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Harlan Ellison, a prolific writer who has won numerous awards for his sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, horror and television scripts, but who had an extraordinary propensity for pugnacity that his own book jackets called "the person the most contentious. on Earth, "died on June 27 at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, at age 84.
His death was announced by his agent, Susan Shapiro, the cause was not disclosed. [19659003] Ellison began publishing stories in the 1950s, partly writing in spite of a college teacher who told him that he had no literary talent.He became one most popular and influential sci-fi writers of his generation – but he insisted that he did not want to be limited to science fiction.
He preferred the term "fiction" instead.
He published dozens of books and more than 1,500 stories, reviews and essays over a lifetime of almost constant writing.Once he went on tour, sitting in front of the showcase bookstores, composing a new day
Several of his stories, including "Repent Arlequ ! In & # 39; Says the Ticktockman "(1965)," I do not have a mouth, and I Must Scream "(1967) and" The beast who shouted love in the heart of the world "(1968), often have been reprinted in sci-fi anthologies and are considered of lasting importance.
Harlan Ellison. (Nick Wineriter / Nick Wineriter)
In his best work, Mr. Ellison showed "sometimes a meaning annoying but worthy of the pain of the world, "criticizes John Clute, a co-publisher of" The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, "said in an interview." He was always present only in his works. You saw him pound the table and shake his fists.
Subtlety was not Mr. Ellison's strong garment. Instead, he wrote a palpable feeling of high-tension contempt for injustice, ignorance, and moral corruption.
"I go to bed angry every night," he tells the Los Angeles Times in 1990, "and I get up every morning. . "
Mr. Ellison has also written extensively on film and television, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, and the collections of his critics are taught in college journalism courses, and he has lashed out at Steven Spielberg's films. and George Lucas for their lack of literary or imaginative depth and for being directed towards younger viewers "for whom nostalgia is reminiscent of breakfast."
He made occasional appearances, including for a video game. computer based on one of his stories – and was a frequent talk show guest, most recently on "politically incorrect with Bill Maher."
"Even at his most infuriating, as he strokes about subject," L & Film historian Robert F. Moss wrote in The New York Times in 1989, examining "Harlan Ellison's Watching," a collection of film critics, "Mr. Ellison has the haunting quality of his work." a nonstop loudspeaker, with a cultural warehouse for a spirit. They did not invent the subject on which he did not have any opinion. "
For decades, Mr. Ellison has been asked as a writer and writer for television and film. (Only one of his scripts has been turned into a film, the unforgettable" L & # 39; "Oscar" from 1966.) He has written dozens of television show scripts, including "The Twilight Zone", "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", "Burke's Law," The Outer Limits, " "The Man From UNCLE" and even "The Flying Nun".
He was credited with one of the most memorable episodes of "Star Trek", 1967 "The City on the Edge of Forever," in which interplanetary travelers aboard the Enterprise Starship go back to the 1930s with the opportunity to rewrite history. Mr. Ellison was upset by the way his screenplay was rewritten by the creator of "Star Trek" Gene Roddenberry and the publishers of the show
M. Ellison repeatedly sued Hollywood studios when he thought he had stolen his ideas. dollars in the colonies. One of his successful trials concerned the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle of 1984, "The Terminator", which, he said, appropriated his replica of an android turned murderer. The director of the film, James Cameron, called Mr. Ellison "parasite", but his name appeared in the credits of the video version of the film.
"Wherever I go, I find that writers are treated as if they were invisible, as if they did not matter," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. "In this city, in particular, the writer was brutalized because it is a city that flies almost entirely on horseback and with warm air."
His hair temperament was frequently exposed to critics, producers and people whom he met casually, including the equally combative Frank Sinatra.In a memorable passage from the 1966 article of the Gay Esquire Talese, "Frank Sinatra has a cold," the singer confronted Mr. Ellison at a private club in Beverly Hills about how he was dressed.
Ellison played billiards at the club and wore, according to Talese's terms, Brown corduroy pants, shaggy green shetland sweater, beige suede jacket and Gam boots e Warden. "
Sinatra asked him about the boots. they are Italian? Espanol? English? – Until Mr. Ellison finally answered, "Look, I'm giving, man."
The room remained silent while Sinatra, accompanied by bodyguards, approached the 5-foot-5 Mr. Ellison, then asked: "You are waiting for a storm"
"Look," says Mr. Ellison, "Is there any reason why you are talking to me?"
"I do not like the way you are dressed," said Sinatra. "I'm not ready to shake you," Ellison replied, "but I dress up to adapt."
Other words were exchanged before Mr. Ellison left.
Early in his career, Mr. Ellison was hired as a writer by the Disney studio, but was fired in his first week when he described the making of a pornographic film putting in featured cartoon characters from Disney. (He said his comments were heard by Walt Disney's brother.)
On another occasion, when a studio director mumbled, "All the writers are hacks," Mr. Ellison jumped on a desk and punched him in the throat. He refused to allow publishers to change a word of his prose, and he often had creative differences with television producers. In 1985, he left his post of $ 4,000 a week with a rebranded version of "The Twilight Zone" after the studio decided not to turn a segment written by Mr. Ellison on a black Santa Claus who took revenge on bigots white. "I told them," You stop taking and I'm walking, "he told The Los Angeles Times in 1990.
They did it, and he did it
to the work considered second-rate, Mr. Ellison The adopted pseudonyms, notably "Cordwainer Bird." Even though he disdained television, saying that he was "responsible for the stupidity of our time," he He has won several awards for his Writers Guild of America screenplays and has won numerous Hugo, Nebula and Edgar awards for his sci-fi, fantasy and fiction films.
Even though he corrected sometimes talk show hosts who did not list all his honors, he lambasted "I do not just hate all the awards shows," he wrote with his typical euphemism: "I wish to see beheaded, stakes led through their black and corrupt hearts, and see the decapitated remains. at a crossroads at midnight. "
Harlan Jay Ellison was born on May 27, 1934, in Cleveland. Her mother was a housewife, and her father was a dentist, a bootlegger, and a jewelry salesman several times
. Ellison grew up mainly in Painesville, Ohio, where her smart mouth, small size and Jewish heritage left her feeling marginalized.
"When you became a stranger, you are still angry," he said in a documentary. Harlan Ellison: Dreams with sharp teeth.
He said that he had run away from home at age 13 to go to carnival, and then, when he was not in school, he traveled the country as a trucker, fisherman and lumberjack.
He dropped out of Ohio State University after talking with a professor who said he had no talent as a writer. Mr. Ellison moved to New York, quickly began selling stories – and for the next 20 years, sent the professor a copy of everything he's published.
For his first novel, "Rumble" (1958) Web of the City "- Mr. Ellison became a member of a Brooklyn gang office .He took part in rights marches civic, covered racial riots and, for a time, wrote a column for a men's magazine for comedian Lenny Bruce.He was a frank opponent of the Vietnam War.
He moved to Los Angeles in 1962, in order to get into the lucrative profession of screenwriter, he continued to publish stories and novels to a quick clip, much under borrowed names.He published several important anthologies of science- fiction and has often published more than one book a year.
One of his most renowned works was a 1969 short story, "A Boy and His Dog", which portrayed a rebellious man wandering in the air. post-apocalypse, a landscape with a dog with extrasensory powers. film in 1975, and Mr Ellison then developed the idea in a novel, "Blood's a Rover," published this year.
Ellison describes herself as "a blatant elitist" and says that her first four marriages ended in divorce in part because, "most of the time, I am a pain in the ass."
Survivors include his 32-year-old wife, Susan Toth.
Ellison lived in a futuristic house surrounded by an estimated library of between 75,000 and 250,000 books. He was injured during an earthquake in 1994 and, in 1996, he suffered a quadruple bypass after a heart attack. The heart attack has done nothing to soften its way or slow down its production.
Asked in 1990 to describe the urge to write, Mr. Ellison told the Los Angeles Times: "You do it because all the writers in a crazy place believe that writing is a sacred chore – that what we want to do, is to speak at its time, make the difference, say, "I was there." I was a force for the good of one's some way. "»
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