Author Dominick Dunne Loses Cancer Battle

Best-selling crime author DOMINICK DUNNE has lost his battle with bladder cancer, aged 83.

The revered writer and Vanity Fair magazine contributor died on Wednesday (26Aug09) at his home in Manhattan, according to his son, actor Griffin Dunne.

Dunne, the author of An Inconvenient Woman and The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, was born in Connecticut in 1925 and began his career as a TV and film producer.

He served in the Army during World War II and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism.

He shot to fame in the mid-1990s thanks to his insightful coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial. He wrapped up his coverage of the disgraced former American football icon in court last year (08) when he insisted on covering the kidnap and robbery trial - which ended with Simpson’s incarceration - against doctors’ orders.

Dunne had travelled to Germany and the Dominican Republic for experimental stem cell treatments to fight his cancer in recent years and once revealed that he and the late Farrah Fawcett were in the same cancer clinic in Bavaria.

He completed his final novel, Too Much Money, before his death. It is scheduled for release in December (09).

Dunne was penning his memoirs when he died.

Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter - a longtime friend, says, “It is fair to say that the halls of Vanity Fair will be lonelier without him and that, indeed, we will not see his like anytime soon, if ever again.”

As a Vanity Fair writer, Dunne became famous for covering high-profile court cases and was a beloved raconteur and high-society interviewer and confidante.

Dunne’s life was marred by tragedy - his actress daughter, Dominique, was murdered by her boyfriend in 1982.