Gore Vidal, Prolific and Versatile Writer, Dies at Age 86 - People Magazine

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Gore Vidal, the last of a generation of great literary celebrities – as comfortable on The Tonight Show as behind a typewriter – died Tuesday in his Hollywood Hills home at age 86.

The handsome, aristocratic novelist, playwright, essayist, politician, commentator and sometimes actor died of complications of pneumonia, his nephew Burr Steers told several media outlets.

A contemporary of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer, Vidal was nearly as famous for his feuds, strong opinions, failed political campaigns and TV appearances – including voice overs for The Simpsons and Family Guy – as for his writing.

But Vidal was considered one of the greatest American men of letters, among the first to write about openly gay characters. His groundbreaking coming-of-age story The City and the Pillar about a man who comes to find out he was homosexual was considered scandalous in 1948.

Other well-known books included the black comedy Myra Breckinridge, about a transsexual movie star, and historical novels such as Burr and Lincoln. His play The Best Man was nominated for a Tony, and he dabbled in Hollywood, writing TV dramas and script-doctoring films, including Ben-Hur.