Gregory Peck : A Biography (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following up his tributes to Jimmy Stewart (Pieces of Time) and Burt Lancaster (Against Type), Fishgall reveals the star of Cape Fear, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit and To Kill a Mockingbird as "the consummate professional" probably to no one's great shock. Born in La Jolla, Calif., in 1916, Peck worked as a truck driver before attending the University of California at Berkeley, where he first began acting. He moved to New York after graduation, became a barker at the 1939 World's Fair, worked as a photographer's model and apprenticed at Virginia's Barter Theatre before his 1942 Broadway debut. He soon signed a contract with Fox, and his role as a Roman Catholic priest in The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) brought him an Oscar nomination. It was the beginning of six decades of stardom and critical acclaim as Peck "forged a celluloid gallery of heroes writers, lawyers, military men, political figures, corporate executives, and rugged archetypes of the Old West." Fishgall looks at Peck's personal tragedies (his rocky first marriage, the suicide of his son) and his philanthropy, but much of the narrative plods predictably from one film to another. Peck cooperated with Fishgall by supplying "written answers to written questions," and the book reflects that approach; despite the author's extensive research, the star remains a somewhat distant figure. Agent, Alexander Hoyt.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

At last, a serious look at this most gentlemanly of actors.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st Printing edition (March 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068485290X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684852904
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #418,974 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An acting life, July 10, 2004

By	Peter Lorenzi (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Peck's acting life earns a thorough description, movie by movie, director by director. His early life receives a bit less. Born in 1916 in La Jolla, he had a lonely, almost dysfunctional childhood, including boarding schools, distant parents, a favored grandmother, a short-lived dog for a pet, and a University of California education. He quickly moves from college in California, to a scholarship to acting school in New York, to three short, failed Broadway plays, to almost overnight success in Hollywood, kicked off by his role as a priest in "Keys to the Kingdom".

But the story is more of a diary or summary of events, including things like profits from his La Jolla Playhouse venture, calculated to the penny. Casts of summer stock plays and Hollywood movies are cataloged. Every radio broadcast seems to merit a mention.

But the story is often a bore. Peck, who apparently had some form of editorial input to the book, chimes in at times with one-sentence descriptions of people, events, and movies, but it reads more like a scribbled note he added to the Fishgall's draft text. His life, including children, affairs and failed marriages, are sidelights.

If you would like a life catalog, read this book. For entertainment and a more human portrait, watch "Twelve O'Clock High".

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars St. Gregory of Hollywood?, May 13, 2005

By	Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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Gary Fishgall's GREGORY PECK is an admiring and uncritical look at the actor. Perhaps the only balance is provided by Peck's own words:

"I've had my ups and downs. There have been times when I wanted to quit. Times when I hit the bottle. Girls. Marital problems. I've touched most of the bases."

About those bases, Fishgall is protectively reticent.

However, as a Gregory Peck fan all of my adult life, this bio, while not leading me to more than a superficial understanding of the man, is a comprehensive examination of his life as an actor, first in live theater and then in front of the motion picture cameras. The author's progression through the decades of Gregory's career is methodical almost to a fault. A useful section at the end is a filmography of fifty-three feature films and four television appearances, with the availability of each in either videotape and/or DVD format noted. (The list is perhaps somewhat out of date. For example, MACARTHUR's availability is listed as video only, but a DVD edition now exists.)

Perhaps the highlights of the book were, for me, the trivia revealed. Did you know that Robert Mitchum (co-starring in CAPE FEAR) has a photographic memory and can learn his lines by reading the script just before a scene is shot? Or that while shooting GUNS OF NAVARONE on Rhodes, where, as one journalist put it, "The food is awful, everything shuts up early, and unlike most Greeks, the islanders tether their daughters and let the goats wander free", co-star Anthony Quinn kept the stars from dying of boredom with several portable chess sets brought from home? And best of all, the child star (Harvey Stephens) that played Damien in OMEN literally got the part after demonstrating to director Richard Donner a certain demonic streak - he punched Donner in the gonads.

Fishgall obviously did a lot of research. On page 260, however, he flatly states that California's incumbent Democratic governor, Edmund Brown, won re-election in 1966. Since actor Ronald Reagan was, in fact, the winner - a victory which catapulted him into national political prominence, and eventually led to his election as President - I found the author's factual failure on this small point to be appalling, and perhaps called into question the accuracy of other material in the book. I mean, I wouldn't expect a recent Golden State high school graduate to even know who either Brown or Reagan was, the quality of general education these days being what it is. But should the author of a major, fact-based text make such a gaffe?

Despite its shortcomings, GREGORY PECK satisfied my curiosity about the legendary actor, and then some; I don't think I need to read further. On that basis, 4 stars is appropriate.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Easy Read, September 24, 2005

By	Robert D. Chagnon (Eastern USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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A nice overview of a popular public figure who is a little more complex than you might expect and not quite the lofty figure of his managed public image, but nevertheless a decent human being, like most of us. The narrative moves nicely including interesting details about the films Peck made and his relations with directors, writers, and fellow actors and the women in his life. An easy read.