Gregory Peck: A Biography

Fitting its subject like a starched shirt, this journeyman bio is so even-keeled, dignified, and sedately efficient that Gregory Peck’s cooperation is practically fingerprinted on every page. His near-impeccable first decade in pictures (Gentleman’s Agreement), his mid-’50s disappointments (Moby Dick), and the subsequent crapshoot (lopsided double-bill suggestion: To Kill a Mockingbird and Amazing Grace and Chuck) are all recounted in an earnest patter that feeels ready-made for the Robert Osborne intros on TCM (”He was bankable again!”). The result is likable but discouragingly innocuous. B-