Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (13 March 1911 – 24 January 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was an American science fiction writer, and creator of Dianetics and founder of the Church of Scientology.
Hubbard was a highly controversial public figure during his lifetime. Many details of his life remain disputed; official Scientology biographies present Hubbard as "larger than life, attracted to people, liked by people, dynamic, charismatic and immensely capable in a dozen fields," while independent articles and biographies of Hubbard and accounts by some former Scientologists paint a much less flattering, and often sinister, picture. In many cases they flatly contradict the biographical accounts presented by the Church of Scientology.