Gregory Peck’s Mental Asylum Nightmare

Beloved movie icon Gregory Peck suffered an emotional collapse after the tragic suicide of his eldest son — and his condition was so grave he was locked away in a mental hospital for two years, The National ENQUIRER has exclusively learned!

The “To Kill a Mockingbird” star was so overcome with agonizing grief upon learning of the death of his firstborn, Jonathan Peck, that he soon was secretly committed to a sanitarium. Sources said that’s the real reason the handsome actor suddenly disappeared from the Hollywood scene in the 1970s!

“Gregory was in France when he got word of Jonathan’s passing, and the shock of it caused him to collapse in a quivering heap on the floor,” said a Peck family source. “He just about had to be scraped up, that’s how bad it was.”

After funeral services, sources say the grief-stricken dad remained inconsolable and holed up in his bedroom for days on end, rarely having the strength to even get out of bed. “That’s when it was decided he needed to get some serious medical care, because he wasn’t going through the grieving process in a normal way and improving — or coming to grips with what had happened — like he should have with each passing day,” said a family friend.

“It took a terrible toll on him both mentally and physically," the source added, "and it was really touch-and-go there for a while as to whether he’d go off the deep end for good — or be able to crawl out from under his despair.”

Jonathan, a news reporter, was just 30 when he put a single bullet in his head on June 26, 1975. Police said no suicide note was found, but the Santa Barbara, Calif., coroner’s office listed the death as an apparent suicide. Jonathan reportedly was going through a broken relationship, dealing with arteriosclerosis and depression due to work-related exhaustion.

Jonathan, a news reporter, was just 30 when he put a single bullet in his head on June 26, 1975. Police said no suicide note was found, but the Santa Barbara, Calif., coroner’s office listed the death as an apparent suicide. Jonathan reportedly was going through a broken relationship, dealing with arteriosclerosis and depression due to work-related exhaustion.

During this incredibly bleak period for Gregory, said sources, Jonathan’s surviving brothers, Stephen and Carey, were beacons of hope and light for their ailing dad — as well as to their mom, Greta Kukkonen (pictured here with her family in 1950).

Greta was the actor’s first wife and the boys’ mother. She and Gregory divorced in 1955. He also had two children — Anthony Peck (known as Tony) and Cecilia Peck — with second wife Veronique Passani (pictured), who he married the day after his divorce from Greta became final.

“While Jonathan’s death proved to be the most devastating for Gregory, he suffered other heartaches during his seemingly charmed life,” said the pal.

During his marriage to Greta, he had a brief affair with his “Spellbound” co-star Ingrid Bergman. He confessed to being a cheater in a 1987 interview when he said: “All I can say is that I had a real love for her [Bergman], and I think that’s where I ought to stop … I was young. She was young. We were involved for weeks in close and intense work.”