Gregory Peck : A Biography

Book Description

Gregory Peck's acting career has spanned six decades, during which the ruggedly handsome actor has played everything from a jaunty reporter to an angry Western gunfighter, an honorable lawyer to an obsessed sea captain, a priest to a World War II bomber pilot. To every role, he has lent a depth and intelligence that have made him a permanent American icon. In Gregory Peck: A Biography, Gary Fishgall meticulously recounts Peck's influential life, revealing the effects of the actor on the film industry and of the film industry on the actor.

Although he planned on being a doctor, Peck was lured to the stage as a young man, leaving his native California for an uncertain existence as an actor in New York. After two years of study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan, he made a successful Broadway debut in 1942, eventually returning to Hollywood to begin his new, high-profile life. His stunning movie career has included starring roles in such classics as Roman Holiday, Gentleman's Agreement, Cape Fear, Captain Horatio Hornblower, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The Yearling, and Moby-Dick. After many Academy Award nominations, Peck won an Oscar in 1962 for his moving portrayal of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, his most celebrated film.

Despite his very public career, Peck remains an extremely private man. In this comprehensive biography, the first written with the actor's cooperation and drawn from extensive research as well as dozens of interviews with Peck's friends and associates, Gary Fishgall portrays him in his many guises: the lonely young son of divorced parents; the stalwart military cadet; the aspiring college thespian; the hot Hollywood newcomer pursued by Goldwyn, Zanuck, Mayer, and Selznick; and the handsome movie star charming the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Jennifer Jones, and Ava Gardner. Fishgall reveals the truth about Peck's unhappy first marriage, his struggle to keep his family together, and the blissful second marriage that has lasted more than forty years. Finally, Fishgall depicts Peck as the esteemed professional, graduating from leading man to gifted character actor, and as the concerned citizen, determined to extend himself beyond the bounds of his own profession. An ardent activist, Peck supports many charitable and political causes, and is unwavering in his desire to make the world a better place.

Renowned biographer of Hollywood giants such as Jimmy Stewart and Burt Lancaster, Fishgall brings an actor's and director's understanding of the movie industry to Gregory Peck. He takes readers behind the scenes of the star's numerous films, and he sets his story within the larger context of the changes and evolution of twentieth-century entertainment.

The tale of an American classic, Gregory Peck is a compelling, intimate account of a full and fascinating life.

Customer Reviews:

Very Interesting Life.......2007-08-10

Gregory Peck was NOT one of my favorite actors. Then I read this book. Now I can see the value in his movies and in his acting. This guy was a grad of UC Berkeley. He was an intelligent person. His movies were choses as "intelligent movies". He studied acting with some of the best "method" teachers that ever lived. I believe you'll go away after reading this book with a renewed appreciation of Gregory Peck and ditto for his movies. Recommended.

An Easy Read.......2005-09-25

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.

St. Gregory of Hollywood?.......2005-05-14

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.

A great star.......2005-02-13

I have to admit upfront that I'm a Gregory Peck fan. So my bias is clearly towards any author who does a good a job as Fishgall did.

The book covers Peck from ancestral antecedents, through childhood and adolescence, and into adulthood and a long career. As the previous reviewers mentioned, the book is a detailed and meticulous review of Peck's career, step by step, play by play, and film by film (and all the other things he accomplished). The book contains all sorts of information about the whys, wherefores, and reasons thereof that drove Peck to make the career moves that he did. And there is much information regarding how Peck prepared for roles, what movitated his performances, and how his relationships with co-stars/colleagues affected him and them.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. I learned a great deal about Gregory Peck and, unbelievably since I was already a fan, appreciate the actor even more.

The one thing the book lacks is, perhaps, more about the personal life of the actor. I'm sure this has little to do with the efforts of the author. Gregory Peck was well-known to be an extremely private person during his lifetime, and I have no problem respecting his wishes now that he is gone.

Overall, I highly recommend the book.

An acting life.......2004-07-10

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.

Book Description

His first screen test was a disaster, his features were large and irregular, his left ear outsized the right, yet he would one day be headlined as the Most Handsome Man in the World. And most of his leading ladies—among them, Ingrid Bergman, Jennifer Jones, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, and Ava Gardner—would not disagree.

Irreverent, candid, refreshingly honest, Lynn Haney's carefully researched biography not only charts the remarkable career of the Oscar-winning star but also plumbs Peck's frequently troubling complexity in his off-screen roles as husband, father, lover, and son. About the tough times, Haney minces no words; but the misfortunes by no means eclipse the energy, intensity, and excitement that characterized Peck's five decades of moviemaking. This is a book filled with telling photographs, and a story cast with movie moguls from Louis B. Mayer to Darryl Zanuck, with directors from Hitchcock and Walsh to Huston and Wyler, with nearly every major luminary in Hollywood, and, starring for the first time in toto, Gregory Peck.

Customer Reviews:

Gregory Peck biography.......2006-08-30

Very well written, well-documented information
Bit dry with a lot of chronological information
Dispels a few myths about his 'charmed' life in La Jolla
Shows him to be a very decent hardworking actor and person with principles
Would recommend, but would be best for a true fan of his

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT GREGORY PECK AND THEN SOME.......2006-03-24

This was simply one of the best books I have ever read [and I have read a lot!] Not only does the author let you into Peck's life from the beginning until the end, but also adds a lot of "Hollywood scoops" that keeps you on your toes wondering what will surprise you next. There is none of the blatant " I did this, I did that" that I found while reading Ginger Rogers' autobiography. Gregory Peck was and is a Hollywood icon. To me he will always be "Atticus Finch:" a man who represents the good that is deep inside all of us. This book is a treasure!

Disappointing Biography.......2006-02-28

This should have been a well-written book about a fascinating man. But it never quite captured the sense of Mr. Peck. Part of the problem may have been the distracting and numerous typos, grammatical errors and an annoying habit of veering off onto subjects that were only slightly related and which are already the stuff of Hollywood lore, written about MANY times before.

Expertly written bio .......2006-01-08

An extremely well writen bio of Gregory Peck. The author provies both complimentary and critical analysis of the man which I find absolute in a bio. The photos are well placed.
This is a good book.

A chip on Haney's shoulder.......2005-12-03

I just can't seem to understand why Ms Haney chose Gregory Peck as her subject when she obviously does not even like him. I assume biographies of the stars are written for the their fans and though I appreciate truth but the lot that appears in Haney's book seems to be gossip. What was she thinking?? Looks like she collected snippets on Greg Peck's life from gutter journalists and printed it out in the book.

She seems to be a big fan of his first wife though, as the demise of their marriage is firmly laid at Mr Peck's door. His other sin seems to be falling in love with his second one and moving on with his life with her. Well here is a news flash for you dear author, in instances like a divorce, it takes two to tango. We never seem to understand from your book as to what was Greta Peck's failing as a wife that led to it.

Also half baked accounts of his son's sucide are quite jarring. Again the author seems to think that it was Gregory Peck's stature and achivements that led his son to his demise. What was he suppose to do? Become a hermit & run to jungles so that his son would not be plagued with inferioty complex?

Really star bigraphers like Ms Haney should stick to what they do best...write for useless glossies that the twits of the world love so very much and leave book writing to the more accompalished writers.

THE AMERICAN FILM HERITAGE: IMPRESSIONS FROM THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ARCHIVES

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THE AMERICAN FILM HERITAGE: IMPRESSIONS FROM THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ARCHIVES
Tom: Foreword By Gregory Peck: Shales
Manufacturer: American Film Institute/Acropolis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LY59HY

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The Films of Gregory Peck
John Griggs
Manufacturer: Citadel Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0806510250

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Gregory Peck
Michael Freedland
Manufacturer: Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 049102178X

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Gregory Peck
Michael Munn
Manufacturer: Robert Hale & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0709062656

Gregory Peck: A Bio-Bibliography (Bio-Bibliographies in the Performing Arts)

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Gregory Peck: A Bio-Bibliography (Bio-Bibliographies in the Performing Arts)
Gerard Molyneaux
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 031328668X

Book Description

Born in 1916 in La Jolla, California, Gregory Peck took up acting in college on a lark that would lead to a career. In his early years, he appeared in a series of summer stock engagements and Broadway shows. He became a star within a year after arriving in Hollywood during World War II, and he won an Academy Award nomination for his second film. From the 1940s to the present, he has played some of film's most memorable and admired characters. This volume provides complete information about Gregory Peck's work in film, television, radio, and the stage. Entries are included for all of his performances, with each entry providing cast and credit information, a plot summary, excerpts from reviews, and critical commentary. A biography and chronology highlight significant events in his life, while a listing of his honors and awards summarizes the recognition he has received over the years. For researchers seeking additional information, the book includes descriptions of special collections holding material related to Peck's work, along with an extensive bibliography of books and articles.

Gregory Peck: De La A a La Z/ From A to Z (Todo Sobre)

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Gregory Peck: De La A a La Z/ From A to Z (Todo Sobre)
Jaime Noguera Martin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Peck: Actor of dignity.(Editorials)(Film star dead at 87)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

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Peck: Actor of dignity.(Editorials)(Film star dead at 87)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

Manufacturer: The Register Guard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008DL3GO
Release Date: 2005-06-01

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by The Register Guard on June 14, 2003. The length of the article is 4272 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Peck: Actor of dignity.(Editorials)(Film star dead at 87)(Editorial)
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: June 14, 2003
Publisher: The Register Guard
Page: A16

Article Type: Editorial

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The post picks classic films.(Magnificent Obsession, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit)(Movie review): An article from: Saturday Evening Post

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The post picks classic films.(Magnificent Obsession, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit)(Movie review): An article from: Saturday Evening Post
Gale Reference Team
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000NA6FLA
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Saturday Evening Post, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1102 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The post picks classic films.(Magnificent Obsession, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit)(Movie review)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: Saturday Evening Post (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 279 Issue: 1 Page: 74(2)

Article Type: Movie review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Although much scholarly and critical attention has been paid to the relationship between rhetoric and environmental issues, media and environmental issues, and politics and environmental issues, no book has yet focused on the relationship between popular culture and environmental issues. This collection of essays provides a rigorous and multifaceted rhetorical and critical perspective on the ways in which the language and imagery of nature is incorporated strategically into various popular culture texts--ranging from greeting cards to advertisements to supermarket tabloids. As a distinguished group of scholars reveals, our notions about the environment and environmentalism are both reflected in and shaped by our popular culture in fascinating ways never previously examined in an academic context. The consumptive vision of nature presented in these texts represents a wholly American view, one promoting leisure and comfort, and nature as the place to experience them. This "good life" attitude toward the environment often serves to commodify it, to render it little more than space in which to pursue conventional notions of the American dream. As such, the volume represents a bold and striking vision both of popular culture and of popular notions of an environment that can be either protected or just simply consumed.

Enviropop: Studies in Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture

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Enviropop: Studies in Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture
Mark Meister
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORQ2FG

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First scholarly work devoted to Aztec and Maya papermaking. Chosen by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the fifty best books of 1944, it thoroughly discusses the processes and materials used by these ancient craftsmen. Extensive editorial apparatus. 6 illustrations, 81 photographs. Essential reading for historians, anthropologists, and students. 1944 edition. Introduction. Foreword. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations.

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The Aztec and Maya Papermakers
Victor Wolfgang Von Hagen
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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Book Description

First scholarly work devoted to Aztec and Maya papermaking. Chosen by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the fifty best books of 1944, it thoroughly discusses the processes and materials used by these ancient craftsmen. Extensive editorial apparatus. Essential reading for historians, anthropologists, and students.

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The Aztec and Maya Papermakers
Victor and Von Hagen Wolfgang
Manufacturer: Dover Publishing
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ASIN: B000NV2EH8

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Aztec and Maya Papermakers
Victor Wolfgang Von Hagen
Manufacturer: J.J. AUGUSTIN PUBLISHER
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THE AZTEC AND MAYA PAPERMAKERS. Introduction by Dard Hunter.

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THE AZTEC AND MAYA PAPERMAKERS. Introduction by Dard Hunter.
Victor Wolfgang. von Hagen
Manufacturer: J.J. Augustin,
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ASIN: B000N7G7F2

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Aztec & Maya Papermakers 1ST Edition
Victor W Von Hagen
Manufacturer: J J AUGUSTIN PUBLISHERS CORP
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ASIN: B000PV2ELC

Book Description

Configure and manage your PC networkand help combat privacy and security threatsfrom the inside out! Written by the authors of the immensely popular Windows XP Inside Out, this book packs hundreds of timesaving solutions, troubleshooting tips, and workarounds for networking and security topicsall in concise, fast-answer format. Dig into the tools and techniques for configuring workgroup, domain, Internet, and remote networking, and all the network components and features in between.

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An excellent IT book.......2007-07-05

I wish that all the books dealing with IT were written like this one. Ed Bott really explains everything in a very,very clear way.Without dumbing it down or assuming that you already know everything,like other writers...Most of the time when I read a book about Windows I get sleepy after a while.Not with this one.His books(like the one about Outlook)keep you interested.On top you will find sometimes information that you will not find in any other book.After reading several of his books I have no problem buying his next one,about Vista or whatever without even seeing it before.

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