Novelist, playwright, screenwriter and essayist Gore Vidal died Tuesday from complications of pneumonia at his home in Los Angeles, his family said. He was 86.

Vidal, who applied his iconoclastic and sometimes scolding manner to politics as well as his writing, died at his home in the Hollywood Hills, his nephew, Burr Steers, told the Los Angeles Times.

In addition to historical novels on Abraham Lincoln and Aaron Burr, Vidal wrote satires, including "Myra Breckinridge," and plays, including "Visit to a Small Planet" and "The Best Man," which is enjoying a revival on Broadway.

He won a National Book Award in 1993 for "United States Essays, 1952-1992."

He received an Emmy nomination in 1986 for "Dress Gray," a murder mystery starring Eddie Albert, Lloyd Bridges, Hal Holbrook and Alec Baldwin set at a military academy.

Vidal was born Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, Oct. 3, 1925, in West Point, N.Y.

A Democrat, he ran for public office twice -- for the U.S. Senate in California and for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York.

His screenplay credits include "Suddenly, Last Summer" (1959), "Is Paris Burning?" (1966) and "Caligula" (1979). (c) tPC (c) UPI