Gore Vidal
☼ Born on 3 December 1925, in West Point, New York, USA
† Died on 31 December 2012, in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA, cause complications from pneumonia
BiographyGore Vidal was born Eugene Louis Vidal in 1925 in West Point, New York, to Nina (Gore) and West Point aeronautics instructor and aviation pioneer Eugene Luther Vidal. The Vidals endured a rocky marriage divorcing ten years after Gore's birth. Young Gore spent much of his childhood with his blind grandfather, Senator T.P. Gore of Oklahoma. Vidal would later become the confidant of Jacqueline Kennedy when Jackie's mother married his former stepfather, Hugh D. Auchincloss. After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1943, Gore joined the US Army Reserves. Some of his Army experiences inspired his first novel, Williwaw, which was published when he was just 19. He dedicated the novel to J.T., a deceased prep-school friend. Subsequent novels would prominently feature gay male characters, and Gore found soon found his books had staying power on bestseller lists. In 1960, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress, backed by celebrity supporters like Paul Newman & Vidal's ex-fiancé Joanne Woodward. Another unsuccessful foray into politics would occur in 1982 when he ran for governor of California. In addition to being an accomplished writer, he is also a novice actor. His biggest roles to date have been in Gattaca (1997), Bob Roberts (1992), and With Honors (1994).
In the role of actor
The 50 Year Argument (24/01/2015)
Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi directs this look back at the 50 year history of the New York Review of Books. In 1963, founders Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein, along with publisher A. Whitney Ellsworth and writer Elizabeth Hardwick, took advantage of the New York printers’ strike to establish the New York Review of […]