Readers beginning a biography of Hollywood legend Gregory Peck will not expect to come across the kind of salacious material that made Kenneth Anger’s “Hollywood Babylon” books best sellers.
Peck has a reputation for being one of the most professional and gentlemanly actors in film, and in “Gregory Peck: A Biography” (Scribner, 384 pages, $28), biographer Gary Fishgall offers up any number of quotes confirming that fact (and using those exact words) from dozens of Peck’s former co-stars and directors.
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Peck wasn’t perfect, however, and Fishgall does go into some detail about his rocky marriages, his drinking and brief flirtation with drugs, as well as his somewhat hush-hush rep for off-screen romancing of his leading ladies during his marriages’ rougher spots. But much of Fishgall’s exhaustive research and flattering prose focuses on the actor’s work. From Peck’s childhood flirtation with acting, to his early Broadway experience and up through each of his 50-plus films, Fishgall goes to great pains to examine the merits of each production, while examining the personal hills and valleys the actor was experiencing at the time.
For cinemaphiles, the book is invaluable, including a detailed filmography along with TV and Broadway appearances, a complete list of source material and a lengthy bibliography. But it is Fishgall’s obsessive attention to detail that ultimately proves to be the book’s downfall. In almost every chapter, he distracts readers with long-winded background information about minuscule aspects of Peck’s life. The book even begins with an overlong historical examination of the actor’s hometown of La Jolla, Calif.
This fastidiousness does uncover the occasional nugget, such as an anecdote about Peck’s lifelong back problems. While studio sources reported his injury was sustained during the making of a film, it actually dates back to his days as a student in New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse.
Peck was in a movement class, attempting to touch his head to his knees. His teacher gave him an extra push, resulting in a ruptured disc and a displaced vertebra — a condition that made him ineligible for the draft and, with a number of leading-man types fighting overseas, arguably helped launch his film career. The teacher? Martha Graham.
Fishgall, who also authored biographies of James Stewart and Burt Lancaster, is aided by cooperation from Peck, and the book is peppered with informative, though not necessarily revealing, quotes from the man himself.