John "Jonathan" Gilmore (July 5, 1935 – October 13, 2016) was an American author and gonzo journalist known for iconoclastic Hollywood memoirs, true crime literature and hard-boiled fiction.
A motion picture, television and stage actor in Los Angeles and New York in the 1950s, Gilmore has also written about his encounter with Elizabeth Short a.k.a. "The Black Dahlia" during his youth. Gilmore emerged as a writer from the Beat Generation in the '60s, influenced by Jack Kerouac and befriended by author William S. Burroughs. The publication of his true crime book "Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia," ushered in a cult following for the author. His manuscripts and original writings are housed in the special collections department of the Research Library of the University of California at Los Angeles.
Biography
John Gilmore was born in the Charity Ward of the Los Angeles County General Hospital and was raised in Hollywood. His mother had been a studio contract-player for MGM while his step-grandfather worked as head carpenter for RKO Pictures. Gilmore's parents separated when he was six months old and he was subsequently raised by his grandmother. Gilmore's father became a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer, and also wrote and acted on radio shows, a police public service (the shows featured promising movie starlets as well as established performers like Bonita Granville, Ann Rutherford, the "jungle girl" Acquanetta, Joan Davis, Hillary Brooke, Ann Jeffreys, Brenda Marshall and other players young John Gilmore became acquainted with. As a child actor, he appeared in a Gene Autry movie and bit parts at Republic Studios. He worked in LAPD safety films and did stints on radio. Eventually he appeared in commercial films. Actors Ida Lupino and John Hodiak were mentors to Gilmore, who worked in numerous television shows and feature films at Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Universal International studios.
During the 1950s, through John Hodiak, Gilmore sustained an acquaintanceship with Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood, then in New York City, where Gilmore was involved with the Actors Studio, transcribing the lectures of Lee Strasberg into book form. Gilmore performed on stage and in live TV, wrote poetry and screenplays, and directed two experimental plays, one by Jean Genet. He wrote and directed a low-budget film entitled "Expressions," later changed to "Blues for Benny." The film did not get a general release but was shown independently. After five years in which he wrote a dozen motion picture scripts and developed film projects with director Curtis Harrington, Gilmore eventually settled into a literary career as a journalist, true crime writer and novelist. He served as head of the writing program at Antioch University and has taught and lectured at length.
Acting and writing careers
Gilmore's acting career consisted mainly of guest spots on many of the most popular shows of the time such as Bonanza and Naked City, but it was his offscreen exploits which made him a familiar face to audiences. While Gilmore was living in New York City in the spring of 1953, a mutual friend, movie bit-player and extra, Ray Curry, introduced him to actor James Dean. Gilmore and Dean developed a friendship along with TV director James Sheldon, Eartha Kitt, and Broadway director, John Stix. After Gilmore returned to Hollywood, the friendship with James Dean was renewed, Eartha Kitt sometimes making it a trio in riding motorcycles along Sunset Boulevard. Gilmore and Dean also rode their motorcycles along Pacific Coast Highway, often at speeds in excess of the posted limits.
As a select group of friends in leather jackets, hanging out nights at Googies Coffee Shop on Sunset, next door to Schwab's Drugstore, Dean, Gilmore and others were referred to as the "Night Watch," as reported in The Hollywood Reporter during April, 1955, and the Hollywood Citizen News during May, 1955, at the time Dean was starring in the film, Rebel Without a Cause. In his first book on Dean, The Real James Dean, published in 1975, Gilmore caused considerable controversy when he stated that their friendship involved an experimentation with homosexuality. In 1997, Gilmore wrote a second, more detailed book on his relationship with James Dean, entitled Live Fast, Die Young: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean. Author Donald Spoto interviewed Gilmore about Dean for his bio Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean, as other authors, i.e. Joe Hyams, Val Holley, Paul Alexander, Liz Sheridan had interviewed Gilmore previously.