One of the grand old liberal belletrists, this essayist and novelist also has a knack for writing best sellers and scripts, including ones for such film classics as "Ben-Hur" (1959), "Suddenly, Last Summer" (1959), and the decidedly less-than-classic "Is Paris Burning?" (1966). His 1968 fictional spoof of Hollywood "Myra Breckinridge" became a notorious 1970 film. Equally adept as a writer of popular historical biographies, campy melodramas and urbane political commentary (a proclivity that led to endless brouhahas with his "bete noir" Norman Mailer), Gore Vidal even took a few jabs at politics, running unsuccessfully, for Congress in New York in 1960 and Senate in California in 1982.
He scripted "Dress Grey" (1986) and the 1989 TNT miniseries "Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid" for TV, the latter adapted from his best-selling novel. Vidal has also tried acting, playing himself in Federico "Fellini's Roma" (1972), and more recently, appearing in "Bob Roberts" (1992) and "With Honors" (1994), playing sympathetic patrician characters--a politician and a professor respectively.
- Also Credited As:
Cameron Kay, Edgar Box, Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, Katherine Everard
- Born:
October 3, 1925 in West Point, New York, USA
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Job Titles:
Essayist, Novelist, Actor, Screenwriter, Critic, Political commentator, Politician
Family
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Father: Eugene Luther Vidal. divorced from Vidal s mother in 1935
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Grandfather: Thomas Gore.
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Half-sister: Nini.
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Mother: Nina Vidal. divorced from Vidal s father in 1935
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Step-father: Hugh Auchincloss.
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Step-sister: Jacqueline Bouvier. Former First Lady of the USA
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Step-sister: Lee Bouvier.
Education
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Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire
Milestones
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1943 Served in US Army Reserve Corps in the Aleutian Islands
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1946 Published first novel, Williwaw
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1948 Third novel, The City and the Pillar , caused controversy because its hero was a homosexual
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1951 Subject of a chapter in John W Aldridge s book After a Lost Generation: A Critical Study of the Writers of Two Wars which sharply criticized his work
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1955 Enjoyed success with TV presentation Visit to a Small Planet ; later adapted as a Broadway play (1957) and a film (1960)
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1955 TV writing debut, an adaptation of the George S. Kaufman-Edna Ferber Broadway play from the 1930s, Stage Door
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1956 Screenwriting debut, The Catered Affair , based on Paddy Chayefsky s play
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1959 Collaborated with Tennessee Williams on the adaptation of Suddenly, Last Summer
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1959 Contributed to the screenplay for the Oscar-winning Best Picture Ben-Hur
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1960 Unsuccessful bid for New York Congressional seat
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1964 Hosted TV show, Hot Line
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1964 Wrote film adaptation of The Best Man ; awarded Cannes Film Festival Critics Prize
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1966 Co-wrote the script at Is Paris Burning?
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1968 Penned the play Weekend
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1968 Published controversial book Myra Breckinridge , a spoof of Hollywood
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1970 Adapted The Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots from a work by Tennessee Williams
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1972 First film appearance, Fellini s Roma
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1972 Wrote the play An Evening with Richard Nixon
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1979 Did uncredited work on the script for Caligula
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1986 Wrote the NBC miniseries Dress Gray
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1989 Scripted the TNT miniseries Gore Vidal s Billy the Kid ; also had small role as a minister
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1990 Co-wrote the screenplay for The Palermo Connection
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1992 Played major supporting role in Bob Roberts
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Adopted various pseudonyms in the 1950s after The New York Times banned reviews of his work
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As a teenager, began writing fiction and poetry