Born in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 29, 1925, to a prominent heart surgeon and his heiress wife, Dunne was one of five children. He lived an affluent life with servants, a huge house, and a private school. But Dunne had a sad life at home. He didn’t meet the expectations of his father for which he frequently received beatings with a wooden coat hanger.
Dominick sought solace in movie magazines following the big Hollywood stars of the time. After a trip to Los Angeles when he was nine years old, he knew Hollywood was where he belonged.
He attended Williams College before serving in World War II. After the war he moved to New York where he hoped to find the glamorous life he had craved since childhood. He carved out a career in television on shows such as The Howdy Doody Show.
Around this time he met his wife to be, Ellen Lenny Griffin, and within six weeks they were married. They had three children, Alex, Dominique, and Griffin.
After making a name for himself in television he moved his family to Hollywood where he directed Playhouse 90 and became vice president of Four Star Pictures.
Living in Santa Monica he rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous of that time, Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, Kirk Douglas, David Niven, Elizabeth Taylor, Truman Capote, Paul Newman, and Audrey Hepburn.
The high life of Hollywood soon took its toll on Dunne’s finances and his wife left him. He turned to alcohol and cocaine and became an outcast in the Hollywood scene due to his loud, rude, and drunken behavior at parties.
In 1979 Dominick got in his car and drove himself to Oregon’s Cascade Mountains and rented a cabin where he stayed for six months, drying out and getting his life back on track.
He was approached to write a sequel to The Users by Joyce Haber. It was a flop. But it didn’t deter Dunne when his book was torn apart by the New York Times, he merely considered it a signal that he was a professional writer.
He moved back to New York’s Greenwich Village determined to become a writer. But the worst of Dominick's life was not over.
One morning in 1982 he received the earth shattering news that his twenty-two year old daughter Dominique Dunne, who had appeared as a child actress in Poltergeist, was in a coma after having been strangled by her ex-boyfriend John Sweeney. Dunne rushed to her side in Los Angeles. She was taken off her life support machine and Dunne returned to New York to await Sweeney’s murder trial.
After the trial Dominick wrote Justice: A father’s account of the trial of his daughter’s killer. He also went on to write The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, based on the murder of socialite Billy Woodward. Dunne himself has commented on how people are drawn to him with their tales. He investigated the Chandra Levy murder and Michael Skakel case. He has covered high profile murder cases such as OJ Simpson’s wife, Nicole’s, death, the murder of Robert Blake’s wife, and the case against the Menendez brothers.
After having been at the top and then falling from favor and making it back again, Dunne, more than anyone, knows there is nothing to envy in the Hollywood lifestyle.
YUDDY
