Broadway lights to be dimmed for Vidal

NEW YORK, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- The Broadway community says it will mourn the death of writer Gore Vidal by dimming the marquees of its theaters for a minute Friday evening.

Vidal died Tuesday from complications of pneumonia at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86.

"For over six decades, Gore Vidal never stopped writing novels, memoirs, plays, essays and screenplays, and was a ubiquitous cultural commentator. His plays were timely and timeless, as evidenced by the current production of 'The Best Man' now playing on Broadway. Our thoughts go out to his friends, family, and fans," Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, said in a statement Wednesday.

Vidal was an American writer who wrote plays, television dramas and screenplays, and published 25 novels, two memoirs and several volumes of essays. He was known for such best-selling novels as "Burr" and "Myra Breckenridge," the plays "Visit to a Small Planet" and "The Best Man," and for essays on subjects from politics and literature to sex and religion.