Anecdotes

His maternal grandfather Thomas Gore helped create the State of Oklahoma and was the first senator elected to represent the state. During his youth, Thomas Gore had lost sight in both eyes in two separate accidents and was completely blind for the remainder of his life. His blindness, however, didn't deter his political ambitions, and he was dubbed "The Blind Cowboy" by the U.S. political press.

Was briefly engaged to actress Joanne Woodward. She broke their engagement to pledge herself to eventual husband Paul Newman. The new couple remained close friends with Vidal and briefly cohabited with him on a Los Angeles estate.

He was an intimate friend of playwright Tennessee Williams. They lived together in Italy for many years. Whenever Gore was asked to name his favorite movie, he facetiously named Le mariage... une affaire privée (1944), a mediocre film starring Lana Turner. Vidal knew that Tennessee Williams had contributed to its screenplay without credit, and he was embarrassed whenever anyone mentioned the film.

He shared a stepfather with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Her mother Janet Norton Lee married his former stepfather Hugh Auchincloss. Jacqueline was given Gore's former bedroom on the Auchincloss estate. Reportedly, Gore and John F. Kennedy were good friends who bonded over their mutual dislike of various family relatives.

Co-Founded the U.S. Peace Party with Benjamin Spock on June 23, 1967. Much like Gore Vidal himself, Spock was an outspoken activist in the anti-Vietnam War movement during the 1960s and early 1970s. This third party still exists today as the Peace and Freedom Party (PFP).

He met his long-term partner Howard Austen in 1950 at a New York City bathhouse. They were together until Austen's death in November 2003. Vidal claims they were never intimate a second time after their initial assignation at the bathhouse.

He has been cited as a relative of Tennessee senator and Vice President Al Gore ("Gore" was Gore Vidal's mother's maiden name). However, Gore Vidal and Al Gore share no common "Gore" ancestors going back to at least the early 1700s.

Is uncredited as a screenwriter on Ben-Hur (1959), although producer Sam Zimbalist had promised Vidal and Christopher Fry, who worked on the script independently from Vidal, screen credit. Karl Tunberg, who wrote the original screenplay before many rewrites by Vidal and Fry produced the final shooting script, claimed the credit. Zimbalist died before the movie ended, and thus could not testify at the Writers Guild arbitration hearing. Tunberg won the credit, but failed to win the Oscar. The film had been nominated for 12 Oscars, and won a record 11, a record that has since been tied. The movie's sole loss was for best writing-screenplay based on material from another medium. The loss is usually attributed to the fallout over the credit dispute, which Vidal made widely known.

His father, Eugene Luther Vidal, helped start three different airlines and had a lengthy romantic relationship with aviator Amelia Earhart. With Earhart's recommendation to Eleanor Roosevelt, Vidal was named Director of Aeronautics in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. He then appeared on the cover of Time magazine (December 18, 1933). In his youth, Eugene had been a football star at West Point and competed in the decathlon in the Antwerp Olympic Games of 1920.

Had four goddaughters via the family of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman: Elinor Newman, born April 8, 1959; Melissa Newman, born September 27, 1961; Claire Newman, born April 21, 1965; Eva Amurri, born March 15; 1985. Remarking upon his numerous goddaughters, Gore reportedly quipped: "Always a godfather, never a god.".

When asked why he was running for governor of California against incumbent governor Jerry Brown, he replied that "the chance to compete against a Zen space cadet is too good to pass up.".

Unsold script: Wrote the script for a TV movie, "The Magical Monarch of Mo", based on the novel by L. Frank Baum, which was to star Groucho Marx in the title role. (1960)

Wrote under the literary pseudonyms of Edgar Box, Katherine Everard, and Cameron Kay.

Gore is his mother's maiden surname and was assumed in homage to his maternal grandfather Thomas Gore.

Won a National Book Award (1993) for his non-fiction collection "United States: Essays, 1952-1992".

In 1936, as a 10-year-old boy, he appeared in a Pathé Newsreel landing his father's light aircraft.

Was upset with the choice of Jerry Lewis as the lead in the movie version of Mince de planète (1960).

In the early 1970s, a Washington, D.C. television station named the host of their weekly horror movie slot Gore Dival.

In 1976, he accepted the Oscar for best writing-original screenplay on behalf of Frank Pierson, who wasn't present at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Uncle of Burr Steers, who is related on his mother's side to Thomas Jefferson's infamous vice president Aaron Burr, the subject of Vidal's best-selling novel "Burr" in 1973.

A 1995 BBC documentary on him, Gore Vidal's Gore Vidal Part 1 (1995), features La nuit des généraux (1967) among a montage of posters for films he is known to have contributed to as a writer, although, as with Ben-Hur (1959), he is not credited.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1960 Tony Award as author of Best Play for "The Best Man".

Gore's paternal grandfather, Felix Luther Vidal, was born in Wisconsin, to an Austrian immigrant father, Eugen Fidel Vidal, of Romansh heritage, and a Swiss immigrant mother, Emma de Traxler Hartmann, of Swiss-German descent. Gore's other ancestry was German, Scottish, English, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), and Irish.

Born at 10:00 A.M. (EST) on a Saturday morning in the hospital of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His pregnant mother was attending a football game when she went into labor. The child was delivered by Major Howard Snyder who happened to be officer of the day at the hospital. Later, Snyder became Surgeon General of the Army and Physician to the President for Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Uncle of Eric Vidal.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 132, pp. 395-409. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.

His surname is often slightly mispronounced, the proper way is to rhyme with "Hi Pal".