Literary titan and celebrity barb-at- large GORE VIDAL is gone with the allusion at 86.
Vidal died at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications of pneumonia, The LA Times reported
Vidal wrote 25 novels, including historical works such as “Lincoln” and “Burr” and satires such as “Myra Breckinridge” and “Duluth.”
Vidal also toiled as a scenarist writing for films, theater and the golden age of television.
"The Best Man," a political play preemed which premiered in 1960, and then was filmed with Henry Fonda as the titular politico. Paul Newman starred in the “adult western” "The Left-Handed Gun" based on his play.
Vidal also scripted for "Suddenly Last Summer" with Elizabeth Taylor and did a polish on William Wyler’s "Ben-Hur" which starred Charlton Heston. In later years, Vidal claimed to have added a homoerotic subtext to the Biblical epic.
His novel “Myra Breckinridge” was famously turned into a sex change comedy starring Raquel Welch and nearly mummified screen siren Mae West.
Vidal appeared as himself in a cameo in “Fellini’s Roma,” as a sinister mega-mind of the future in “Gattaca” and a U.S. senator in “Bob Roberts” with Tim Robbins.
He also ran for the Senate from California and Congress in New York, and his "oh-too-witty" ripostes made him a favorite of latenite TV talkshows often trading barbs with a beefy Norman Mailer and conservative whiffenpoof William F. Buckley.
“Style,” Vidal once said, “is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.”
