Vale – Gore Vidal
Acclaimed US playright, screenwriter and novelist Gore Vidal has passed away. Vidal, an outspoken political commentator and liberal, was best known in film circles as the man who script-massaged William Wyler’s Ben Hur, put together the 1979 turkey Caligula, and 1989’s Billy The Kid. As an actor he appeared in Gattaca, Igby Goes Down and Bob Roberts, while he was portrayed by other actors in films such as Amelia and Infamous.
Mr Vidal passed away on July 31st, aged 86.
Who wrote this?
A few years back (2006 i think) there was a TV series shown on the ABC called Jack and Bobby with Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope). Vidal was in the final episode (along with Lou Diamond Phillips) as a kind of narrator. Surprised the hell out of me to see him. Didn't see all the episodes, but it was pretty good. Unfortunately haven't seen the DVDs in the local DVD/video store yet.
Just two weeks before he died I finished his fictional account of Lincoln. Outside of a few of his essays (which cover people like E Howard Hunt and the Reagans) it's all I've read of his. It was part of the Empire series … I plan to read more (one of them covers Hollywood in the early days and includes Randolph "Rosebud was me missus" Hearst). Lincoln was a great book.
Vidal was one of the first legit older school intellectuals who linked the proposed Unacol (forgive spelling) oil pipeline with Afghanistan and 911. He had nothing but disdain for Bush jnr. And boy, was he right.
While I didn't cover it specifically in this obit, I'm keen to research a bit more of Vidal's work after skimming his Wiki page alone. The man was a monster of a literary giant, and I can't believe I've not seen/heard/read as much of his stuff as I should have. Thanks for some handy tips on where to start, Mark!