Actors - John Gilmore

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	Actors - John Gilmore

John "Jonathan" Gilmore (born 1935 in Los Angeles, California) is an American novelist and journalist.

John Gilmore was born and raised in Hollywood, his mother had been a studio contract-player for MGM and his father a frustrated actor who became a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer. A child actor, Gilmore appeared in a Gene Autry movie, then through his father, acting jobs in LAPD safety films that led to appearances in other commercial films. As a young man, Gilmore acted on stage and in film, wrote poetry and screenplays, directed a low-budget film but eventually settled into a career as journalist, true crime writer and novelist. He served as head of the writing program at Antioch University and has taught and lectured at length.

Part of the "Beat Generation," while living in New York City in the Spring of 1953, a mutual friend introduced Gilmore to actor James Dean. Gilmore and Dean became good friends and after he returned home to Hollywood, they renewed their friendship, riding motorcycles together with a select group of friends in leather jackets referred to as the "Night Watch." Gilmore was around Dean at the time the young star was making the film, Rebel Without a Cause
, and both were friends with Eartha Kitt. In his first book on Dean, The Real James Dean, published in 1976, Gilmore caused considerable controversy when he stated that their friendship involved an experimentation with bisexuality.

After writing a series of sexy action pulp novels in the 1960's under the pseudonym Neil Egri and Mort Gillian, in 1970 Gilmore published The Tucson Murders, Dial Press, New York, a hardcover nonfiction true crime detailing the life and crimes of Charles Schmid, the "notorious pied piper of Tucson." Following this, Gilmore published his second nonfiction, The Garbage People, a hardcover exploration into the lives of Charles Manson and the Family. A few years before the so-called Manson Murders, and while an actor, Gilmore met actress Sharon Tate at 20th Century Fox studios. Writing on his website [http://www.johngilmore.com/Celebrities/salmineo.html about Sal Mineo, Gilmore says of Dean's other co-stars in Rebel Without A Cause that Dean avoided both Nick Adams and Natalie Wood and that "once off the set, he went out of his way to go in the opposite direction." Also a friend of another Rebel co-star, Dennis Hopper, Gilmore hung out with him in Hollywood and also in New York City.

Later in the 1950s, John Gilmore spent time in Paris, France where he met William S. Burroughs and wrote a novel that was opted by Henry Miller's publisher, Olympia Press. However, the book was not released until 1994 when an American publisher acquired the rights. Gilmore says, "The novel underwent a number of changes in those decades but the guts remained the same." John Gilmore published his first account on 60s cult leader and convicted murderer, Charles Manson in 1971 titled The Garbage People. Modestly successful, it gained a much larger audience through a 1996 re-release, and, as most of Gilmore's books, remains in print. In 1994, Gilmore wrote a book that chronicled the famous Black Dahlia unsolved homicide. Occurring in 1947, at a time when his father was on the police force, Gilmore's book Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia Murder earned him wide recognition. According to the Publishers Weekly review, in the book "Gilmore presents evidence that strengthens the LAPD's case against chief suspect Jack Wilson, a reclusive, alcoholic burglar and possible serial killer." Marilyn Manson, who made paintings based on photos from the book, said: "SEVERED is my favorite book... John Gilmore is my favorite writer. It has been my desire to direct SEVERED as a movie ... my directorial debut ...". Despite Manson's wish, it was director David Lynch who acquired the screen rights.

John Gilmore's second 1996 release received praise from the New York Times Book Review for his story on the life and crimes of multiple murderer, Charles Schmid. In 1997's "Laid Bare," his first book of memoirs, Gilmore recounts his associations beginning in the 1960s with Janis Joplin, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Brigitte Bardot, Jean Seberg, and other personalities.

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