M.ok.ru Movies 1982

[Thomasina Norse]

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. As the son of writer and television producer Dominick Dunne, Griffin Dunne grew up in the center of old Hollywood. His father's lavish parties made for countless stories about the rich and famous.

Sean Connery saved him from drowning when he was eight. His first babysitter was Elizabeth Montgomery, the actor who played Samantha in "Bewitched." And he shared one of his first apartments with one of his best friends, Carrie Fisher.

But at the heart of Griffin's new memoir, "The Friday Afternoon Club," is also the story of tragedy and how the Dunne family overcame it - mental illness, addiction, a closeted father and the death of Griffin's sister, Dominique, who was killed by an ex-boyfriend in 1982 when she was 22 years old.

Griffin Dunne began working in Hollywood as an actor. His breakout roles were in the 1981 comedy "An American Werewolf in London" and the 1985 Martin Scorsese-directed movie "After Hours," which Griffin co-produced. His most recent work includes roles in "This Is Us," "Succession," and "The Girls On The Bus." Griffin Dunne is also a director. In 2017, he directed the Netflix documentary "The Center Will Not Hold" about his aunt Joan Didion. And Griffin Dunne, welcome to FRESH AIR. Welcome back.

MOSLEY: You know, Griffin, this memoir is as much about you as it is about the famous people who make up your life and your family. And the stories are both hilarious and at times pretty dark. And I'll say even the dark points, though, that you write about, some of them you write with a tinge of humor. I'm just wondering, had you been cataloguing these stories, knowing that you wanted to write a book like this.

DUNNE: I certainly have. You know, at some point, I'd hear myself be telling stories to friends over dinner. And at a certain point, I started to get home, and I'd think, well, that was a pretty good story. I'm going to make a note...

DUNNE: ...Of that. And I would just let them pile up with - I'd be a decade or so away from beginning a book, but it was in the back of my mind. And they weren't just stories about me and my misfortunes and that were usually always funny, but also about my grandparents and great-grandparents who also led incredible lives, filled with scandal and infidelity and a lot of humor as well.

MOSLEY: You go way back, as you said. You go back to your great-grandparents and your grandparents, laying out their arrival to the United States and your family, your immediate family, consisting of your father, Dominick Dunne, your mother, Ellen, your brother Alex, and your late sister, Dominique. And the orbit that surrounded all of you all, too - you guys were living in Beverly Hills. And your father - he'd hold these parties, as you mentioned. How would you describe these parties?

DUNNE: They were all different kinds of parties. Sometimes people would come over in black tie, and there'd only be about 16 people in black tie with a little orchestra my father hired, you know, a little string quartet to play, and they would sit around a long dinner table and talk very, very loud. And we would be at some point, before the adults got too drunk, we would be brought downstairs, my brother, sister and I, in matching bathrobes and pajamas, and my sister in a little, like, Victorian bonnet on her head, a nightcap. And we'd come in, and all the adults would go, poh, and ah, and aren't they adorable?

DUNNE: And my brother and I would bow good night, and my sister would curtsy, and they would all clap and think that was delightful. And then quite a few years later, I'd end up working with Dennis Hopper, who was at that time, quite young and a guest in our home and well before he did "Easy Rider." And we were working together, and he sort of stared off and said, yeah, I was at your parents' house. When you kids came downstairs, I thought that was the saddest thing I ever saw.

DUNNE: I think he was right. I mean, you know, my father was a - you know, before he became really into himself and the man that we know, he was a very kind of skittish person whose priorities about having famous people to his home and, you know, giving parties, and, you know, he would keep scrapbooks of the pictures he took of all the famous people who came to the house and the telegrams, the accepting his dinner parties. And I looked back on it, and it was kind of embarrassing.

DUNNE: Well, his first job in the earliest days of television was on "The Howdy Doody Show," which for those who don't know, Howdy was a puppet, a very cheerful puppet. And Dad was the stage manager, and it was his job to place him, Howdy, on a stool before the show went live. But from then he went on to kind of classier fare, and he was with "Playhouse 90." And that's where he met many of the people who'd end up being in his party, where he was the stage manager, you know, laying down the tape for the blocking, and he would meet Humphrey Bogart, Paul Newman, James Dean, Arthur Penn. All of these remarkable - who became incredibly famous for their talent, you know, later on in life. These were their earliest parts of their career. And then he became a vice president of a company called Four Star. That's when we moved to Los Angeles. And it was a very classy production company within CBS.

MOSLEY: You're very young during these Hollywood years. One of the things that you would do as a kid is that you liked to exaggerate and tell these elaborate stories. And I found this really interesting because it seems like there were so many true stories that you could have told that were just as fantastical. Why did you feel like you needed to exaggerate, especially when it came to telling stories about your father and who he was? 'Cause you would tell your classmates some tall tales about him.

DUNNE: Yes, I would. And, you know, a part of me as a boy, was a little embarrassed of my dad that he wasn't as athletic. You couldn't play baseball with him and the kind of things he was concerned about. He was always funny. He always made me laugh. He had a very dark, funny sense of humor that I inherited. But, you know, my best friends - I went to a very kind of Hollywood school where everybody's parents were in the business. And they knew my dad was - you know, he just couldn't throw a baseball to save his life. They would make fun of me, and they'd say, my dad could lick your dad with one hand tied behind his back. And I came back with, well, he will - I'd throw his name right in the ring - soon as he gets out of jail.

DUNNE: They'd go, what? Yeah, he's in prison. Why? He robbed a bank. And, you know, this lie got around school so quickly that the principal at the school called my father. And I had this incredibly uncomfortable moment, where my dad - when he came home from work, he was mystified. And he said, Is that something you wish I would do, Griffin? And I was so embarrassed, but he didn't pursue it because I think he thought - I think he knew I was a little embarrassed about him. It was a very tough moment for both of us.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is Griffin Dunne. He's written a new book called "The Friday Afternoon Club," a memoir about his life and complicated family, who dealt with significant traumas, including mental illness and addiction, and the murder of his sister. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR, and today, we're talking to actor, producer, director and author Griffin Dunne. He's written a new memoir titled "The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir," which delves into the story of the Dunne family, his father Dominick Dunne's life and career as a TV producer and frequent writer for Vanity Fair, his closeted sexuality, and the impacts that all of that had on everyone, including Griffin. The book also delves into the death of Griffin's sister, Dominique, who was killed by an ex-boyfriend in 1982 when she was 22 years old.

I want to ask you a little bit about your mom because your mother, Ellen Dunn, was, in her later life, known as an activist. After your sister was killed, she founded the organization Justice for Homicide Victims. She was actually recognized by President George H.W. Bush...

DUNNE: My mother had a lot of class. She was an only child, grew up on a ranch in Arizona on the border of Mexico, town called Nogales. But she was sent away to boarding school, all-girls school called Farmington. She was incredibly well read, loved classical music and came to New York. And she was a model, and she was very, very beautiful.

You know, my dad fell in love with her on first sight, and he just was enthralled by her beauty. And what she saw in him was one, he was a really funny guy, and he knew a lot of stuff about New York and gangsters and movie stars and, you know - unlike any man that she'd ever met.

I mean, she grew up in Arizona. She went out with guys who rode in rodeos. And my father - you know, he knew Oleg Cassini and, you know, could make references to, you know, everything from movies to fashion. And I think she just found him fascinating.

DUNNE: That fascination with celebrity and partying and movie stars got very, very tired for her. And, you know, he was - he's written about this, so I'm not - Dad was very frank about his personality and character in these years. You know, he was drinking a great deal, and he was getting very sloppy, and he was getting a little mean in his gossip. And people were really turning him away, and he didn't see that...

MOSLEY: Because that's the thing that your dad loved to do, is he would pick apart - he would gossip all the time. They'd go to parties. He'd come home, and on the way home, he'd be talking about everything that happened at the party.

DUNNE: He just - he would just weave and describe an incredible dinner with - oh, you know, Alfred Hitchcock was over there and Jimmy Stewart. And she just started to not really give a damn about this.

MOSLEY: There's this moment that you write about that I wanted to just ask you about that, like, maybe speaks to your relationship with your mom, where in the announcement of your parents' divorce, they sat you and your brother and sister down and - 'cause your mom said, I'm leaving you, and so we have to tell the kids - sat all of you down. And after the announcement was made, the kids are crying. You put your hands over your face. You're kind of crying. But then you look out of your fingers, and you can - you and your mom's eyes lock.

c80f0f1006