JOAN DIDION

(5 December 1934 - 23 December 2021)

The American writer Joan Didion, who has died aged 87 from complications following Parkinson's disease, was an author who studied at the University of California where she was sponsored by Vogue magazine and ended up working for the publication for seven years. She wrote novels and non-fiction, sometimes collaborating with her partner John Gregory Dunne whom she married in 1964. They worked on magazine articles together which paid for their houses in Los Angeles and, as well as writing novels, essays and memoirs, Didion and Dunne also wrote for the cinema.

Their first screenplay was The Panic in Needle Park in 1971, an adaptation of the novel about drug addiction by James Mills with Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Raul Julia and Paul Sorvino. Play It as It Lays (1972) was based on Didion’s own novel about a model-turned-actress who moves to Hollywood. Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins were the stars. Their version of A Star Is Born in 1976 was for Barbra Streisand and it also forms part of the basis of the recent version with Lady Gaga. True Confessions is an adaptation of Dunne's novel with Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall. Up Close and Personal is adapted from Alanna Nash's Golden Girl, The Story of Jessica Savitch, the TV news anchor, with Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer.

In 1966 Didion and Dunne adopted a daughter, Quintana. In 2003 Quintana caught pneumonia and was in intensive care when John Gregory Dunne died from a heart attack. The funeral was delayed for several months until Quintana was well enough to attend. In the meantime, Didion wrote a memoir on John and Quintana, The Year of Magical Thinking, which became an award-winning and best-selling book. Sadly, Quintana had an accident following her father's funeral. She fell and needed brain surgery and later died of pancreatitis aged just 39. Didion carried on writing, including a stage adaptation with David Hare of The Year of Magical Thinking which Vanessa Redgrave played on Broadway.

MICHAEL DARVELL