Dead Celebrity Alert

Robin Moore’s subjects as a writer included Pope John Paul II and the notorious former call girl, Xaviera Hollander with whom he wrote The Happy Hooker. In 1969 he wrote the novel, The French Connection, on which the acclaimed film was based. …

For a time Moore settled down to run a smallholding in Jamaica while writing schlock paperbacks. But hankering for wilder action than mucking out pigs, he trained with the US Army’s Green Berets whose Vietnam service yielded his multi-million selling The Green Berets (1965). This was further promoted by collaboration with an injured staff sergeant, Barry Sadler, on the rousingly patriotic song Ballad of the Green Berets in 1966. The Green Berets was made into a film, starring John Wayne, in 1968. …

He is survived by his fifth wife, Helen, and by two daughters.

Robin Moore, writer, was born on October 31, 1925. He died on February 21, 2008, aged 82 … Read full obituary

Filed under Literature, Movies & Stage