“The Friday Afternoon Club”: Griffin Dunne on a literary family’s legacy

“I found myself telling stories,” said actor, producer and director Griffin Dunne. “And those stories were incredible. And I left people fascinated.”

And many of the stories involved people that other people had already heard of. “Yes,” he admitted. “But I didn’t want it to be some kind of name swap!”

And there was a very of names to be discarded.

Griffin Dunne grew up in California surrounded by the stories of his well-known literary family – his father, Dominick Dunne; his uncle, John Gregory Dunne; and his aunt, Joan Didion, were famous writers.

The family fortune came from his mother, Ellen Griffin Dunne. “My great-great grandfather (not sure how many greats were there!) started a company called Griffin Wheel Company,” Griffin said. “It was an empire. Every train in America had a Griffin wheel.”

Griffin’s new book, “The Friday Afternoon Club” (to be published June 11 by Penguin Press), is about his family. He narrates the good, the bad and the excessive.

Griffin’s father kept meticulous scrapbooks, including one from his parents’ tenth anniversary. “There would be no eleventh,” Griffin said.

Although the hosts were on the verge of divorce, seemingly all of Hollywood showed up: Billy Wilder, Angela Lansbury, Dennis Hopper, David Niven, Angie Dickinson. “It was a very extravagant ball,” Griffin said. “In our house they put a wooden floor over the pool for dancing.”

Too extravagant for Griffin and his younger brothers, Alex and Dominique. “They put my brother, sister and I in our pajamas and put us up in a hotel for the night,” Griffin said. “Yes. That’s how they rolled!”

But not by much. “When my parents got divorced, there were no more parties. My mother didn’t care about those things.”

At that time, his father’s brother, John Gregory Dunne, and his wife, Joan Didion, were on the Malibu coast. They were at the epicenter of cinema in the 70s and welcomed the new generation of Hollywood: Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Warren Beatty. “I was precocious enough to be invited to John and Joan’s parties,” Griffin said.

But Griffin dropped out of high school and headed East. “When I moved to New York, I was very — I don’t know, I guess embarrassed about growing up in Beverly Hills,” he said. “I wanted to invent myself. I wanted to be a theater actor.”

He it was a working actor, in a sense: “I was working at Radio City Music Hall as a popcorn concessionaire. That title actually exists! I had a paper hat, a little paper cadet hat!” he laughed.

Soon, her best friend, Carrie Fisher, came from California with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, who was starring in a musical on Broadway. “Debbie called me and said, ‘My daughter wants to move to New York, but I’m not going to let her live alone. You have to be her roommate.’ And so, we became roommates.”

He had a front row seat when Fisher made the decision to appear in a film about outer space. “She got this role in this movie and said, ‘It’s ridiculous. But I have to accept it!’” Dunne said.

In 1977, “Star Wars” broke box office records. “It was like the Beatles came back to life or something,” Dunne said.

The film turned Carrie Fisher into a household name. Dunne said: “It’s a very private thing when you have a best friend who becomes – suddenly, overnight – incredibly famous. It’s also very difficult when you they are that person who becomes incredibly famous.”

In 1981, Dunne starred in “An American Werewolf in London.” Dunne’s world was also about to change, but in a very different way.

Griffin’s younger sister, Dominique Dunne, also an actress (“Poltergeist”), was strangled by her ex-boyfriend in 1982. She was 22 years old. “My last phone call with her was, you know, I was going to the movies,” Griffin said. “And nothing was ever the same. We had never known violence coming into our home like that. We had never known loss, pain so immediate.”

Dominique’s killer was sentenced to six and a half years in prison. Throughout the trial, Griffin was in court during the day and on set at night, filming the comedy “Johnny Dangerously.” He said he was grateful to have a project like this to distract him.

He continued making films, starring in “Who’s That Girl” with Madonna and “After Hours” directed by Martin Scorsese.

In his book, Dunne writes, “I was too young to understand the gratitude for living the dream.”

He explained: “You kind of think, ‘Oh, this is going to happen again. Let the offers come.’ Some people just forget the hunger that got them there and I think I had some of that.”

Starting in the 90s, he directed a series of films, including “Practical Magic”. Most recently she directed a documentary about her aunt Joan Didion.

Watch the trailer for “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold”:

Asked what he thought about nepotism, Griffin Dunne responded: “It’s tough out there. If you’re good and you’re related to someone famous, it gets you in the door.”

Sanneh asked, “But do you understand why some people are bothered by this?”

“I understand why people would be,” Dunne said. “But I think who wouldn’t want to see Robert Downey? Oh, don’t you want to profit from my father? We would never get to see Robert Downey!”

At 69, Griffin Dunne, who once wanted to escape his family legacy, is now proud to be part of it.

Sanneh asked, “Do you still love show business?”

“Very. Very. Never, ever tired of show business,” he replied.

Why? “I love the people on the show,” Dunne said. “And I’m always up for a good story.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “The Friday Afternoon Club: Family Memoirs” by Griffin Dunne

For more information:

Story produced by Mary Raffalli. Editor: George Pozderec.