The American Institute for Stuttering would like to recognize renowned author and journalist Dominick Dunne, who died yesterday of cancer at the age of 83.
Through AIS friend and supporter Tina Brown, we discovered that Dominick had overcome the effects of stuttering to achieve his great feats in the arenas of film, literature, journalism, and the military. As editor of Vanity Fair, Tina published Dominick’s piece on the murder of his daughter Dominique and then hired him to write for the magazine full-time. (Read Tina’s touching article on her friend at The Daily Beast.)
In 2007, we honored Dominick with the Freeing Voices, Changing Lives award at our first-ever benefit gala, held on the Queen Mary II. Dominick was covering the Phil Spector murder trial in Los Angeles at the time and was unable to attend. With his harried schedule covering high-profile trials and serving as a correspondent on celebrity culture, we sadly were never able to meet Dominick to give him his award. We are honored to display his award in our AIS offices.
We recognize Dominick for all of his achievements after overcoming the effects of stuttering. We thank him personally for his openness about his stuttering in our correspondences with him.
Here is Dominick Dunne’s bio from the program for our 2007 benefit gala:
Dominick Dunne is an American writer and investigative journalist whose subjects frequently hinge on the ways high society interacts with the judiciary system. He directed Playhouse 90, was Vice President of Four Star Pictures and hobnobbed with the rich and the famous of those days. After leaving Hollywood Dominick wrote his first book, The Winners.
In 1982, his actress daughter, Dominique, was murdered. Dunne attended the trial of her murderer, John Thomas Sweeney and subsequently wrote Justice: A Father’s Account of the Trial of his Daughter’s Killer. This poignant report showed his ability to penetrate the outward screen of the court proceedings giving insights into the complex stories of victims and perpetrators and the curious working of the law.
He has been a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine since 1984 and is now special correspondent. Dunne has covered such high profile, million dollar defense trials as those of O.J. Simpson, William Kennedy Smith, Erik and Lyle Menendez and Robert Blake. He created the series, “Dominick Dunne’s Power, Privilege, and Justice” on CourtTV to dissect justice and injustice at their intersection with the activities of celebrities. He has also written revealing pieces on some of the world’s most fascinating people including Imelda Marcos, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Queen Noor of Jordan.
Dunne’s best-selling novels, almost all of which have been made into television miniseries, include The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, An Inconvenient Woman, People Like Us, A Season in Purgatory, and Another City, Not my Own. He has also published three collections of essays, The Mansions of Limbo, Fatal Charms, and Justice as well as a photo memoir, The Way We Lived Then. Dominick was currently in Los Angeles to cover the second trial of record producer Phil Spector.
When not covering stories elsewhere, Dominick lived in Connecticut. His family includes his son Griffin Dunne, and the aforementioned Dominique Dunne, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion.
When asked about his stuttering, Dominck spoke of a very difficult and abusive father that he feels contributed to his stuttering. While he had had some therapy, it was ineffective. And when he was 18, he was drafted into the military for WW II. He was in three battles as a forward observer for the artillery, marching with the infantry and in the battle of Metz, he saved a wounded man’s life during a retreat. “To this day I don’t know how I did what I did, but I did it. I received a Bronze Star pinned on my private’s uniform by a general in the field who saluted me and told me how brave I was. It was the first compliment of my life. I was 18. My picture was in the papers. I never stuttered again.”
Editor’s Note: While we now know that stuttering is a genetic and neurological disorder, we have heard such stories of people who seem to recover immediately, and interestingly, many are related to military experiences. This is a rare occurrence and something that researchers are looking into.
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