Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin
Breslin at the 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival
Born	James Earle Breslin (1928-10-17)October 17, 1928 Jamaica, Queens, New York City
Died	March 19, 2017(2017-03-19) (aged 88) Manhattan, New York City
Occupation	Reporter, columnist, novelist, screenwriter, playwright, actor
Notable awards	George Polk Award Pulitzer Prize
Spouse	Rosemary Dattalico (1954–her death 1981) Ronnie Eldridge (1982–his death 2017)
Children	James Breslin Kevin Breslin Rosemary Breslin Patrick Breslin Kelly Breslin Christopher Breslin

James Earle "Jimmy" Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York Daily News Sunday edition. He wrote numerous novels, and columns of his appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City. He 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. He was known for his newspaper columns which offered a sympathic viewpoint of the working class people of New York City.

Breslin was born on October 17, 1928, in Jamaica, New York. His alcoholic father, James Earl Breslin, a piano player, went out one day to buy rolls and never returned. Breslin and his sister, Deirdre, were raised by their mother, Frances (Curtin), a high school teacher and New York City Welfare Department investigator, during the Great Depression.

Breslin attended Long Island University from 1948 to 1950. He left without graduating.

Breslin began working for the Long Island Press as a copy boy in the 1940s. After leaving college, he became a columnist. His early columns were attributed to politicians and ordinary people that he chatted with in various watering holes near Queens Borough Hall. Breslin was a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, the Daily News, the New York Journal American, Newsday, and other venues. When the Sunday supplement of the Tribune was reworked into New York magazine by editor Clay Felker in 1962, Breslin appeared in the new edition, which became "the hottest Sunday read in town."