Word: hollywoodized
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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After-Hours. Caught neck-deep among Hollywood's peculiar blessings and obligations, Peck likes being regarded as a good actor. But he takes little pleasure in his fame, and none, apparently, in the standing, prestige or power he might have. He admits to some laziness, but adds, with proper self-respect: "I can be conscientious as hell under pressure...
...Early American." In spite of Hollywood's bad reputation for misusing talent, studios normally try hard with anyone they regard as promising. With Peck, the moviemakers were inclined to outdo themselves. Each studio needed a major male star, and Peck looked like a good risk. Moreover, since no studio had been able to snare him outright, each was determined to sweat the best possible use out of him. Peck was inadvertently handed some bum pictures; but each one was a major production. And during his first years, he had the run of a virtually clear field. Since...
...above all, in his sons, 3½-year-old Jonathan and Stephan, 1½. The three-man romps, in which he hurls the youngsters against the softer pieces of furniture like a couple of shrieking medicine balls, give him the best moments of his day. Sociable, in a non-Hollywood way, he spends two or three evenings a week over a home dinner, whiskey, and talk with one or two of his handful of close friends (closest: Richard Conte). He actively dislikes nightclubs...
...Hecht, I am struck dumb. I feel more comfortable in front of a camera." Actually, the very sound brain in his head doesn't run either to wit or to highbrow intellectual discussion. Alfred Hitchcock has said of him that he is probably the most anecdoteless man in Hollywood; it does not come natural to him either to tell anecdotes or to inspire them. David Selznick has called Peck the best-informed actor in Hollywood, which is probably an exaggeration. Selznick may have meant to say that Peck has one clear sign of a vigorous intelligence: an eagerness...
...Short End. By Hollywood standards, Peck is shamefully underpaid. Up to last year, he was still at the mercy of his own commitments and of the studios to which he was committed. He still suffers from being an obliging man more interested in acting than in money. In order to get the part of the millowner's son in Valley of Decision, he had to sign for three additional pictures at $45,000, $55,000 and $65,000 respectively. One of these, The Yearling, has been made. At the time Peck made it he was worth at least...