Famed military author Robin Moore who penned ‘The Green Berets’ and ‘The French Connection’ among dozens of other works is dead.  Moore died Thursday night at a hospital in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.  He was 82-years-old.

A World War II veteran, Moore deployed with the Special Forces as a civilian during the Vietnam War to gather material for “The Green Berets.” A later film version starred John Wayne.

“The Green Berets was his definitive book,” his wife, Helen Moore, said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. “It put him on the map as a writer.”

A film adaptation of “The French Connection” won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture in 1971.

Moore is survived by his wife Helen.  The two met in 1958 but didn’t marry until 2005.

He was born as Robert Lowell Moore, Jr. but decided to write under the name of Robin Moore.