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Elaine Dundy (born Elaine Brimberg in 1927 in New York City, New York) is an American novelist, biographer, journalist, actress and playwright. Dundy was born into a prosperous Jewish family, brought up in a Park Avenue home and educated by a governess. An honors graduate from Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia, she studied acting at drama school with future stars Rod Steiger, Tony Curtis and others. Her sister, Shirley Clarke, was a leading independent filmmaker and a professor of film at UCLA. At the end of World War II, Dundy traveled to Europe, first to live in Paris, France before settling in London, England, where, in 1950, she met the theater critic Kenneth Tynan. Two weeks later, they began living together. They married in January of 1951, had a daughter, and became part of the theatrical and film elite of London and Hollywood, traveling about as friends of Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and other famed figures. In 1955, Dundy and Tynan appeared together on camera, hosting the "Madrid Bullfight" episode of Around the World with Orson Welles, the documentary series Welles directed for British television. Among her roles as an actress, she appeared in "The Scream," a 1953 episode of the TV series Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents. In 1958, Dundy published her first novel at a time when drugs, alcohol, and extramarital affairs meant her marriage was falling apart. She went on to eventually beat her addictions and to establish a successful career as an author. In 1962, she was a writer for the BBC's satirical That Was the Week That Was. In addition to novels and short stories, Dundy has written for The New York Times . She is noted for her books on actor Peter Finch, the city of Ferriday, Louisiana, and Elvis Presley, about whom she said, "Prior to 1977, I didn't know that Elvis was alive until he died". Her books are respected for their independent views, attention to detail and thorough research. As part of her research for the Presley book, Dundy moved from her luxurious suites in London and New York to live for five months in Presley's birthplace of Tupelo, Mississippi. Elvis and Gladys was first published by Macmillan in 1985 (reissued in 2004 by the University Press of Mississippi). The Boston Globe hailed it as "nothing less than the best Elvis book yet." Kirkus Reviews described it as "the most fine-grained Elvis bio ever." A resident of London and Los Angeles, Elaine Dundy published her autobiography, Life Itself!, in 2001. Her 1964 novel, The Old Man and Me, was reissued in 2005 by the feminist publishing company, Virago Press, and that same year, she wrote the introduction for Virago's reprint of Daphne du Maurier's 1932 novel, I'll Never Be Young Again.
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