Harlan Ellison

At 84 years old, Harlan Ellison has this physical status:

Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer best known for his prolific and influential writing in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative demeanor.

Ellison was described as "the only living organism I know whose natural habitat is hot water," according to Robert Bloch, author of Psycho. More than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, and a slew of literary, film, television, and print media have been published.

"I Have No Mouth, and Harlequin!" is one of his best-known scripts, as well as his "The City on the Edge of Forever," his A Boy and His Dog series, and his short stories "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "Repent, Harlequin!" "The Ticktockman" was snared.

He was also editor and anthologist for Dangerous Visions (1967) and Dangerous Visions (1972).

Ellison has received numerous prizes, including multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and Edgars.

Personal life and death

Ellison married five times, but neither of them were married within a few years, save the last. Charlotte Stein, whom he married in 1956, was his first wife. They married in 1960, and he later described the marriage as "four years of hell as endured as the whine of a generator." Billie Joyce Sanders, a widow, died in 1963 when he married her later that year; they divorced in 1963. Loretta Patrick's 1966 marriage to him lasted only seven weeks. He married Lori Horowitz in 1976. "I was desperately in love with her," he later explained of his marriage, but it was a stupid marriage on my part." After eight months of marriage, they were divorced. He and Susan Toth married in 1986, and the two of them stayed together in Los Angeles until his death 32 years later. Susan died in August 2020.

Ellison referred to himself as a Jew, a Jewish atheist.

He had a heart attack and was hospitalized for quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery in 1994. He underwent medical care from 2010 to 2010.

Ellison appeared at the Cleveland Public Library in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, in September 2007.

Ellison had a stroke on October 10, 2014, about. Though his speech and cognition were unimpaired, he suffered paralysis on his right side, for which he was supposed to spend several weeks in physical therapy before being released from the hospital.

Harlan Ellison died in his sleep at home in Los Angeles on June 28, 2018. J. Michael Straczynski, the Babylon 5 creator, is currently executing his literary estate.

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Early life and career

Ellison was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 27, 1934, the son of Serita (née Rosenthal) and Louis Laverne Ellison, a dentist and jeweler, was born. Beverly (Rabnick), his older sister, was born in 1926, was his older sister. She died in 2010 after not having spoken to him since his mother's funeral in 1976. Following his father's death, his family migrated to Painesville, Ohio, but in 1949, they returned to Cleveland, Ohio. Ellison used to run away from home (in an interview with Tom Snyder that later said it was due to misogyny in his high school classmates), a salesman, book designer, floorwalker, and even a youngster appearing in many productions at the Cleveland Play House. In 1947, a fan letter he wrote to Real Fact Comics became his first published writing.

Ellison lived at Ohio State University for 18 months (1951–53) before being banned. He said the dismissal was for striking a professor who had denigrated his writing skills, and he sent the professor a copy of every story he published over the next 20 or so years.

Ellison wrote two serialized stories in the Cleveland News in 1949, and he sold a tale to EC Comics early in the 1950s. Ellison was an active and prominent member of science fiction fandom, as well as publishing his own science fiction fanzines, such as Dimensions (which had previously appeared in the Cleveland Science Fantasy Society's Bulletin and later Science Fantasy Bulletin). Ellison moved to New York City in 1955 to pursue a writing career, mainly in science fiction. He has written more than 100 short stories and essays over the past two years. The Sex Gang — which Ellison referred to in a 2012 interview as "mainstream erotica" — dates from this period.

From 1957 to 1959, he served in the United States Army from 1957 to 1959. Web of the City, his first book, was published during his military service in 1958, but he said he had written the bulk of the book while undergoing basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. After leaving the army, he moved to Chicago, where he edited Rogue Magazine.

Ellison immigrated to California in 1962 and began promoting his writing to Hollywood. Stephen Boyd and Elke Sommer co-wrote the screenplay for The Oscar (1966), which starred Stephen Boyd and Elke Sommer. Ellison sold scripts to numerous television shows, including the Loretta Young Show (using the name Harlan Ellison), Burke's Law, Route 66, Burke's Law, The Man from U.N.L.E., The Cimarron Strip, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Ellison's screenplay for the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" has been deemed the best of the series's 79 episodes.

He marched in 1965 with the second and third Selma to Montgomery marches, led by Martin Luther King Jr.

The journalist Gay Talese wrote a review of Frank Sinatra in 1966, in an issue that Esquire magazine later named as the best magazine piece ever written. The article, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," describes briefly a clash between Sinatra and a young Harlan Ellison, in which the crooner reacted angrily to Ellison's boots during a billiards match.

Ellison was hired as a writer for Walt Disney Studios but he was fired on the first day after Roy O. Disney said he was fired after his staff commissary joked about making a pornographic animated film starring Disney characters.

Ellison continued to publish short fiction and nonfiction pieces in various journals, including some of his most popular ones.

"'Repent, Harlequin!'

According to Said the Ticktockman (1965), this is a commemoration of civil disobedience against repressive power. "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" (1967) is a tale in which five humans are tortured by an all-knowing computer for eternity. Ellison was a keystone to a 1995 computer game; he was involved in the game's development and acted as the god-computer AM. "A Boy and His Dog," a sequel that was turned into Don Johnson's 1975 film of the same name, explores the nature of friendship and love in a violent, post-apocalyptic world.

Ellison edited the Dangerous Visions collection in 1967, which attracted a'special mention at the 26th World SF Convention for editing "the most influential and controversial SF book ever published in 1967."' As "science progressed and advanced fictional techniques came to the fore," Isaac Asimov described it as a "second revolution" in Science Fiction.

Ellison wrote a regular column on television for the Los Angeles Free Press from 1968 to 1970. Ellison's column "The Glass Teat" explored television's influence on modern life and culture, as well as its broadcasts of sex, politics, race, the Vietnam War, and violence. The essays were collected in two anthologies, The Glass Teat: Essays of Opinion on Television and The Other Glass Teat.

Ellison served as a creative consultant to the 1980s version of The Twilight Zone science fiction TV series and Babylon 5. He had voice-over credits for films including The Pirates of Dark Water, Mother Goose, and Grimm, Space Cases, Phantom 2040, and Babylon 5, as well as appearing in the Babylon 5 episode "The Face of the Enemy."

As Hodel died, a frequent guest on the Los Angeles science fiction / fantasy culture radio show Hour 25, hosted by Mike Hodel Ellison, took over as host. Ellison's tenure spanned May 1986 to June 1987.

The man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" (1992) by Ellison's short story "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" (1992) was selected for inclusion in the 1993 edition of The Best American Short Stories.

Ellison appeared on the album Leaving Love in Hell by the stoner metal band Leaving Babylon in 2014, performing his song "The Silence" (originally released in Mind Fields) as an introduction to the song "Dead to Me."

Ellison's official website, harlanellison.com, was launched in 1995 as a fan page; for several years, Ellison was a regular poster in its discussion forum.

Ellison married five times; each marriage lasted within a few years, with the exception of the last. Charlotte Stein, who married in 1956, was his first wife. They divorced in 1960, and he later described the marriage as "four years of hell as sustained as the whine of a generator." Billie Joyce Sanders married Billie Joyce Sanders later this year; the couple divorced in 1963. Loretta Patrick's 1966 marriage to her was only seven weeks long. Lori Horowitz married Lori Horowitz in 1976. "I was desperately in love with her," he later said of her marriage, but it was a stupid marriage on my part." After eight months, they were divorced. He and Susan Toth married in 1986 and they stayed together in Los Angeles until his death 32 years ago. Susan died in August 2020.

Ellison called himself a Jewish atheist.

He had a heart attack and was hospitalized for quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery in 1994. He began receiving medication for clinical depression in 2010.

Ellison attended the Cleveland Public Library's debut of the documentary about his life, Dreams with Sharp Teeth.

Ellison had a stroke on October 10, 2014. Despite his speech and cognition being unimpaired, he suffered paralysis on his right side, for which he was supposed to spend many weeks in physical therapy before being released from the hospital.

Harlan Ellison died in his sleep at home in Los Angeles on the morning of June 28, 2018. J. Michael Straczynski, the Babylon 5 creator, is currently executing his literary estate.

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