Les Roberts is also the name of the primary author of two studies in the Lancet reporting nearly 100,000 civilian casualties in the Iraq War in 2004 and 2006

Les Roberts (born Lester Roubert, July 18, 1937) to Lester Nathaniel and Eleanor (Bauch) Roubert in Chicago, Illinois, he changed his name to Roberts in 1968. Attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Roosevelt University (1954-1956), served in the U.S. Army (1960-1962), and married Gail Medland in 1957; they divorced in 1980. Roberts has two children, Valerie Lynne and Darren Jon, one grandchild, Shea Holland Thompson.

Roberts began his career as a contemporary American mystery novelist after twenty-four years in Hollywood, having written and/or produced more than 2,500 half-hour segments of network and syndicated television. He was the first producer and head writer of The Hollywood Squares, and has written for The Lucy Show, The Andy Griffith Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., among others.

In 1986 he won the very first "Best First Private Eye Novel Contest" for An Infinite Number of Monkeys. Roberts also won the 1992 Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature and has been voted "Cleveland's Favorite Author" by Cleveland.com. He is past president of the Private Eye Writers of America and the regular mystery book critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He has been a professional actor, singer, businessman, teacher and jazz musician.

Roberts is primarily seen as a regional writer. Though his Saxon series is set in Los Angeles, he is best known for his Milan Jacovich series (it's pronounced My-lan Yock-o-vitch) set in his adopted hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. Jacovich, unlike many single, dashing private eyes of fiction, is a battered, Stroh's-drinking, polka-dancing Slovenian American Vietnam veteran, ex-cop, and former Kent State football star, with a Serbian strong-willed ex-wife and two sons that he sees every other Sunday. Jacovich's working-guy attitude has endeared him to many Cleveland readers.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Les Roberts", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0