Harold Robbins

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Harold Robbins (May 21, 1916 – October 14, 1997) was an American author.

Robbins, born Harold Rubin in New York City, claimed to be a Jewish orphan raised in a Catholic boys home but in actual fact, he was the son of well-educated Russian and Polish immigrants.^[1] He was reared by his pharmacist father and stepmother in Brooklyn. And his first wife wasn't a Chinese dancer who died from a parrot bite as he had also claimed. She was in fact merely his high school sweetheart ^[2] (when that marriage ended after 28 years, he married two more times.)

1 Work
2 Personal life
3 Selected bibliography
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Work

His first book, Never Love a Stranger (1948) created controversy with its graphic sexuality. Ian Parker says that according to Robbins, publisher Pat Knopf bought Never Love a Stranger because "it was the first time he had ever read a book where on one page you'd have tears and on the next page you'd have a hard-on".

The Dream Merchants (1949) was about Hollywood's film industry, from the first steps to sound era. Again Robbins blended his own experiences, historical facts, melodrama, sex, and action into a fast-moving story.

His 1952 novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher, was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole, which starred Elvis Presley.^[3]

He would become one of the world's bestselling authors, publishing over 20 books which were translated into 32 languages and sold over 750 million copies. Among his best-known books is The Carpetbaggers. It was loosely based on the life of Howard Hughes, taking the reader from New York to California, from the prosperity of the aeronautical industry to the glamor of Hollywood. Its sequel, The Raiders, appeared in 1995.

His often profane style was referenced in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, where Kirk cites his work to explain how people in the 20th century talk.

[edit] Personal life

Robbins was married five times. From 1982 he was obliged to use a wheelchair because of hip trouble, but continued writing.

He spent a great deal of time on the French Riviera and Monte Carlo until his death on October 14, 1997 from respiratory heart failure when he was 81. He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City) near Palm Springs, California. Since his death, several new novels have been released posthumously, finished by ghostwriters.

Harold Robbins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6743 Hollywood Boulevard.