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Author Dominick Dunne dies at 83 in Manhattan
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Enlarge By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY

Author Dominick Dunne, who had an uncanny knack for getting celebrities to open up about their private lives, died Wednesday. He had been battling bladder cancer.





Yahoo! Buzz Digg Newsvine Reddit FacebookWhat's this?By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY
Dominick Dunne, perhaps the most famous chronicler of the celebrity crowd over the last quarter century, died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 83 and had battled bladder cancer.
Dunne, an investigative journalist, was famous for his reports from the trials of the infamous —O. J. Simpson, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, the Menendez brothers, plus the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. It wasn't a celebrity trial unless Dunne was there scribbling in his notepad.

But Dunne was also a novelist, producing The Winners (1982), The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1985), People Like Us (1988), An Inconvenient Woman (1990), A Season in Purgatory (1993) and Another City, Not My Own (1997).

His memoir, The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper, was published in 1999. His work often touched on his favorite topics — high society, celebrity, and their foibles. Known for his trademark wit, cynicism and commentary, Dunne was the proverbial fly on society's wall.

In December, a novel, Too Much Money, is due from Crown.


In a New York Times review of People Like Us, author Jill Robinson commented on Dunne's uncanny knowledge of the wealthy and how they operate:

"There's more to it than getting the labels and the street names right. He shows he knows by the way he tells you how his people feel, the way they listen, the things they cover up and the things they don't."

For more than 25 years, Dunne's voice was heard in Vanity Fair magazine. He had been a special correspondent there since 1993, joining the magazine in 1984 as a contributing editor. Over the years there was hardly a celebrity he didn't profile in its pages, among them Elizabeth Taylor, Claus von Bulow and Robert Mapplethorpe.

He was one of those rare, and fortunate, journalists whom people confided in. He was always more than willing to listen.

Born into wealth himself in Hartford, Conn. — his father was a heart surgeon, his mother an heiress, his brother John Gregory Dunne (late husband of Joan Didion) would become a famous author — he graduated from Williams College and began his career in New York as the stage manager of The Howdy Doody Show.

In 1957 he moved to Hollywood and became the executive producer of the TV series Adventures in Paradise. Dunne later served as the president of Four Star, a TV company owned by David Niven, Dick Powell and Charles Boyer. He moved on to producing feature films, including The Boys in the Band, Panic in Needle Park, Play It as It Lays and Ash Wednesday.

But his first love surfaced early on — hobnobbing with the rich and the famous, an obsession that nearly brought him down. Accepting his addictions to alcohol and cocaine after losing his job and wife after years of partying, Dunne left Hollywood in 1979, fleeing to rural Oregon, where he sobered up. He wrote his first book there, The Winners.

He then returned to New York and continued writing, which he turned into a highly successful career. He didn't return to Hollywood until 1995 to cover the O. J. Simpson trial.

Dunne's fascination with criminal trials stemmed from the 1982 murder of his actress daughter, Dominique. He covered the trial of her murderer and subsequently wrote "Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of his Daughter's Killer" for Vanity Fair. (Two sons survive, Alexander and actor/director Griffin Dunne.)

In later years he hosted the TV series Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice, in which he discussed justice and injustice and their intersection with celebrities.

Not everyone was always happy with what he wrote. He often told the story of Frank Sinatra paying someone to slug him.

And Rep. Gary Condit, in 2005, won an undisclosed amount of money and an apology from Dunne, who had earlier implicated him in the disappearance of Chandra Levy. In November 2006, he was sued again by Condit for comments made about the former politician on Larry King Live, but the suit was dismissed.

In 2008, Dunne traveled Las Vegas to cover O.J. Simpson's trial on charges of kidnapping and armed robbery for Vanity Fair. It was there that he complained of intense pain and was taken to a local hospital. He later sought stem cell treatment in Germany at the same facility where Farrah Fawcett was treated.

Leaving the Academy Awards ceremony for what he assumed was the last time in 2009, Dunne summed up his life succinctly: "I enjoyed every second."
[Edited 8/26/09 15:23pm]

That man irritated the CRAP out of me.

But I do pray he rests in peace, and might one day be with his daughter in some form or fashion.

damn. lots of celeb deaths this year.

My mom is gonna be so sad. She loves his tv show.


This is the worst year every for celeb deaths, or at least it seems like it.

Dude was absolutely obsessed with OJ Simpson.

He was my very first celebrity sighting when I moved to NYC. And then I met a business acquaintance who was good friends with him. He was a very nice man, with a storied life and career. RIP.

RodeoSchro said:

yep. i think because he hadn't fully resolved his daughter's death, nicole was his surrogate dead daughter.

DesireeNevermind said:

I think that's exactly it.

Lammastide said:

Agreed.

In any case, I liked some of his books. They were fun, trashy,print pre-cursors to all these reality shows we have on tv chronicling the lives of the rich and dirty; I think I still have a copy of his book "People Like Us" in my bedroom...

Who?

RodeoSchro said:

As are a lot of people.....who OWE their current careers 2 the man.

Graycap23 said:

Dominick Dunne had a much larger career far beyond OJ and didn't owe him anything.

Dunne had a fascination with celebrity and the justice system, which he watched mangle his daughter's murder case. The OJ case was a cross-section of the two, so it interested him and of course the Vanity Fair readership.

Efan said:

I was speaking mostly of the other folks who are obsessed with OJ.

Dayclear said:

You crack me up. I'm at the point where I look for your posts.