Harlan Ellison

He is famous for his hot temper and outspoken nature, which has led to more then his share of high-profile feuds. The most famous of them was with "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry , who had Ellisons famous television script ( "Star Trek" {The City on the Edge of Forever (#1.28)} ) heavily rewritten to fit with Roddenberrys more utopian ideas of the future. Roddenberry would not allow him to put his pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird" on the project. To add insult to injury, for the rest of his life Roddenberry took credit for having "saved" the story, which is consistently ranked as the best of the series by critics and fans and as one of TVs 100 greatest moments by "TV Guide" (July 1, 1995).

His pseudonym Cordwainer Bird means "one who makes shoes for birds".

His pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird" is reserved for works where he considers that the producers have so tampered with the integrity of his original story that he wants the whole world to know it. Hence, if you see something credited to "Cordwainer Bird", you know that Ellison is so angry at his treatment that hes going to force the producers to publicly acknowledge the fact (via the credits) that he considers them rather worse than fools. It is also a reference to the great science-fiction writer Cordwainer Smith. "Cordwainer Smith", in turn, was the pseudonym of Dr. Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913-66), a professor of Asiatic politics, expert on psychological warfare and advisor to President John F. Kennedy.

He won one of his many Hugo Awards and one of his four Writers Guild awards for best teleplay for "Star Trek" {The City on the Edge of Forever (#1.28)} .

An outspoken gun control advocate, he is responsible for the removal of BB gun ads from DC Comics. According to a convention transcript printed in "The Comics Journal", on a Friday he made a phone call to DC publisher Jenette Kahn suggesting that such ads were inappropriate for children. She called him back before the weekend was out, assuring him that there would never be another BB gun ad in a DC comic. In the same transcript, when prompted by Marvel Comics executive Stan Lee (also an advocate of gun control), Ellison admits that growing up with these ads didnt do him any harm.

Graduated from Clevelands East High School.

He used to be a spokesperson for Geo Metro automobiles, billed as a "noted futurist".

He was a conceptual consultant for the television show "Babylon 5" , helping out his friend, the shows creator, J. Michael Straczynski. His cameos on "Babylon 5" include two episodes where his voice was used and a brief on-screen appearance as a "Psi Cop".

In his book "Stalking the Nightmare", he recounts an incident that led to his being fired from Walt Disney Productions on his first day of work. At lunch in the studio commissary, he jokingly told fellow writers that they should "do a Disney porn flick", and proceeded to act out parts in the voices of various Disney characters, unaware that animation head Roy Edward Disney and other studio chiefs were sitting nearby. Ellison claims that when he returned to his office, he found a termination letter on his desk, and his name on his parking space had been painted over.

Following a lawsuit, his name was added to the credits of the movie The Terminator . He claimed that the time travel and indestructible robot components in the movie were ripped off by James Cameron and never credited to him. Cameron, in turn, denies having ever been influenced by Ellisons work. However, Camerons producers said that if he would lose the lawsuit, he himself would be responsible for the financial losses, giving Cameron no other choice than to begrudgingly settle the case out of court.

Interviewers and fans ask questions about his work at the risk of being on the receiving end of a barrage of vicious insults regarding the impertinence of the question and the intelligence of the questioner.

Guest of Honor at PghLANGE science-fiction convention (Pittsburgh, 17-19 July 1970).

Richard Dreyfuss based his character of Elliot Garfield in The Goodbye Girl on Ellison, a good friend of his.

In a magazine interview, he stated that the two fictional characters he closely identifies with are Zorro and Jiminy Cricket.

His father was a dentist.

When he was 20, he researched an inner-city gang by joining them for ten weeks. He published his account of having joined them ("the Gang"), along with his experience of being arrested and jailed for one day ("the Tombs"), as the book "Memos from Purgatory".

When asked by J. Michael Straczynski what role he wanted to play in the production of "Babylon 5" Ellison replied, "I want to be the mad dog of continuity enforcement who bites people on the leg.".

Had his own name registered as a trademark in 2005.

When J. Michael Straczynski was a struggling young writer, he telephoned Ellison for advice. He replied, "The reason your stories are being rejected is because youre writing crap. Stop writing crap!".

Prefers to be called a "fantasist" rather than a "Sci-Fi Writer".

While in the U.S. Army his sergeant called him "The Author" because he could usually be found behind a typewriter.

He has won 22 awards for writing, more than almost any other living writer.

Ellison was named Grand Master at the 2006 Nebula Awards ceremony in Tempe, AZ. The Nebulas are given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, which Ellison helped found in 1965 and which he has publicly derided as parochial, unprofessional, ignorant and irrelevant.

When he first took a writing course, his teacher told him he was terrible and should give up writing. When he became successful, he sent the teacher a copy of every good review his work ever got.

An outspoken supporter of Human Rights organizations.

Two of his most well-regarded stories "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman", and "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" were each written the night before their deadlines.

Neil Gaiman once visited him at his home and was asked to distract an editor who was there to pick up a story while Ellison finished writing it.

In Dreams with Sharp Teeth , he claims that a set designer working from the Script of "Star Trek" {The City on the Edge of Forever (#1.28)} misread the word "runes" as "ruins" and took something away from his vision.

In Dreams with Sharp Teeth he describes how he visited a TV recording session for one of his scripts where the actress--who he claims was "shtupping someone"--kept mispronouncing "Camus" as "Came-us" (its actually pronounced "Kam-yoo").. He caused a scene, shouting that "everyonell think Im an idiot". The director asked who Harlan was and when told he was the writer said, "Whats he doing here?". Ellison left and the mistake was never corrected.

Stephen King , in "Danse Macabre" describes the scene in the pitching sessions for Star Trek: The Motion Picture where an executive kept rejecting ideas, saying, "No, weve got to think big!" Ellison tired of this and said, "How about this? The Enterprise travels light years out of the galaxy, breaks through the wall of the Universe, and there in front of them is the massive face of God. Hows that?" The executive fidgeted for a moment then said, "No, thats still not big enough. We need an idea thats big." Ellison said, "Screw this. Im a writer. I dont know what the hell you are".

Was the conceptual creator of the Canadian TV show "The Starlost" . Due to creative differences on how the show was written, he had his name removed from the screen credits and is listed by his nom de plume, "Cordwainer Bird".

Friends with Robin Williams, Isaac Asimov, Bill Maher, Robert Blake, Tom Snyder, Ed Asner and Shari Lewis.

Turned in an outline for a story that would have introduced Two-Face in "Batman" . The story never made it to air, and Two-Face never entered the TV shows Rogues Gallery.

For a brief time I was here; and for a brief time I mattered.

[in 1980] There are fewer and fewer people reading today. Clearly.

I think love and sex are separate and only vaguely similar. Like the,word bear and the word bare. You can get in trouble mistaking one for,the other.

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen . . . and,stupidity.

You are not entitled to your opinion, you are entitled to your informed,opinion. If you are not informed on the subject, then your opinion,counts for nothing.

To say more, is to say less.

When belief in a god dies, the god dies.

I know that pain is the most important thing in the universes. Greater than survival, greater than love, greater even than the beauty it brings about. For without pain, there can be no pleasure. Without sadness, there can be no happiness. Without misery there can be no beauty. And without these, life is endless, hopeless, doomed and damned. Adult. You have become adult.

The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.

Thus, from admiration of one wise and innocent child, and from a misheard remark, the process that not even Aristotle could codify was triggered. Where do you get your ideas? I purposely mishear things.

Writing a novel is like going a great distance to take a small shit.

Time is like a river flowing endlessly through the universe. And if you poled your flatboat in that river you might fight your way against the current and travel upstream into the past. Or go with the flow and rush into the future. This was in a less cynical time before toxic waste dumping and pollution filled the waterway of Chronus with the detritus of empty hours wasted minutes years of repetition and time that has been killed.

Now begin in the middle, and later learn the beginning; the end will take care of itself.

Because the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage. And if he has none, he is more than a coward. He is a sellout and a fink and a heretic, because writing is a holy chore.

To see an almost certain horrible death--you know how crowds all sit at the edge of their seats, /praying/ subconsciously for a spectacular accident--and then to be whisked away from it so suddenly--brought to the edge of tragedy, and then to have their better natures win out, showing them how much nicer they always /knew/ they were--that was the supreme thrill.