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. (Mar.)
