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<html> <head> <title>Dominick Dunne</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css">  </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap>This is a beta version of NNDB</td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </form></td> </tr> </table>        </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/276/000173754/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0>Dominick Dunne<img src="dominick-dunne-1-sized.jpg" height=325 width=245 align=right hspace=10 vspace=10 alt="Dominick Dunne">Born: <a href="/lists/820/000106502/" class=proflink>29-Oct</a>-<a href="/lists/924/000105609/" class=proflink>1925</a> Birthplace: <a href="/geo/529/000069322/" class=proflink>Hartford, CT</a> Died: <a href="/lists/125/000106804/" class=proflink>26-Aug</a>-<a href="/lists/276/000179736/" class=proflink>2009</a> Location of death: <a href="/geo/592/000069385/" class=proflink>Manhattan, NY</a> Cause of death: <a href="/lists/351/000069144/" class=proflink>Cancer - other</a> Gender: Male Religion: <a href="/lists/758/000094476/" class=proflink>Roman Catholic</a> Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Novelist, <a href="/lists/180/000068973/" class=proflink>Journalist</a> Party Affiliation: DemocraticNationality: United States Executive summary: High society novelist, true crime writerMilitary service: US Army (WWII)As a child, Dominick Dunne was beaten by his father for his "sissy" attempts at writing plays and staging puppet shows. He attended the exclusive private Canterbury School, then joined the Army and fought in World War II's 41-day Battle of the Bulge. After the war he attended college and worked as a stage manager for The Howdy-Doody Show and other late 1950s series. He became a film producer, perhaps best known for the bleak addiction drama The Panic in Needle Park. After a decade hosting grand parties in Hollywood, he turned his attention to writing novels set among the upper class, and -- after his daughter's murder in 1982 -- mystery novels and reports from the trials of <a href="/people/189/000023120/">Claus von Bulow</a>, <a href="/people/996/000025921/">William Kennedy Smith</a>, and <a href="/people/483/000027402/">Erik</a> and <a href="/people/479/000027398/">Lyle Menendez</a>. He covered the trial of <a href="/people/390/000022324/">O. J. Simpson</a> for Vanity Fair, describing it as "the biggest news story that's ever been", and wrote the afterword for Simpson's controversial If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. For implicating <a href="/people/898/000024826/">Gary Condit</a> in the murder of <a href="/people/959/000024887/">Chandra Levy</a> he was sued, and settled with an apology and an undisclosed payment to Condit. His ex-wife Ellen Dunne was a co-founder of the activist group Justice for Homicide Victims; their daughter was actress <a href="/people/211/000022145/">Dominique Dunne</a>, and their son is actor-director <a href="/people/357/000086099/">Griffin Dunne</a>. Dominick Dunne's brother was author <a href="/people/514/000086256/">John Gregory Dunne</a> and author <a href="/people/823/000023754/">Joan Didion</a> was his sister-in-law.Father: Richard Edwin Dunne (cardiologist) Mother: Dorothy Frances Burns Dunne Brother: <a href="/people/514/000086256/">John Gregory Dunne</a> (author, b. 25-May-1932, d. 30-Dec-2003) Wife: Ellen Beatriz Griffin-Dunne ("Lenny", b. 28-Jan-1932, m. 24-Apr-1954, div. 1965, d. 9-Jan-1997, three children) Son: <a href="/people/357/000086099/">Griffin Dunne</a> (actor-director, b. 8-Jun-1955) Son: Alex Dunne (social worker, b. circa 1957) Daughter: <a href="/people/211/000022145/">Dominique Dunne</a> (actress, b. 23-Nov-1959, d. 4-Nov-1982 murder)     High School: Canterbury School, New Milford, CT     University: <a href="/edu/790/000068586/">Williams College</a>     <a href="/org/926/000208302/">Hillary Rodham Clinton for US Senate Committee</a>     <a href="/honors/280/000043151/">Bronze Star</a> 1945     <a href="/group/414/000179874/">Funeral: Ronald Reagan (2004)</a>     <a href="/lists/936/000043807/">Irish Ancestry</a>     Risk Factors: <a href="/lists/780/000064588/">Alcoholism</a>, <a href="/lists/352/000083103/">Marijuana</a>, <a href="/lists/798/000180258/">Bladder Cancer</a>     FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR     <a href="/films/771/000268964/">Making the Boys (18-Jul-2009)</a> · Himself     <a href="/films/759/000348712/">Dominick Dunne: After the Party (23-Oct-2008)</a> · Himself     <a href="/films/775/000173256/">Bernard and Doris (Sep-2006)</a>     <a href="/films/459/000256688/">The Last Mogul: The Life and Times of Lew Wasserman (19-Mar-2005)</a> · Himself     <a href="/films/830/000061647/">An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (29-Sep-1997)</a> · Himself     <a href="/films/579/000033480/">Addicted to Love (23-May-1997)</a> · Matheson Author of books: Winners (<tt>1982</tt>, novel, with Joyce Haber) The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (<tt>1985</tt>, novel) Fatal Charms and Other Tales of Today and the Mansions of Limbo (<tt>1987</tt>, essays) People Like Us (a.k.a. Jet Set) (<tt>1988</tt>, novel) An Inconvenient Woman (<tt>1990</tt>, novel) The Mansions of Limbo (<tt>1991</tt>, essays) A Season in Purgatory (<tt>1993</tt>, novel) Another City, Not My Own (<tt>1997</tt>, novel) The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of A Well-Known Name Dropper (<tt>1999</tt>, memoir) Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Punishments (<tt>2001</tt>, nonfiction) <table> <tr> <td align=right valign=middle style="padding-right: 5px;">New! <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/" class="fotmlink" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #dd0000;">NNDB MAPPER</a></td> <td valign=middle align=right style="border-left: 1px solid #bbb; padding-left: 5px;">Create a map starting with</td> <td valign=middle align=right><a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=173754"><img src="/man.gif" border=0 style="padding: 2px;"></a></td> <td align=left valign=middle> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=173754">Dominick Dunne</a></td> </tr> </table> Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript. 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