Harlan Ellison obit

Controversial Science Fiction Writer Harlan Ellison Passes Away At 84

 

He was not on the list.

One of the most famous and controversial authors in the field of science fiction, Harlan Ellison passed away in his sleep last night at the age of 84.  News of his passing was conveyed via Twitter by family friend Christine Valada (the widow of Marvel Comics’ Len Wein), at the behest of Ellison’s widow Susan.

Throughout his career, Ellison was famous for his writing, but perhaps more so for his temper which led to several controversies over the years.  One of his own book dust jackets described him as “possibly the most contentious person on Earth.” He was expelled from Ohio State University after throwing a punch at a professor.

He filed or attempted to file numerous lawsuits against those he perceived to have wronged him and engaged in very public feuds, including one with Gene Roddenberry over the script Ellison wrote for the 1967 ‘Star Trek’ episode ‘The City on the Edge of Forever‘, which Roddenberry heavily modified.  Ellison’s original script, however, won a Writer’s Guild award, while Roddenberry’s rewritten “shooting script” won a Hugo Award.  In 2009, Ellison filed a lawsuit against CBS Paramount Television over the decades-old episode, which was settled out of court.

He also filed suits against ABC and Paramount over the 1977 TV series ‘Future Cop’ and James Cameron over the original ‘Terminator’, claiming that the concept borrowed heavily from his work on ‘The Outer Limits’.

British science fiction author Christopher Priest wrote an article lambasting Ellison, which was actually expanded into a full book.  He was hired to turn Isaac Asimov’s ‘I, Robot’ into a film script, which was never produced after Ellison got into a feud with a Warner Brothers executive.  (The 2004 Will Smith ‘I, Robot’ film did not use any of Ellison’s work.)

At one point, he was hired by Walt Disney Studios but fired on his first day when Roy Disney heard him describe a desire to make an animated porno using Disney characters.  And there were many more instances of verbal disagreements, physical assault, and sexual misconduct.

As for his work, among his best known printed works were his first novel, ‘Web of the City’, published in 1959, the novellas ‘Mefisto in Onyx’ and ‘A Boy and his Dog’, the latter of which was made into a movie starring Don Johnson in 1975, and the short story ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream’, which he helped turn into a video game in 1995.  Stephen King famously cited Ellison’s collection ‘Strange Wine’ as the best horror collection published between 1950-80.

Over the course of his career, Ellison won eight and a half Hugo Awards (the “half” being a shared award for the screenplay for ‘A Boy and his Dog’), four Nebula Awards (sci-fi and fantasy), five Bram Stoker Awards (horror), two Edgar Awards (mystery), two World Fantasy Awards and two Georges Méliès fantasy film awards, plus many more.

He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1966 film ‘The Oscar’ and contributed scripts to TV series such as ‘Route 66’, ‘The Outer Limits’, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’, ‘The Alfred Hitchcock Hour’ and ‘The Flying Nun’ although in the case of the last, he reportedly only agreed to write the script in hopes of shagging star Sally Field.

Much later, he worked as a creative consultant on the 1980s reboot of ‘The Twilight Zone’ and ‘Babylon 5’.  He appeared on ‘Babylon 5’ and provided voice work for a number of animated series.  Most recently, he appeared as a fictionalized version of himself on two episodes of ‘Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated’.

 

On a personal level, he was married five times, but never had children.

 

Harlan Jay Ellison

 

May 27, 1934 – June 27, 2018)

 

Additional Crew

Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (1999)

Babylon 5: A Call to Arms

7.1

TV Movie

conceptual consultant

1999

 

Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Jerry Doyle, and Andreas Katsulas in Babylon 5 (1993)

Babylon 5

8.4

TV Series

conceptual consultant

consultant

1993–1998

111 episodes

 

Martin Sheen in Babylon 5: The River of Souls (1998)

Babylon 5: The River of Souls

6.5

TV Movie

conceptual consultant

1998

 

Bruce Boxleitner, Shari Belafonte, and Claudia Christian in Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998)

Babylon 5: Thirdspace

6.8

TV Movie

conceptual consultant

1998

 

Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan, and Andreas Katsulas in Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1998)

Babylon 5: In the Beginning

7.7

TV Movie

conceptual consultant

1998

 

The Twilight Zone (1985)

The Twilight Zone

7.7

TV Series

creative consultant

1985–1986

24 episodes

 

The Sixth Sense (1972)

The Sixth Sense

7.1

TV Series

story editor

1972

4 episodes

 

Writer

A Boy and His Dog

novel "A Boy and His Dog"

Pre-production

 

Love, Death & Robots (2019)

Love, Death & Robots

8.4

TV Series

based on the short story written by

2021

1 episode

 

Anne Heche, Sean Astin, James Cromwell, John Hurt, Malcolm McDowell, Judy Davis, Brian Dennehy, Sam Waterston, Clifton Collins Jr., James Denton, Stephen Hawking, Terry O'Quinn, and Elisabeth Röhm in Masters of Science Fiction (2007)

Masters of Science Fiction

6.7

TV Series

based on the short story by

teleplay by

2007

1 episode

 

The Outer Limits (1995)

The Outer Limits

7.7

TV Series

"The Human Operators" based on the short story by

based on the short story by

1999–2002

2 episodes

 

Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Jerry Doyle, and Andreas Katsulas in Babylon 5 (1993)

Babylon 5

8.4

TV Series

story by

1998

2 episodes

 

Silver Surfer (1998)

Silver Surfer

7.1

TV Series

story

1998

1 episode

 

The Hunger (1997)

The Hunger

6.2

TV Series

story by

written by (as Cordwainer Bird)

1998

2 episodes

 

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1995)

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

8.2

Video Game

design, dialog and story

short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"

1995

 

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993)

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs

7.0

TV Series

story by

1994

1 episode

 

Try a Dull Knife (1992)

Try a Dull Knife

story

1992

 

The Twilight Zone (1985)

The Twilight Zone

7.7

TV Series

written by

teleplay by

from a short story by ...

1985–1989

5 episodes

 

Tales from the Darkside (1983)

Tales from the Darkside

7.4

TV Series

based upon a story by

1985

1 episode

 

The Starlost: Deception (1980)

The Starlost: Deception

5.5

TV Movie

creator (as Cordwainer Bird)

1980

 

Keir Dullea, Gay Rowan, and Robin Ward in The Starlost: The Beginning (1980)

The Starlost: The Beginning

6.0

TV Movie

Writer (as Cordwainer Bird)

1980

 

Jackpot (1980)

Jackpot

story

1980

 

Gregory Harrison and Heather Menzies-Urich in Logan's Run (1977)

Logan's Run

7.1

TV Series

story

1977

1 episode

 

Don Johnson and Tiger in A Boy and His Dog (1975)

A Boy and His Dog

6.4

novella

1975

 

The Starlost (1973)

The Starlost

6.2

TV Series

creator

written by (as Cordwainer Bird)

1973–1974

16 episodes

 

Circle of Fear (1972)

Circle of Fear

7.5

TV Series

story

1973

1 episode

 

The Young Lawyers (1969)

The Young Lawyers

7.3

TV Series

written by

1971

1 episode

 

Sally Field in The Flying Nun (1967)

The Flying Nun

6.5

TV Series

written by (as Cordwainer Bird)

1968

1 episode

 

Stuart Whitman in Cimarron Strip (1967)

Cimarron Strip

7.1

TV Series

written by

1968

1 episode

 

Walter Koenig, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek (1966)

Star Trek

8.4

TV Series

written by

1967

1 episode

 

Robert Vaughn, Leo G. Carroll, and David McCallum in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

7.7

TV Series

story by

teleplay by

writer

1966–1967

2 episodes

 

Ernest Borgnine, Stephen Boyd, Joseph Cotten, Jill St. John, Tony Bennett, Edie Adams, Eleanor Parker, and Elke Sommer in The Oscar (1966)

The Oscar

5.2

screenplay

1966

 

Historias para no dormir (1966)

Historias para no dormir

7.9

TV Series

Writer (uncredited)

1966

1 episode

 

Alfred Hitchcock in The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962)

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

8.5

TV Series

story and teleplay

1964

1 episode

 

The Outer Limits (1963)

The Outer Limits

8.2

TV Series

written by

1964

2 episodes

 

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

7.2

TV Series

written by (as Cord Wainer Bird)

1964

1 episode

 

Burke's Law (1963)

Burke's Law

7.3

TV Series

written by

1963–1964

4 episodes

 

Ripcord (1961)

Ripcord

7.4

TV Series

written by

1963

1 episode

 

George Maharis and Martin Milner in Route 66 (1960)

Route 66

7.7

TV Series

based on a story by

1963

1 episode

 

Actor

NPRmageddon (2023)

NPRmageddon

Podcast Series

Old Man Stimson

2023

7 episodes

 

Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, and Yeardley Smith in The Simpsons (1989)

The Simpsons

8.7

TV Series

Harlan Ellison (voice)

2014

1 episode

 

Matthew Lillard, Mindy Cohn, Grey Griffin, and Frank Welker in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010)

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated

8.1

TV Series

Harlan Ellison (voice)

2013

1 episode

 

The Delivery (2008)

The Delivery

Short

Dan

White Rabbit

2008

 

Anne Heche, Sean Astin, James Cromwell, John Hurt, Malcolm McDowell, Judy Davis, Brian Dennehy, Sam Waterston, Clifton Collins Jr., James Denton, Stephen Hawking, Terry O'Quinn, and Elisabeth Röhm in Masters of Science Fiction (2007)

Masters of Science Fiction

6.7

TV Series

Nate

2007

1 episode

 

PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal (1996)

PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal

7.1

TV Series

Grifter

1999

1 episode

 

Bruce Boxleitner, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Jerry Doyle, and Andreas Katsulas in Babylon 5 (1993)

Babylon 5

8.4

TV Series

Zooty

Psi Cop

Sparky the Computer

1996–1998

3 episodes

 

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (1995)

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

8.2

Video Game

AM (voice)

1995

 

The Pirates of Dark Water (1991)

The Pirates of Dark Water

8.3

TV Series

(voice)

1992–1993

8 episodes

 

The Godson (1971)

The Godson

4.2

Guy with Barbara and Brunette (uncredited)

1971