Born in
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, Hack attended the Lynnewood School, and
Haverford High School, on the
Main Line in suburban
Philadelphia. He later attended
Pennsylvania State University and holds a master's degree in
Environmental Design. Hack moved to
Los Angeles where he was hired by
TV Guide magazine as its West Coast national programming editor. By the early 1980s, Hack began writing the TeleVisions column for the daily entertainment trade paper,
The Hollywood Reporter. During the next decade, Hack often appeared on
The Tonight Show and
Today reporting on
Hollywood. During the same period, he was a frequent guest on
Oprah Winfrey, Good Morning America, Larry King Live, Charlie Rose, Tomorrow, Entertainment Tonight, and
Access Hollywood. In 1990, Hack left
The Hollywood Reporter to become Vice President of Creative Affairs at Dove Audio and Entertainment, a production company that specialized in
miniseries and
books-on-tape. While at Dove, Hack adapted
Sidney Sheldon’s
The Sands of Time,
Memories of Midnight, and
The Stars Shine Down as mini-series, which he also produced, and wrote his first book,
Next to Hughes with
Robert Maheu. Since leaving Dove, Hack moved to a horse ranch in
Maui, where he stabled polo ponies, and established a home on the Intracoastal in
Florida. His bestseller
Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters, a memoir on billionaire
Howard Hughes, was released on September 11, 2001. Hack was being interviewed live on the
Today show by
Matt Lauer when
the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, and Lauer consequently had to cut their interview short to report on the ongoing events. The abrupt ending of their interview and the early reports of the attack from the
Today show, is shown in a continuous loop, as part of an exhibit in the
National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City. His subsequent book,
PuppetMaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover was the basis of the 2011 film
J. Edgar, directed by
Clint Eastwood. ==Published works==