His book was adapted for a film with the same title, released in 1971 and starring Laurence Olivier and Janet Suzman. This hereditary disease also afflicted Nicholas's only son the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, heir apparent to the imperial throne. His interest in the Russian imperial house had been inspired by the birth of his son, Robert Kinloch Massie IV, who was born with hemophilia.

In 1967, after leaving the Saturday Evening Post to concentrate on his historical writing, Massie published his breakthrough book, Nicholas and Alexandra, an authoritative biography of Tsar Nicholas II (1868–1918, reigned 1894–1917) and Alexandra of Hesse (1872–1918), the last Emperor and Empress of Russia. He also taught at Princeton and Tulane universities. Massie worked as a journalist for Collier's and from 1959 to 1962 for Newsweek before taking a position at the Saturday Evening Post. He served in the early 1950s as a nuclear targeting officer in the United States Navy, in the period around the Korean War. While at Oxford, Massie played on the Oxford University Men's Basketball Team. He earned degrees in American studies from Yale University and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He was raised there and in Nashville, Tennessee. Massie was born in Versailles, Kentucky, to Robert Massie, Jr., an educator, and Molly, née Kimball, an activist for progressive causes. It starred Laurence Olivier, Michael Jayston, and Janet Suzman. His book Nicholas and Alexandra (1967) was adapted as a British film by the same name that was released in 1971. He also received awards for his book Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (2011). Massie was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Peter the Great: His Life and World. He devoted much of his career to studying and writing about the House of Romanov, Russia's imperial family from 1613 to 1917. Robert Kinloch Massie III (Janu– December 2, 2019) was an American journalist and historian.

Robert massie nicholas and alexandra