‘French Connection’ author Robin Moore dies at 82

Published 11:29 pm Friday, February 22, 2008

Robin Moore, the author of several books including “The French Connection” and “The Green Berets,” has died after a long illness. He was 82.

Moore died Tuesday night at a hospital in southwestern Kentucky, said Dennis Monroe with Lamb Funeral Home.

Moore once said that he moved to the small town in 2005 with his wife, Helen, because it borders Fort Campbell, a sprawling Army post on the Tennessee border that is headquarters to a Green Beret group.

Born Robert L. Moore Jr. on Oct. 31, 1925, in Massachusetts, he wrote his books under the name Robin Moore. Among his best known were “The Green Berets,” published in 1965 and “The French Connection,” published in 1969. He also helped write “The Happy Hooker,” which was published in 1972.

He co-wrote “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” which became the signature song of the Special Forces unit.

“The French Connection,” about a New York drug bust, inspired a movie that won five Academy Awards in 1971 including best picture.

Stephen Marlowe wrote mysteries, biographies

Novelist Stephen Marlowe, best known for a series of books featuring private detective Chester Drum, died Friday after a long illness, his family said. He was 79.

Marlowe began his career as a writer of pulp and science fiction and wrote more than 50 novels. His series featuring Chester Drum began with “The Second Longest Night” in 1955 and concluded with “Drumbeat Marianne” in 1968. His more recent work included fictionalized biographies, including “The Memoirs of Christopher Columbus” in 1987, “The Lighthouse at the End of the World” in 1995 and “The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes” in 1996.

Associated Press