James Earle Breslin was an American journalist and author.
17 Facts About Jimmy Breslin
2.
Jimmy Breslin wrote numerous novels, and columns of his appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City.
3.
Jimmy Breslin served as a regular columnist for the Long Island newspaper Newsday until his retirement on November 2,2004, though he still published occasional pieces for the paper until his death.
4.
Jimmy Breslin was known for his newspaper columns that became the brash embodiment of the street-smart New Yorker, chronicling wise guys and big-city power brokers but always offered a sympathetic viewpoint of the white working-class people of New York City, and was awarded the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary "for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens".
5.
Jimmy Breslin was born on October 17,1928, into an Irish Catholic family in Jamaica, Queens, New York.
6.
Jimmy Breslin began working for the Long Island Press as a copy boy in the 1940s.
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Jimmy Breslin was a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, the Daily News, the New York Journal American, Newsday, The Daily Beast, the National Police Gazette and other venues.
8.
In 1969, Jimmy Breslin ran for president of the New York City Council in tandem with Norman Mailer, who was seeking election as mayor, on the unsuccessful independent 51st State ticket advocating secession of the city from the rest of the state.
9.
Jimmy Breslin suffered a major concussion, a minor concussion, three broken fingers, a fractured rib, a broken nose and nosebleeding, but survived the ordeal without any permanent injury.
10.
Jimmy Breslin filed a police report claiming Burke attacked him, but no charges were filed.
11.
Excerpts from the letters were published and used later in Spike Lee's film Summer of Sam, which Jimmy Breslin, portraying himself, bookends.
12.
Jimmy Breslin's performance received a Golden Turkey Award nomination for "Worst Performance by a Novelist".
13.
In 1986, Jimmy Breslin revealed that Donald Manes, the Borough President of Queens, was involved in a kickback scheme.
14.
Jimmy Breslin appeared on The Howard Stern Show to banter about his outburst and Koreans in general.
15.
Author and former FBI agent Robert K Ressler has stated that Breslin "baited Berkowitz and irresponsibly contributed to the continuation of his murders" by trying to sell sensationalist newspapers.
16.
From 1982 until his death in 2017, Jimmy Breslin had been married to former New York City Council member Ronnie Eldridge.
17.
Jimmy Breslin died from pneumonia on March 19,2017, at his home in Manhattan, aged 88.