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Harold Robbins

Harold Robbins

Writing

Biography

Harold Robbins (May 21, 1916 – October 14, 1997) was an American author of popular novels. One of the best-selling writers of all time, he wrote over 25 best-sellers, 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 well-educated 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 fast-moving story. His 1952 novel, A Stone for Danny Fisher, was adapted into a 1958 motion picture King Creole, which starred Elvis Presley. Among his best-known 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 Robbins's 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 (1969-1970), 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 CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
7.5

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

1962
Apostrophes
8.5

Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.

Apostrophes

1975
Nevada Smith
6.7

Nevada Smith is the young son of an Indian American mother and European-American father. When his father is killed by three men over gold, Nevada sets out to find them and kill them. The boy is taken in by a gun merchant. The gun merchant shows him how to shoot and to shoot on time and correct.

Nevada Smith

1966
The Dream Merchants
5.7

This star-laden adaptation of Harold Robbins' best-selling 1949 novel about the birth of the movies features Mark Harmon as a drifter who comes under the wing of visionary nickelodeon operator Vincent Gardenia and goes on to become a pioneer in the incipient film business, facing the good times and the bad over a 20-year period.

The Dream Merchants

1980
Harold Robbins' The Survivors
9.0

The Survivors is a high-profile prime time soap opera aired by the ABC television network as part of its Fall 1969 lineup. This program is probably most noted now for having been the only appearance as a regular series character of major Hollywood actress Lana Turner, and also starred other "big names" such as Jan-Michael Vincent, Ralph Bellamy, Diana Muldaur, George Hamilton, Clu Gulager, and Natalie Schafer. Despite their presence, and that above the title of bestselling author Harold Robbins, since the characters were from his novel of the same name, the program was a ratings fiasco, losing badly to Mayberry R.F.D. and The Doris Day Show on CBS and The NBC Monday Movie on NBC. A program as expensive to produce as this one must garner large ratings in order to be successful, so it was cancelled at midseason, although it was rerun the following summer in an attempt to recoup at least some of the investment.

Harold Robbins' The Survivors

1969
The Carpetbaggers
5.9

Jonas Cord is a disagreeable young tycoon who's building planes, directing films, and catting around on the corporate make in 1930s Hollywood.

The Carpetbaggers

1964
The Pirate
5.0

An Israeli man, raised by a wealthy and powerful Arab, comes into conflict with his heritage when he is entrusted with managing his country's oil fortunes and must deal with a fanatical terrorist group led by his daughter.

The Pirate

1977
The Adventurers
4.7

The wealthy playboy son of an assassinated South American diplomat discovers that his father was murdered on orders of the corrupt president of the country- a man who was his father's friend and who, in fact, his father had helped put into power. He returns from living a jet-set life in Europe to lead a revolution against the government, only to find out that things aren't quite as black and white as he'd assumed.

The Adventurers

1970
The Lonely Lady
4.7

A young screenwriter allows others to exploit her in the hopes of "making it" in Hollywood.

The Lonely Lady

1983
The Betsy
4.6

Ruthless patriarch Loren hires racecar driver Angelo to build a more efficient vehicle against the wishes of his grandson. But things get even messier when Angelo romances two women in Loren's life -- his great-granddaughter and his grandson's mistress.

The Betsy

1978
The Pirate
4.5

An Israeli man, raised by a wealthy and powerful Arab, comes into conflict with his heritage when he is entrusted with managing his country's oil fortunes and must deal with a fanatical terrorist group led by his daughter.

The Pirate

1978
King Creole
6.4

Danny Fisher, young delinquent, flunks out of high school. He quits his job as a busboy in a nightclub, and one night he gets the chance to perform. Success is imminent and the local crime boss Maxie Fields wants to hire him to perform at his night club The Blue Shade. Danny refuses, but Fields won't take no for an answer.

King Creole

1958
Stiletto
5.3

A rich, jet-setting playboy has a secret life: he's also a professional Mafia hitman. When he decides it's time to retire from that life, he finds that his former employers don't like the idea that someone who knows so much about them won't be under their control anymore, and decide to send their own hitmen to eliminate him.

Stiletto

1969
Where Love Has Gone
6.1

A divorced couple's teen-age daughter stands trial for stabbing her mother's latest lover.

Where Love Has Gone

1964
Harold Robbins' Body Parts
4.3

Ty's pal J.J. frames him in a murder and cocaine theft in Hong Kong in 1992. Ty's wife Rachel may be in on the con, so, when Ty gets early release from prison as a gesture of good will from the city's new Mainland government, he doesn't bother to look her up. But she finds him in Southern California to warn him that J.J. wants him dead. Whack J.J. first, she tells Ty, so he heads for Manila where J.J. runs a lucrative business under the cover of exporting tropical fish. But what is that business and who's pulling the strings? With the help of Inez, a young Filipina prostitute, Ty gets to the heart of the matter even after Inez no longer has the stomach to pursue the guilty ones.

Harold Robbins' Body Parts

2001
The Pusher
5.9

A detective investigating the murder of a heroin addict discovers that there is a connection between the junkie and his fiance, who is his boss' daughter.

The Pusher

1960
Never Love a Stranger
5.3

Orphan turns bad, finds redemption with some help from boyhood pal. This movie is of interest because of the presence of a young Steve McQueen, the leading man being John Drew Barrymore, father of the more famous Drew, and for being based on a novel by Harold Robbins, famous for steamy writing in his day.

Never Love a Stranger

1958