Who played Captain Ahab in the 1956 film "Moby Dick"?

Who played Captain Ahab in the 1956 film Moby Dick? Gregory Peck played Captain Ahab.

John Huston directed the 1956 adaptation, with a screenplay by Huston and Ray Bradbury. Gregory Peck played Ahab, the obsessive captain who pursues the white sperm whale Moby Dick after it took his leg. Richard Basehart played Ishmael, while Leo Genn played the first mate, Starbuck.

The film was a major international production, shot in locations including Ireland, Wales, Madeira, and the Canary Islands. Its visual style and seafaring sequences were widely praised, although some critics thought Peck was miscast as the psychologically extreme Ahab. Peck himself later expressed reservations about the performance and considered the 1998 television miniseries more faithful to Melville’s novel.

The 1956 movie also differs from the book in emphasis and detail. It compresses the novel’s sprawling digressions and encyclopedic discussions of whales, focusing more directly on Ahab’s revenge quest. Orson Welles appears as Father Mapple, whose sermon remains one of the story’s memorable early scenes.