Gore Vidal

Writer

Name at birth: Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, Jr.

Gore Vidal made a name for himself right after World War II with his first few novels, especially Williwaw (1946) and The City and the Pillar (1948). Since then he has become one of America's foremost celebrity authors, famous for his prose, his intelligence and his sophisticated sassiness. Visible as an all-purpose guest commentator on television since the 1950s, Vidal has also appeared in the movies, including Bob Roberts (1992) and Gattaca (1997, starring Ethan Hawke). Vidal wrote the hit Broadway play Visit to a Small Planet (1955), and the hit book Myra Breckenridge (1968), and a very successful and critically-acclaimed series of historical novels about the United States, including Burr (1973), 1876 (1976), Empire (1989), Hollywood (1989) and The Golden Age (2000). Famously mischievous, liberal and not-quite-heterosexual, he still gets his name in the papers every now and then during regular highbrow spats with other celebrities.

Extra credit: Vidal has made unsuccessful bids for both the congress (1960) and the senate (1982)... The grandson of U.S. Senator Thomas Pryor Gore, Vidal shared a stepfather (Hugh Auchincloss) with Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and is a distant cousin of presidential aspirant Al Gore... He was an uncredited writer for the 1959 blockbuster Ben-Hur (starring Charlton Heston).