British-born author and screenwriter Gavin Lambert died of pulmonary fibrosis on Sunday, July 17, at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles. Lambert was a resident of West Hollywood for the last 10 years, after having spent more than a decade living in Tangier.
Following a stint as the editor of the British film publication Sight & Sound, Lambert came to Hollywood in the mid-1950s to work as an assistant to director Nicholas Ray. Lambert then turned to writing both novels (The Slide Area: Scenes of Hollywood Life, Inside Daisy Clover) and screenplays adaptations (Tennessee Williams' The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, his own Inside Daisy Clover). He received two Academy Award nominations as co-screenwriter for the adaptations of Sons and Lovers (1960) and I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977).
Lambert also wrote some of the best biographies about Hollywood personalities, including classy, incisive tomes on Norma Shearer and Alla Nazimova, and most recently, Natalie Wood.