Actress-Author Patricia Bosworth Dies From Coronavirus at 86

Patricia Bosworth in New York. Bosworth, an actress who once starred alongside Audrey Hepburn and later wrote biographies on several stars including Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift died on April 2, 2020. (Marty Reichenthal/AP/FILE)

LOS ANGELES—Patricia Bosworth died due to the CCP virus. She was 86.

Bosworth’s stepdaughter, Fia Hatsav, told The New York Times that pneumonia brought on by the virus was the cause of death. Bosworth died on Thursday in New York.

By Trailer screenshot (Breakfast at Tiffany's trailer) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

She was a faculty member of Columbia University’s school of journalism as well as Barnard College, and won the Front Page Award for writing about the Hollywood Blacklist.

The Blacklist, implemented during the cold war, involved the practice of denying employment to entertainment industry professionals believed to be or to have been Communists or sympathizers.

Her father, Bartley Crum,  gained notoriety for being one of the six lawyers who defended the Hollywood Ten during the Red Scare at the start of the Cold War in 1947.

Bosworth played a nun opposite of Hepburn in the 1959 classic “The Nun’s Story.” Along with penning bios for Brando and Clift, she also wrote biographies on actress Jane Fonda and famed photographer Diane Arbus, who photographed Bosworth in a Greyhound bus advertisement.

Her biography on Arbus served as the base for the 2006 film “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus,” which starred Nicole Kidman.

Nicole Kidman speaks at the 'Rabbit Hole' press conference during the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 14 in Toronto. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Under the tutelage of Lee Strasberg, Bosworth studied acting at the Actors Studio alongside Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and Fonda. Bosworth worked on Broadway and starred in television shows including “Naked City” and “The Patty Duke.”

Bosworth turned her attention from acting to focus on a career in journalism. She wrote for The New York Times and New York magazine, and was an editor for several publications including Screen Stars, McCall’s and contributed to Vanity Fair.

She wrote memoirs about her own life in 1998’s “Anything Your Little Heart Desires: An American Family Story“ and 2017’s “The Men in My Life: A Memoir of Love and Art in 1950s Manhattan.”

The Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.