| Harlan Ellison  AKA Harlan Jay Ellison
Born: 27-May-1934
Birthplace: Cleveland, OH
Gender: Male
Religion: Atheist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Author Nationality: United States
Executive summary: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream Military service: US Army Author Harlan Ellison is known for his popular speculative fiction, as showcased in such collections as Strange Wine, Shatterday, and Love Ain't Nothing but Sex Misspelled, as well as his forays into a broad array of media. The creator of a dozen motion pictures and twice that number of teleplays, Ellison has additionally authored a host of essays, articles, and reviews as well as a staggering number of short stories (note that he had already generated 150 by 1958). He has edited a number of significant anthologies, including various installments in the excellent Dangerous Visions series as well as Medea: Harlan's World which features contributions from such science fiction and fantasy legends as Frank Herbert and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Ellison has worked in television at various capacities. As a writer he has contributed to such varied programs as The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Logan's Run, The Flying Nun, and more recently Babylon 5, to name but a few. He has also served as conceptual consultant, story editor, made cameo appearances, and appeared as voice talent in such roles as "Sparky the Computer" in Babylon 5 ("Ceremonies of Light and Dark") and the evil supercomputer "AM" in the post-apocalyptic computer game I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, the latter based on Ellison's own short fiction. His collected essays on television and related topics, The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat, are used in media classes at more than 200 American Universities.
Ellison's fictional work is generally intelligent and edgy and shows the author's lack of fear at treading into dark or difficult subjects. His ability to go beyond pat storylines can lead to some strange, yet perversely enjoyable, tales and to some unusual filmography, when Hollywood is not afraid to follow. To illustrate we have A Boy and His Dog in which Don Johnson, as Vic, joins his dog in devouring the female lead. Often however, directors and producers (as well as publishers and other unfortunates) do not see things his way and the result has been a mixture of stinging invective, from Ellison, and iron-fisted enforcement, from those in authority. One example comes from Ellison's Stalking the Nightmare in which he recounts that he was fired by Disney Studios for joking with fellow writers about creating a "Disney porn flick". Ellison's rendition of the various character voice parts was not so amusing to Disney execs: he returned from lunch to find a pink slip waiting on his desk.
Harlan Ellison is probably one of the few authors of speculative fiction whose list of awards and recognition is of proportional length to his list of projects and published works. He has won a staggering 10 Hugo Awards, 3 Nebula Awards, and 18 Locus Poll Awards as well as the Bradbury Award, 6 Bram Stoker Awards, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, 2 Georges Méliès fantasy film awards, 2 Audie Awards, and the the Silver Pen for Journalism. Ellison was a frequent guest on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, and is an outspoken advocate for gun control. Father: Louis Laverne Ellison (d., heart attack)
Mother: Serita Rosenthal Ellison
Sister: Beverly
Girlfriend: Grace Lee Whitney
Wife: (div.)
Wife: (m. 1976, div.)
High School: East High School, Cleveland, OH
University: Ohio State University (attended 18 months, expelled)
Edgar Allan Poe Award Best Short Story, for "Soft Monkey" (1988)
Edgar Allan Poe Award Best Short Story, for "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" (1974)
Hugo
World Fantasy Award 1993 Lifetime Achievement
Ran Away From Home
Heart Attack 1994
Vasectomy
TELEVISION
The Pirates of Dark Water Voices (1991-93)
Official Website:
http://www.harlanellison.com/
Author of books:
Rumble (1958, novel)
Spider Kiss (1961, novel)
Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation (1961, collection)
Memos from Purgatory (1961, nonfiction)
Love Ain't Nothing but Sex Misspelled (1968, collection, fiction and nonfiction)
The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (1969, collection)
The Glass Teat: Essays of Opinion on Television (1970, essays)
Approaching Oblivion (1974, collection)
The Other Glass Teat: Further Essays of Opinion on Television (1975, essays)
Deathbird Stories (1975, collection)
Strange Wine (1978, collection)
Shatterday (1980, collection)
Stalking the Nightmare (1982, collection)
Angry Candy (1988, collection)
Harlan Ellison's Watching (1989, nonfiction)
Slippage (1997, collection)
Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.
Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile
Copyright ©2009 Soylent Communications
|
