NEW YORK (August 26, 2009)--Best-selling author and journalist Dominick Dunne died Wednesday at 83.

His son, actor-director Griffin Dunne, said that Dunne had battled bladder cancer for some time.

He died at his home in Manhattan.

Dunne didn't let his cancer stop him from working.

In September, against his doctor's orders and his family's wishes, he flew to Las Vegas to attend O.J. Simpson's kidnap-robbery trial, a postscript to his coverage of Simpson's 1995 murder trial that spiked Dunne's fame.

Born in 1925 in Hartford, Conn., Dunne was part of a famous family that included his brother, novelist and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne; his brother's wife, author Joan Didion; and his son, Griffin.

His actress daughter, Dominique Dunne, was slain in 1982 when she was 22.