Tom Green; Entertainment Writer for USA Today

Tom Green, a senior entertainment writer for USA Today who wrote everything from breezy celebrity profiles to serious stories on entertainment trends, has died of complications of pancreatitis. He was 55.

Green, of Woodland Hills, died Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center. “He was a consummate journalist and a gentle man,” USA Today Executive Editor Bob Dubill said in a statement.

Green had a sparse writing style that was always clear, and often wryly funny. He recently had this to say about “The Nutty Professor” and its impact on the career of Eddie Murphy: “It took a little computer magic heaped on the remake of a Jerry Lewis classic, but Murphy is finally back. We’re checking to see if this means he’s now an icon in France.”

Green opened USA Today’s Los Angeles bureau in 1982 and also served as Los Angeles bureau chief and entertainment editor. Previously, he was a news and feature writer for the Journal-Herald in Dayton, Ohio, and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside.

He later worked for The Sun-Telegram in San Bernardino, the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., and became a general feature columnist for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland. He returned to The Press-Enterprise in 1979 as an entertainment columnist before starting at USA Today.

Born in Indianapolis, Green attended Northwestern University and Indiana University, majoring in journalism and political science. At Indiana University, he was an Ernie Pyle scholar and editor of the Indiana Daily Student.

Green is survived by his wife, Julie, an editor for the Valley Edition of The Times; daughter, Megan, 20; and son, Ryan, 17.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Monday at 1 p.m. at St. Mel’s Catholic Church in Woodland Hills.