Dominique Ellen Dunne was an American actress. She appeared in several films and television series from 1979 to 1982. She was best known for portraying Dana Freeling in the 1982 horror film Poltergeist. On October 30, 1982, she was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, in the driveway of her West Hollywood home. She never regained consciousness and died five days later. Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Dunne’s death and served three and a half years in prison.
About Dominique Dunne in brief
Dominique Ellen Dunne was an American actress. She appeared in several films and television series from 1979 to 1982, but was best known for portraying Dana Freeling in the 1982 horror film Poltergeist. On October 30, 1982, she was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney, in the driveway of her West Hollywood home and went into a coma. She never regained consciousness and died five days later. In a controversial court case, Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Dunne’s death and served three and a half years in prison. Dunne appeared posthumously in the Hill Street Blues episode “Requiem For a Hairbag”, which aired two weeks after her death. She died during filming for the miniseries V, and her role was recast with actress Blair Tefkin. She was the niece of married novelists John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. Her godparents were Maria Cooper-Janis, daughter of actors Gary Cooper and Veronica “Rocky” Cooper, and producer Martin Manulis. Her parents divorced in 1967 and she was the youngest child of Ellen Beatriz “Lenny”, a ranching heiress, and Dominick Dunne, a writer, producer, and actor. She had two older brothers, Alexander “Alex” and Griffin Dunne,. She was also the youngest daughter of Alexander and Lenny Dunne. She attended Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, and Fountain Valley School in Fountain, Colorado. She studied acting at Milton Katselas’ Workshop and appeared in various stage productions including West Side Story, The Mousetrap, and My Three Angels.
Her first role was in the 1979 television film Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker. She then got supporting roles in episodes of popular 1980s television series such as Lou Grant, Hart to Hart and Fame. She also had a recurring role on the comedy-drama television series Breaking Away. In 1981 she was cast in her first feature film,Poltergeist, which went on to gross more than USD 70 million. She played a teenaged mother who was a victim of parental abuse and gives her baby up for adoption out of fear of repeating what her parents had done to her. In the final season premiere episode of CHiPs and the 1982 television film The Shadow Riders, starring Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott, she appeared in the scene in which the L.A. mother ship glide in on the day the Visitors first arrive. Her back is all that is seen in the DVD director’s commentary by series creator Kenneth Johnson, Dunne appears in a scene in where the Maxwells and others watch the mothership glide in. The film was dedicated to her in memoriam in the opening credits. The movie was her only theatrical film appearance before her death and was released on June 4, 1982. The couple’s relationship quickly deteriorated because of Sweeney’s possessiveness and jealousy. She fled to her mother’s house where Sweeney showed up and began to bang on the door and windows, demanding to be let in. A few days later Dunne returned home and continued their relationship.
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