True Confessions author dies

John Gregory Dunne, a screenwriter and best-selling author who often collaborated with his wife, Joan Didion, and took a cynical look at Hollywood and the Roman Catholic Church in works like True Confessions, has died at 71.

Dunne, who had a history of heart trouble, collapsed and died at his New York flat on Tuesday night, said his older brother, writer Dominick Dunne.

The grandson of an Irish immigrant, Dunne often focused on the Irish-American experience, particularly in his novel, True Confessions, a 1977 book about a Los Angeles murder and its effect on two Irish-Catholic brothers, one a detective, the other a priest, neither untainted by corruption.

Robert De Niro and Robert Duvall starred in the film.