William Edward Daniel Ross (November 16, 1912 - November 1, 1995) was a Canadian actor, playwright, and bestselling writer of more than 300 novels in a variety of genres. He was known for the speed of his writing and was, by some estimates, the most prolific Canadian author ever, though he did not take up fiction until middle age.
Born in 1912 in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of Laura Brooks and William Edward Ross. In 1934, he moved to the United States to study. He married Charlotte McCormack in 1944, and worked for years as an actor, as the manager of an acting company, and in broadcasting. After his wife died in 1959, he returned to Saint John. In 1960, he married for the second time, to nurse Marilyn Ann Clark. At about this same time, he began writing novels, and found rapid success.
His second wife, Marilyn, served as the first reader of his works, and "Marilyn Ross" was one of his favorite pseudonyms.
He died in Saint John on November 1, 1995, aged 82.
He wrote under a variety of mostly female pseudonyms, such as Jane Rossiter, Leslie Ames, Ellen Randolph, Ann Gilmer, Rose Williams, Rose Dana, Clarissa Ross, Marilyn Ross, Jan Daniels, Charlotte McCormack, Ruth Dorset, Miriam Leslie, Dana Ross, Laura Frances Brooks, Lydia Colby, Diana Randall, Diana Ross, and Marilyn Carter. He started writing erotic novels as Olin Ross, and Western novels as Dan Roberts and Tex Steele. As Marilyn Ross, he wrote popular Gothic fiction,, including a series of novels about the vampire Barnabas Collins, based on the American TV series Dark Shadows.
