Trivia

Won a Bronze Star for saving another soldier during the Battle of the Bulge.

He and wife Ellen Beatriz Griffin Dunne (known as "Lenny," from the second syllable of her first name, Ellen) had 5 children in a marriage which lasted fifteen years: 3 daughters and 2 sons. Two daughters died in infancy, and daughter Dominique Dunne was murdered in 1982, and sons Griffin Dunne and Alex survived to mature adulthood.

His "big break" in the literary world came by chance: he was seated next to Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown at a dinner party.

Father of actor/director/writer Griffin Dunne, Dominique Dunne and Alexander Dunne.

Was good friends with Alfred Hitchcock and Graydon Carter.

Graduated from Williams College.

In his autobiography, "The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well Known Namedropper", Dunne described the following incident. In 1955, he had been the stage manager for a musical version of the play "Our Town," produced for television (as Our Town (1955)). Frank Sinatra introduced the song "Love and Marriage" in the show. Fourteen years later Dunne and his wife were in a restaurant when a waiter punched his head. He then saw Sinatra staring at him from a table, seated with some people. Dunne asked the waiter how much money Sinatra had paid him "to slug me." The waiter told him fifty dollars. Dunne and his wife left the restaurant and never went back to it.

Older brother of John Gregory Dunne.

Brother-in-law of Joan Didion.

Father-in-law of Carey Lowell (during her marriage to son Griffin).

Grandfather of Hannah Dunne.