Dominick Dunne

Dominick Dunne (born October 29, 1925) is an American writer and investigative journalist whose subjects frequently hinge on the ways high society interacts with the judiciary system. He was a producer in Hollywood and is also known from his frequent appearances on television.

In September of 2008, Dunne disclosed that he was undergoing treatment for bladder cancer.^[1] Fans may send their best wishes to him at DominicksDiary.com

Dunne was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Dorothy Frances (Burns) and Richard Edwin Dunne, a "well to do" Irish Catholic family ^[2]. The son of a well-known physician who graduated from Harvard Medical School, Dominick Dunne attended the Kingswood School, now the Kingswood-Oxford School in West Hartford. As a child, Dunne was known as 'Nicky.' He is the older brother of John Gregory Dunne (died 2003), an American novelist, journalist, screenwriter and literary critic, who was the husband of author Joan Didion.

From April 1954-1965 he was married to Ellen. They had three children, Griffin Dunne (55), Dominique Dunne (1959-1982, murdered), and Alexander Dunne. From Griffin he has granddaughter Hannah Dunne.

After Dominick's studies at Williams College and service in World War II, including the battle of Metz, he moved to New York, then to Hollywood, where he directed Playhouse 90 and became vice president of Four Star Pictures. He hobnobbed with the rich and the famous of those days. In 1979, beset with problems of addiction, Dunne left Hollywood and moved to rural Oregon, where he says he dealt with his personal demons and wrote his first book, The Winners. In November 1982, his actress daughter, Dominique Dunne, was murdered. Dunne attended the trial of her murderer (John Thomas Sweeney) and subsequently wrote Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of his Daughter's Killer.

This poignant report showed his ability to penetrate the outward screen of the court proceedings giving insights into the complex stories of victims and perpetrators and the curious working of the law. He went on to write articles for Vanity Fair, books, and eventually issued a TV series, Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice on CourtTV (later truTV) to dissect justice and injustice at their intersection with the activities of celebrities. Famous trials he covered include those of O.J. Simpson, Claus von Bulow, Michael Skakel, William Kennedy Smith, and the Menendez brothers.

In 2005, Gary Condit 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 on CNN^[3] but the suit was tossed out of court.

While it was rumored in early 2006 that he intended to cease writing for Vanity Fair magazine, Dunne stated the opposite in a February 4, 2006, interview with talk show host Larry King. "Oh, I am at Vanity Fair. I'll be in the next issue and the issue after that. We went through, you know, a difficult period. That happens in long relationships and, you know, you either work your way through them or you get a divorce. And I didn't want a divorce and we've worked our way through and Graydon (E. Graydon Carter) and I are close and he's a great editor and I'm thrilled to be there"^[4].

In 2008, at age 82, Dunne traveled from New York to Las Vegas to cover O.J. Simpson's trial on charges of kidnapping and armed robbery for Vanity Fair magazine, claiming it would be his last. During the trial, an unidentified woman approached and kissed him, causing her to be ejected from the courtroom; and on September 22, 2008, Dunne complained of intense pain and was taken by ambulance to Valley Hospital.^[5]

• The Winners (1982)
• The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1985)
• People Like Us (1988)
• An Inconvenient Woman (1990)
• A Season in Purgatory (1993)
• Another City Not My Own: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir (1997)

• The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-known Name Dropper (1999)
• Justice: Crimes, Trials, And Punishments (2001)

• Fatal Charms: And Other Tales of Today (1987)
• The Mansions of Limbo

• The Boys in the Band (as executive producer)
• The Panic in Needle Park (as producer)
• Play It as It Lays (as producer)
• Ash Wednesday (as producer)

• Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice

Dunne has frequently socialized with, authored journalism about, and been photographed with celebrities. A Salon.com review of his memoir, The Way We Lived Then, recounted how Dunne appeared at a wedding reception for Dennis Hopper. Sean Elder, the author of the review, wrote: "But in the midst of it all there was one man who was getting what ceramic artist Ron Nagle would call 'the full cheese,' one guy everyone gravitated toward and paid obeisance to." That individual was Dunne, who mixed easily with artists, actors and writers present at the function. The final line of the review quoted Dennis Hopper about Dunne: "I wish I had a picture of myself with Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer."^[6]

• Dominick Dunne at IMDb
• Condit settlement
• Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice
• The Final O.J. Story for Dominick Dunne, The New York Times, Sept. 19, 2008
• DominicksDiary.com