Gore Vidal: Broadway playwright dies age 86

Gore Vidal died 31 Jul 2012, at age 86. at his home in Hollywood Hills, California.

Vidal was an American writer known for his essays, novels, screenplays, and Broadway plays. He wrote for The Nation, the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, the New York Review of Books and Esquire.

The playwright is currently represented on Broadway with the current revival of his play 'The Best Man.' His other Broadway plays are 'An Evening With Richard Nixon and..,' 'Weekend,' 'A Visit to a Small Planet.' Screenplays include 'Suddenly, Last Summer,' 'Is Paris Burning?,' 'Caligula' and 'Billy the Kid.'

As an outspoken liberal and political commentator, Vidal was a long time critic of American foreign. His published collected essays include: 'Decline and Fall of the American Empire' 'Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta' and 'Imperial America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia.'

Vidal was born in West Point, New York, on 3 Oct 1925. He was the Granson of senator Thomas Gore, and was the step-brother of Jacqueline Kennedy trough marriage. He began his writing career in 1946 with his first of novel 'Williwaw.'

Openly gay, Vidal enjoyed a 50-year relationship with Howard Austen, until the later passed away in 2003. Vidal is survived by his half-sister Nina Straight and half brother Tommy Auchincloss.