Hollywood legend Gregory Peck cut a massive hole in his hedge – so neighbour Rod Stewart could pop round to play tennis whenever he liked.
Rod’s guitarist Jim Cregan, who joined the rocker’s band in 1976 and became his musical director, said he used to rehearse with rocker Rod at his home in LA.
Speaking on the Stars Cars Guitars podcast with Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley and radio presenter Alex Dyke, Jim, 74, said Peck – who won an Oscar for his role at Atticus Finch in the 1962 movie To Kill a Mockingbird – was a “great neighbour”.
He said that he and Rod, now 75, used to play on a tiny paddle tennis court or go for a swim at Rod’s LA mansion, but that when they fancied a game of proper tennis, they would “pop round” to Peck’s house next door.
Jim said the Hollywood icon, who died in 2003, eventually told him and Rod they didn’t need to “keep knocking on his door” when they wanted to play a game of tennis.
Jim said: “Gregory Peck was such a great neighbour to Rod. Gregory Peck had a tennis court and we would go round and buzz on the gate and say it was Rod and me and that we’d like to play tennis.”
He added: “Gregory said, ‘I tell you what… instead of you coming round and knocking on the door, I’m going to cut a hole in the hedge and you can just come through and use the tennis court any time you like’. So he had a hole cut in the hedge.”
