Paul Rosenfield; Covered Hollywood for The Times

Paul Rosenfield, an author and journalist who covered Hollywood for the Los Angeles Times for more than 20 years, died Thursday in his Brentwood apartment. A coroner’s spokesman said the cause of death was suicide.

Rosenfield, 44, started his career in 1969 as a legman for Times gossip columnist Joyce Haber, and went on to become a leading profiler of Hollywood’s brightest stars.

In his 1992 book, “The Club Rules: Power, Money, Sex and Fear--How It Works in Hollywood,” he confided that he was such a fan of Tinseltown that he had offered to work for Haber for free.

“Had I any money at all,” he wrote, “I would have paid her. The job was the best gift I ever got.”

“He was a great writer and a great gentleman, and his knowledge of Hollywood and its history (was) profound,” said Irv Letofsky, who for years was Rosenfield’s editor at The Times. Letofsky called the journalist “gifted and anguished.”

In 1989, Rosenfield left The Times to work for Vanity Fair magazine under then-editor Tina Brown. At the time of his death, he was working on a biography of Katharine Hepburn for Warner Books.

Rosenfield is survived by his parents, Rosalind and Percy Rosenfield of Palm Desert, and his brother, John Rosenfield of Los Angeles.

Family members said funeral plans are pending. Donations may be made in lieu of flowers to the Rhonda Fleming Mann Women’s Cancer Clinic at UCLA.