Truman Capote Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote (; born Truman Streckfus Persons, September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1958) and the true crime novel "In Cold Blood" (1966), which he labeled a "nonfiction novel". At least 20 films and television dramas have been produced from his work. Capote rose above a childhood troubled by divorce, a long absence from his mother, and multiple migrations. He had discovered his calling as
Breakfast at Tiffany's (novella) by a Manhattan resident named Bonnie Golightly who claimed that he had based Holly on her. According to the biographer of Joan McCracken, McCracken had a violent dressing room outburst after learning of the wartime death of her brother, while she was appearing in the "Bloomer Girl" (1944). McCracken's biographer suggests that Capote was inspired by this event as a model for a scene in which Holly reacts to her brother's death overseas. McCracken and her husband Jack Dunphy were close friends of Capote, and Dunphy became Capote's life companion after his 1948 divorce from McCracken. In the novella, Holly