Author Dominick Dunne dies of cancer at 83

Dominick Dunne (pictured), known as a society crime writer, had an uncanny knack for getting celebrities to open up about their private lives.

He was a former Hollywood producer and best-selling author known for his Vanity Fair essays on the courtroom travails of the rich and famous.

Dunne hosted a crime TV series called Power, Privilege and Justice on Court TV (now called True TV) .

He flew to Germany earlier this month for another round of stem cell treatments at the same Bavarian clinic where the late Farrah Fawcett was treated. He was hospitalized upon his return to New York, then sent home.

As a correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, Dunne was a fixture at some of the most famous trials of our times -- Claus von Bulow, William Kennedy Smith, the Menendez brothers, O.J. Simpson, Michael Skakel and Phil Spector.

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