Trivia

Was featured in several haunted house books claiming he had an audio tape of a ghost who haunted Elke and his Beverly hills home at 2633 Benedict Canyon.

Studied martial arts under celebrated masters Ed Parker and Bruce Lee.

He and Elke Sommer were friends with Charles Manson murder victims, actress Sharon Tate and Hollywood hair stylist Jay Sebring. Joe was the one who introduced Sharon to Jay and the two (Sharon and Jay) became involved for a time.

Was the pipe-smoking syndicated Hollywood columnist for the "New York Herald Tribune" from 1951-64 and over the years interviewed the superstars of his day, including "A" list couples Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall; Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn; and Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. He later chronicled the Hollywood scene for the "Saturday Evening Post", "Ladies' Home Journal", "Redbook" and other magazines.

Was a bestselling author of books (over 25) ranging from biographies of Humphrey Bogart and James Dean (in tandem with son Jay) to Eastern philosophy.

Married four times; third wife was actress Elke Sommer.

Attended Harvard University before serving in the U.S. Army in 1942. While serving in the South Pacific, he received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star and later covered the war as a field correspondent for the army's "Stars and Stripes" newspaper. After the war he earned bachelor's and master's degrees at New York University, where he studied Hebrew.

His mother encouraged him to play the violin as a youngster. He flunked out of Brookline High School and worked loading furniture in the early days.

His writing about Cary Grant's supervised LSD experiments attracted a lawsuit, but was settled by his agreeing to work on Grant's memoirs.

He sometimes claimed that the ghost haunting his Hollywood mansion was that of its previous owner, MGM producer Nicholas Nayfack.

His 1969 non-fiction book "Accomplices to the Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal" served as the basis for the Robert Redford film Brubaker (1980).

Briefly married to a nurse during WWII, he subsequently married a model, Ellie, and lived a bohemian lifestyle in Greenwich Village.

Studied martial arts for more than 50 years.

Four children, two sons and two daughters: Jay, Chris, Beverly and Dianne.

Credited as co-author with producer Walter Wanger of "My Life With Cleopatra", even though the book purports to tell the story of the filming of "Cleopatra", Wanger's last and most famous film, in the form of a series of extracts from Wanger's private diaries. One reviewer caustically remarked that this was probably the first ever "as-told-to diary"; it is notable that there are several obvious factual errors in the book, such as referring to the legendary cameraman Jack Hildyard as "Hillyard" and to one of the film's three credited screenwriters, the well-known Ranald MacDougall, as "Randall" MacDougall.