dominick dunne, native son, died yesterday as well

his sister-in-law joan didion is one of my favorite writers. i liked dominick as well. his style was different than joan's of course. the subject matter was different as well (although when you think about it, WAS it really????). this is a good write up. there are a few things in here i didn't know (stage manager for howdy doody?). and griffin's (his son) performance in after hours was nothing short of genius)


Writer Found Fame in Celebrity-Crime Tales

By Matt Schudel

Washington Post Staff Writer

Dominick Dunne, 83, a novelist and journalist who chronicled true-crime tales of the rich and infamous, including O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow, and in turn became a celebrity in his own right, died Aug. 26 at his home in New York City. He had bladder cancer.

As a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine, Mr. Dunne was perhaps the country's foremost chronicler of crimes among the privileged. He developed his journalistic specialty in a painfully personal way, when Tina Brown, the newly installed editor of the magazine, asked Mr. Dunne to cover the 1983 Los Angeles trial of a man charged with killing a promising young actress. The actress was Mr. Dunne's 22-year-old daughter, Dominique Dunne........

Celebrity Author And Hartford Native Dominick Dunne Dies At Age 83

By OWEN McNALLY Special to The Courant

Dominick Dunne, a celebrated chronicler of the crimes of the rich and famous and a best-selling novelist who skyrocketed to celebrity status through his vivid, caustic, openly partisan and dishy coverage of the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial, died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan.

Dunne, who had been battling bladder cancer, was 83.

The Hartford native, who kept a home in Hadlyme, grew up in a large, prominent and wealthy Irish-Catholic family in West Hartford. He found success with such novels as "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" and "A Season in Purgatory." But it was his brilliant, controversial, highly readable coverage of the Simpson "trial of the century" for Vanity Fair that transformed him in 1995 into a bona fide, red-hot celebrity.

His owlish, oval-framed glasses, shock of gray hair, diminutive stature (maybe not quite 5-foot-6 or so), feisty presence, often rumpled apparel and smart, razor-sharp commentary made Dunne a hot product on the cool medium of TV.........

pic: FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2008 file photo, celebrity crime writer Dominick Dunne, left, looks at his son Griffin Dunne during O.J. Simpson's trial in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool) (Jae C. Hong - AP)