Harold Robbins

Harold Robbins May 21 1916 October 14 1997 was an American author of popular novels One of the bestselling writers of all time he wrote over 25 bestsellers selling over 750 million copies in 32 languages Robbins was born Harold Rubin in New York City in 1916 the son of Frances Fannie Smith and Charles Rubin His parents were welleducated Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire his father from Odessa and his mother from Neshwies Nyasvizh south of Minsk Robbins later falsely claimed to be a Jewish orphan who had been raised in a Catholic boys home Instead he was raised by his father a pharmacist and his stepmother Blanche in Brooklyn Robbins dropped out of high school in the late 1920s to work in a variety of jobs including errand boy bookies runner and inventory clerk in a grocers He was employed by Universal Pictures from 1940 to 1957 starting off as a clerk and rising to an executive His first book was Never Love a Stranger 1948 The Dream Merchants 1949 was a novel about the American film industry from its beginning to the sound era in which Robbins blended his own life experiences with history melodrama sex and glossy high society into a fastmoving story His 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole which starred Elvis Presley Among his bestknown books is The Carpetbaggers featuring a protagonist who was a loose composite of Howard Hughes Bill Lear Harry Cohn and Louis B Mayer The Carpetbaggers takes the reader from New York to California from the prosperity of the aeronautical industry to the glamor of Hollywood Its sequel The Raiders was released in 1995 After The Carpetbaggers and Where Love Has Gone 1962 came The Adventurers 1966 based on Robbinss experiences living in South America including three months spent in the mountains of Colombia with a group of bandits The book was adapted into a film in 1970 also titled The Adventurers He created the ABC television series The Survivors 19691970 starring Ralph Bellamy and Lana Turner Robbins editors included Cynthia White and Michael Korda and his literary agent was Paul Gitlin Source Article Harold Robbins from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30