Cinema: Leading Man

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Three or four nights a week, he has an odd, recurring dream. He is an athlete in a jampacked, outsized stadium. He takes off for an efficient, unspectacular broad jump. But he suddenly soars past the pit and over the heads of the officials, zooms right on over the stadium wall in a long, majestic arc, and wakes before he lands.

Except for his good looks, which are considerably above average, Gregory Peck is an average young man who has made a fairly fast and dizzying jump to movie stardom. Since his...