Jim Carroll Had A Heart Attack, He Was 60-Years-Old

Writer Jim Carroll died of a heart attack Friday while working at his desk inside his Manhattan apartment at age 60. Carroll is most famous for writing The Basketball Diaries, the memoir turned Leonardo DiCaprio movie that chronicles his teenage years at Trinity, where he popped as many pills as he did jumpers. The book paints a colorful and vast portrait of the city from his experiences turning tricks for strangers in the Grand Central Station men's room to jumping off "The Rock" at Inwood Hill Park. Carroll drew the attention of the Beats for his poetry as a young teenager; Patti Smith recalls seeing him in 1970 saying, "Already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation." Smith led Carroll to music, where he released the punk classic Catholic Boy with the Jim Carroll Band (heard in E.T.!). While Diaries garnered Carroll the most attention, he shows why NYC in the '70s is romanticized the way it now is in Forced Entries, his follow-up memoir about working in Warhol's Factory and attempting to get clean. Carroll is survived by a his brother, Tom.