26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Dennis McDougal, True-Crime Author and Muckraker of the Movie Industry, Dies at 77
Dennis McDougal, a prolific author, Hollywood muckraker and Peabody Award-winning documentarian, died on Saturday from injuries sustained in a car crash in Southern California. He was 77.
His death, in a hospital near Palm Springs, was confirmed by his stepson, Dennis Fitzgerald Dearmore. Mr. McDougal's wife, Sharon (Murphy) McDougal, 76, who was also critically injured in the crash, died at the hospital on Monday, Mr. Dearmore said.
Mr. McDougal's car was rear-ended in a collision involving multiple vehicles on Interstate 10 near Desert Center, in Riverside County. The couple were driving from their home in Memphis to Hawthorne, Calif., to spend time with their grandchildren.
Mr. McDougal was the author of more than a dozen books, including 'Angel of Darkness,' his first, published in 1991, about the serial killer Randy Kraft, and 'Five Easy Decades: How Jack Nicholson Became the Biggest Movie Star in Modern Times' (2008).
'The Last Mogul' (1998), about the talent agent and head of Universal Studios Lew R. Wasserman, was reviewed in The New York Times, which said that Mr. McDougal 'marshaled reams of documents and hundreds of interviews to show exactly how MCA used its muscle — from making friends with Presidents to strong-arming network executives and devising intricate tax shelters for star clients.' Mr. McDougal's biography of Bob Dylan was published in 2014. Credit... Trade Paper Press
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