Dominique Ellen Dunne (1959 - 1982)

Born 23 Nov 1959 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States

Ancestors

Died 4 Nov 1982 at age 22 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

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This profile is part of the Dunn Name Study.

Dominique Dunne is Notable.

Biography

Best known for her role as Dana Freeling in director Steven Spielberg's 1982 film Poltergeist, actress Dominique Ellen Dunne (November 23, 1959 - November 4, 1982) was the daughter of TV producer and writer Dominick Dunne and Ellen Beatriz "Lenny" Griffin, a ranching heiress.

Dominique grew up in Los Angeles with two older brothers, Alexander "Alex" Dunne and Thomas Griffin Dunne. She is the niece of novelists John Gregory Dunne (1932 - 2003) and Joan Didion (1934 - present). Dominique's famous aunt Joan became an award-winning writer for Vogue during the 1960s and a leader of the "New Journalism" movement.

Dominique's brother, actor Griffin Dunne, gained fame in 1981 as the star of An American Werewolf in London (1981). Griffin's wife, actress Carey Lowell, is well known for her work as Bond girl Pam Bouvier in the film Licence to Kill (1989). Their daughter (Dominique's niece) Hannah Dunne plays Elizabeth "Lizzie" Campbell in the Amazon TV series Mozart in the Jungle.

Throughout her early childhood Dominique Dunne was surrounded by many well known actors, writers and artists from Hollywood. A childhood photo shows her meeting the Beatles.

Her parents divorced in 1967.

Dunne attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, and the Fountain Valley School of Colorado in Fountain, Colorado. While attending FVS she participated in several theatre productions, notably appearing opposite Tony Goldwyn in a high school production of Agatha Christie's play "The Mousetrap."

After graduation, Dominique spent a year in Florence, Italy. She learned Italian.

Returning to the United States, Dunne decided to take acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse (BHP) Acting School, and she joined workshop classes run by legendary acting coach Milton Katselas.

With expert advice on how to pitch her CV to local talent agencies, Dominique soon had offers. Over the next two years, she appeared in at least 15 popular television movies and programs of the early 1980s, notably

• Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker (dir. Ted Post, 1979)
• Family, S5 E4 "When The Bough Breaks" (aired 21 January 1980).
• Valentine Magic on Love Island (TV movie, 1980)
• Lou Grant, S4 E5 "Goop" (aired 24 November 1980)
• Breaking Away S1 E2, E5, E6 (TV Series, aired November 1980 - January 1981)
• CBS Children's Mystery Theatre, S2 E1 "The Haunting of Harrington House" (aired 8 Sept 1981)
• Unit 4 (TV Movie, 1981)
• The Day The Loving Stopped (TV movie, opposite Valerie Harper and Dennis Weaver, 1981)
• Fame S1 E8 "Street Kid" (aired 25 Feb 1982)
• Hart to Hart S3 E20 "Hart, Line and Sinker" (aired 30 March 1982)
• The Shadow Riders (a 1982 made-for-TV Civil War drama in which Dominique starred opposite Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott, and Katharine Ross)
• CHiPs S6 E1 "Meet The New Guy" (aired 10 October 1982, two weeks before Dominique's death)
• The Quest S1 E3 "He Stole-A My Art" (aired 5 November 1982, the day after Dominique's death on November 4).
• Hill Street Blues S3 E8 "Requiem for a Hair Bag" (aired 18 November 1982).

Dunne was strangled in her driveway on 30 October 1982 by an angry ex-boyfriend. She was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and placed on life support. She never regained consciousness and did not respond to efforts at revival. Scans showed that, due to oxygen deprivation, she had no brain activity.

On November 4, her parents consented to have her removed from life support. Her mother asked that Dominique's kidneys and heart be donated to transplant recipients.

Dominique was buried 6 November 1982 at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Dunne was 22 years old when she died.

The events that led to her death have been the subject of several news reports and books. The night of the assault, Dunne was at her West Hollywood home rehearsing for the miniseries V with actor David Packer.

Their rehearsal was interrupted by Dunne's ex-boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, who came to the door and demanded to see Dominique. She went out on the porch to send him away. A loud argument ensued. When David Packer heard volent blows, he called the police.

According to responding officers, they found Sweeney standing by Dunne's unconscious body in her driveway. A spokesman for the West Hollywood sheriff later told reporters that Sweeney had said "I killed my girlfriend.”

Deputy Frank DeMilio, the first officer to arrive at the scene, testified that Sweeney told him, "Man, I blew it. I killed her. I didn't think I choked her that hard, but I don't know, I just kept on choking her. I just lost my temper and blew it again."

The medical examiner that performed Dunne's autopsy determined the victim had been strangled for at least three minutes. Given the results of the autopsy, police and prosecutors dismissed the defense's argument that Sweeney acted unconsciously. They concluded that, in the three minutes Sweeney strangled the victim, he had ample opportunity to regain control of his actions, which might have saved Dunne's life.

He was immediately arrested and charged with attempted murder. After Dunne's death, those charges were dropped and Sweeney was charged with first-degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty.

During a preliminary trial hearing, Sweeney admitted that he and Dunne had had a physical altercation on September 26, 1982, the day before she filmed a Hill Street Blues episode. A make-up artist from the set later told reporters that the bruises on her throat were real. In video from that episode, Dunne appears with visible bruises on her face and body. Sweeney denied assaulting Dunne, however, claiming she accidentally incurred the bruises when he tried to prevent her from leaving their home.

To establish a history of Sweeney's violent behavior, the prosecution called one of Sweeney's ex-girlfriends, Lillian Pierce, to testify. Pierce, who, at the request of Sweeney's attorney, did not testify in the jury's presence, stated that she and Sweeney had dated on and off from 1977 to 1980. Pierce claimed that during the relationship, Sweeney had assaulted her on ten separate occasions, and as a result, she was hospitalized twice for the injuries she sustained. During one such assault, Pierce sustained a perforated eardrum and a collapsed lung. She later suffered a broken nose.

During Pierce's testimony, Sweeney became enraged, jumped up from his seat, and ran towards the door leading to the judge's chambers. He was subdued by two bailiffs and four armed guards. Sweeney was then handcuffed to his chair and began to cry. He apologized to the court for the outburst, which Judge Bernard S. Katz accepted.

Attorney Michael Adelson requested that Judge Katz rule Pierce's testimony inadmissible, as it was "prejudicial.” Judge Katz granted the request, and the jury only learned of Pierce's testimony after the trial.

Katz also refused to allow testimony from Dunne's mother, Ellen Dunne, as well as Dunne's friends, citing their statements about Sweeney's abusive nature as hearsay.

On August 29, defense attorney Michael Adelson requested that Judge Katz rule the court lacked sufficient evidence to try Sweeney on the charge of first-degree murder, as predetermination was not established. Judge Katz granted the request, and as such, jurors were instructed to consider the charges of manslaughter or second-degree murder.

On September 21, 1983, after eight days of deliberation, the jury acquitted John Sweeney of second-degree murder but found him guilty of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. He was also convicted of misdemeanor assault for the altercation with Dunne that occurred on September 26, 1982.

Dunne's family were outraged by the verdict, calling it an "injustice." Victims for Victims, a rights group organized by actress Theresa Saldana, protested the verdict by staging a march outside the courthouse.

Dominique's father, Dominick Dunne, was urged by Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown to keep a journal during the trial. He gave a detailed account of the family's ordeal to Vanity Fair magazine, and his article, titled Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of His Daughter's Killer appeared in the March 1984 issue.

Dominique's mother, Ellen Dunne, decided that she wanted to help other parents who had lost children to murder. She established a nonprofit advocacy organization, Justice for Homicide Victims, in 1985. Nearly 40 years later, JHV continues to operate a hotline and continues to provide legal aid and grief counselling to mothers who have lost children to murder.

Dominick Dunne went on to become a regular correspondent for Vanity Fair, specializing in high society scandals and murders. He became the author of several novels.

His personal memoir, The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well Known Name Dropper (New York: Crown, 1999) provides photographs of Dominique during her childhood, and a vivid recollection of their family life together during happier days.

Sources

• Dominique Dunne - Wikipedia
• Dominick Dunne - Wikipedia
• Dominique Dunne - Internet Movie Database (IMdB)
• Fact: http://familysearch.org/v1/LifeSketch Dominique Dunne
• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 10 January 2018, 20:07), entry for (Dominique) Ellen Dunne II(PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LZFS-W8L); contributed by various users.
• Find A Grave, database and images (accessed 24 November 2019), memorial page for Dominique Ellen Dunne (23 Nov 1959–4 Nov 1982), Find A Grave: Memorial #1445, citing Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.
• Starlog Magazine, Issue 75 (28 November 2012), page 8, notes in a letter to the editor that Dominique Dunne's name appears among the end credits for the sci-fi television series "V" and asks why. The editor explains the circumstances surrounding her death, and notes that she was replaced in the role of Julie Parrish by actress Faye Grant. He adds that Dominique's brother, Griffin Dunne, also dedicated the 1985 film Baby, It's You to the memory of Dominique.

Books

Brode, Douglas. The Films of Steven Spielberg (New York: Carol Publishing, 1995). See "Poltergeist" p. 101.

Culbertson, Judi. Permanent Californians: An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of California (Chelsea, Vermont: Chelsea Green Pub. Co., 1989), mentions Dominique's memorial at Westwood Memorial Park on p. 27.

Dunne, Dominick. Fatal Charms and Other Tales of Today (New York: Crown, 1987). A collection of Dunne's stories from Vanity Fair magazine. See Ch. 1 "Justice: A Father's Account of the Trial of His Daughter's Killer."

Dunne, Dominick. The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper (New York: Crown, 1999). Contains many photos of Dominique Dunne and her siblings as children.

Gianakos, Larry James. Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1980 - 1982 (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1983). Mentions Dominique Dunne on pp. 155, 191.

Katz, Burton S. Justice Overruled: Unmasking the Criminal Justice System (New York: Warner Books, 1998). In this memoir, Judge Burton S. Katz says, bluntly, that "John Sweeney got away with murder" (page 28). He tries to explain why he believes he had no choice in the ruling.

Roeper, Richard. Hollywood Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Delightfully Persistent Myths of Film, Television and Music (Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books, 2001). See The Curse of Poltergeist, pp. 127-128.

Tamblyn, Amber. Dark Sparkler (New York: HarperPerennial, 2015). Poetry Foundation member Amber Tamblyn renders colorful and impressionistic portraits of the lives of 25 actresses who died young. Dominique's profile is on page 24.

Podcast: Done & Dunne

• Introducing Done & Dunne - Spotify (8 Feb 2021)
• Dominique Dunne - Episode 3 of Done & Dunne - Spotify (1 March 2021)
• The Trial of Dominique Dunne's Killer, Part One - Episode 8 of Done & Dunne - Spotify (12 April 2021)
• The Trial of Dominique Dunne's Killer, Part Two - Episode 10 of Done & Dunne - Spotify (26 April 2021)