Harold Robbins

Writer

Harold Robbins was a best-selling author whose novels about sex, money and power were scorned by critics and loved by readers. Raised in a New York orphanage, Robbins dropped out of school at the age of 15 and used his entrepreneurial skills to become a millionaire by the age of 20. His fortune quickly evaporated and in 1937 he went to work as a shipping clerk for Universal Pictures in Hollywood. Robbins worked his way up to the executive level and began writing novels. In 1948 he had a hit with Never Love a Stranger, and in the 1950s he began writing novels full-time. Several of his books were bestsellers, including The Carpetbaggers (1961) and The Betsy (1971), both of which were made into movies.