Moby Dick (1956 Film) - Cast

Cast

• Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab
• Richard Basehart as Ishmael
• Leo Genn as Starbuck
• James Robertson Justice as Captain Boomer
• Harry Andrews as Stubb
• Bernard Miles as The Manxman
• Noel Purcell as Ship's Carpenter
• Edric Connor as Daggoo
• Mervyn Johns as Peleg
• Joseph Tomelty as Peter Coffin
• Francis de Wolff as Captain Gardiner
• Philip Stainton as Bildad
• Royal Dano as Elijah
• Seamus Kelly as Flask
• Friedrich von Ledebur as Queequeg
• Orson Welles as Father Mapple

Peck was initially surprised to be cast as Ahab (part of the studio's agreement to fund the film was that Huston use a "name" actor as Ahab). Peck later commented that he felt Huston himself should have played Ahab. Ironically, Huston had originally intended to cast his own father, the actor Walter Huston in the role, but his father had died by the time the film was made. Peck went on to play the role of Father Mapple in the 1998 television miniseries adaptation of Melville's novel, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab.

Welles later used the salary from his cameo to fund his own stage production of Moby Dick, in which Rod Steiger played Captain Ahab.

The Pequod was portrayed by, appropriately, the Moby Dick. Built in England in 1887 as the Ryelands, the ship came into the hands of the film industry in the 50s, and was also used in Treasure Island. It was destroyed by fire in Morecambe, England in 1972.

The schooners used were Harvest King and James Postlethwaite, both from Arklow, Ireland.