A spokeswoman at Naples Community Hospital said Ludlum died of cardiac arrest. Ludlum's literary agent, Henry Morrison, said the family planned to issue a formal statement later Tuesday.
Ludlum wrote his suspense novels in longhand on yellow-lined legal pads.
His success as a novelist was phenomenal and established him as something of a cult hero among mystery and suspense fans.
"The Scarlatti Inheritance" was published in 1971 and was a Book of the Month Club selection and a best-seller. Many successful novels followed.
Ludlum claimed he was only doing what storytellers have done for centuries.
"The genre goes back to Homer and the Iliad," he said during an interview. "It is suspense. And suspense fiction has a beginning, a middle and an end. People want storytelling again. They don't want writers to agonize over the readers' problems. They want to read about others' problems."
Ludlum said he learned much about what the public wanted during his long career in the theater as actor and producer.
"What the theater did for me was to tell me the ultimate importance of structuring scenes," he said. "Theater people know this best of all people in the arts. Otherwise, if your scene is dull and boring, they're yawning in the front row and you're on the unemployment line on Monday morning."
He traveled to the various 'spy spots' of the world and spent considerable time on research.
Ludlum resembled the typical character actor he used to be. He was of medium height with dark hair graying at the temples and unblinking eyes.
Robert Ludlum was born on May 25, 1927, in New York City and raised in Short Hills, N.J. He graduated with distinction from Wesleyan College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While at Wesleyan, he met his future wife, Mary Ryducha. They have three children, Michael, Jonathan and Glynis.
After graduation the couple acted together in summer stock, New York theater and early television.
"I had done acting, directing and producing," he said. "In the 1960s, theater had become almost a real estate game. Quantity became the thing. In other words, get it up on Tuesday night, not get it right but get it ready for 8:30 Tuesday," he said.
After successfully producing 360 plays, including helping to bring "The Owl and the Pussycat" to Broadway, he decided to try his hand at writing suspense fiction. He was 40.
"I was the most paralyzed guy in the world when I made that decision," he said. "I knew what I wanted to do but didn't know if I could do it. And that decision changed my life even physically. In the theater I would go to bed by about 4:30 in the morning; as a writer, that's the time I now get up to write."
Ludlum said his goal was to keep producing the books he wanted to write.
"Everyone has a first book. If you know the alphabet, you have it. But it's the second and the third. You wonder if you have it in you to sustain it," he said.
Ludlum's novels included "The Scarlatti Inheritance," "The Osterman Weekend," "The Matlock Paper," "The Rhineman Exchange," "The Gemini Contenders," "The Chancellor Manuscript," "The Holcroft Covenant," "The Matarese Circle," "The Bourne Identity," "The Parsifal Mosaic," "The Aquitaine Progression" and "The Bourne Supremacy."
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