial" America.
Homegrown Pictures
12 Years a Slave (2013) - Chiwetel Ejiofor led the 2014 Best Picture winner, which is a true story about a freeborn black man who spent over a decade in slavery in the pre-Civil War South.
Fox
Django Unchained (2012) - Quentin Tarantino's controversial Oscar winner follows a freed slave who fights to liberate his wife from a brutal plantation owner.
The Weinstein Co.
Gran Torino (2008) - Clint Eastwood plays a grizzled Korean War veteran who reluctantly takes his young Hmong neighbor under his wing.
Warner Bros.
Crash (2004) - 2006's Best Picture Winner traces the intersecting lives of people of different races in present day Los Angeles.
Bob Yari Productions
American History X (1998) - Edward Norton plays the leader of a violent neo-Nazi gang who reevaluates his life when he sees his little brother going down the same path.
New Line
A Time to Kill (1996) - Based on the best-selling John Grisham novel, Samuel L. Jackson plays a man on trial for murdering the two white supremacists who raped his daughter who turns to an untested lawyer played by Matthew McConaughey.
Warner Bros.
Schindler's List (1993) - Steven Spielberg's unflinching look at the Holocaust through the eyes of a man who saved thousands of Polish Jews.
Universal
Malcolm X (1992) - Spike Lee and Denzel Washington teamed up for the true story of the inflammatory Nation of Islam leader.
Warner Bros.
School Ties (1992) - Brendan Fraser led this all-star cast (which included Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) in which he played tbe only Jewish student at an exclusive 1950's prep school.
Paramount
Boyz n the Hood (1991) - John Singleton's hard-hitting look at life in South Central Los Angeles saw Cuba Gooding Jr. trying to avoid the pitfalls of life in the ghetto.
Columbia Pictures
Dances with Wolves (1990) - Kevin Costner won multiple Oscars for this tale of a Civil War soldier who comes to identify with an oppressed native tribe in the American West.
Orion Pictures
Do the Right Thing (1989) - Spike Lee's searing portrait of a day in the life of a mostly black Brooklyn neighborhood during an intense heat wave.
Universal
Mississippi Burning (1988) - The true story of the disappearance of three civil rights protesters in 1960's Mississippi and the FBI agents who investigated.
Orion Pictures
The Color Purple (1985) - Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for Best Actress in this story of a black woman at the turn of the century fighting for her place in society.
Amblin
Blazing Saddles (1974) - Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor collaborated on this hysterical look at a black sheriff taking charge of a frontier town.
Warner Bros.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - Sidney Poitier stars in this groundbreaking film about a white woman who brings her black fiancee home to meet her parents.
Columbia Pictures
In the Heat of the Night (1967) - Sidney Poitier again challenged conventions when he portrayed a black detective investigating a murder in a rural Southern town.
United Artists
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Gregory Peck cemented his place in film history as Atticus Finch, a white lawyer defending a black man accused of rape, in the adaptation of Harper Lee's masterpiece.
Universal
Birth of a Nation (1915) - Considered the first true narrative film, it attracted widespread criticism for its portrayal of African Americans and its glorification of the KKK.
D.W. Griffith

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The film industry has never shied away from the controversial topic

Selma (2014) - David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader's role in the 1965 Selma protests.

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