Harlan Ellison was raised in Ohio by Serita Rosenthal Ellison and Louis Laverne Ellison. He has an older sister, Beverly. Mr. Ellison has been married five times. He lives in Sherman Oaks at "Ellison Wonderland". He has had the same address and phone number for twenty-six years. He is a non-smoker, non-drinker and has never used drugs.
He is famous for his hot temper and outspoken nature which has lead to more then his fair share of high profile feuds. The most famous of them was with "Star Trek" (1966) creator Gene Roddenberry, who had Ellison's famous television script ("City on the Edge of Forever") heavily rewritten to fit with his (Roddenberry's) more utopian ideas of the future. Roddenberry would not allow him to put his pseudonym "Cordwainer Bird" on the project. And, as 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 TV's 100 greatest moments by "TV Guide" (July 1, 1995)Cordwainer Bird means "one who makes shoes for birds".Ellison's 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 he's 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 (1913-1966), a professor of Asiatic politics, expert on psychological warfare, and advisor to President Kennedy.He won one of his many Hugo Awards and one of his four Writer's Guild awards for best teleplay for the orginal "Star Trek" (1966) episode (#1.28) "The City On the Edge of Forever".An outspoken gun control advocate, he is responsible for the removal of B-B 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 Jeanette 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 B-B 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 didn't do him any harm.Graduated from Cleveland's 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" (1994), helping out his friend, the show's creator, J. Michael Straczynski. His cameos on "Babylon 5" (1994) 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 be fired from Walt Disney Productions on his first day of work. At lunch in the studio commissary, he joking 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 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 (1984). He claimed that the time travel and indestructible robot components in the movie were ripped off by James Cameron and never credited to him.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).His novella, "A boy and his dog," won the 1969 Nebula Award.Richard Dreyfuss based his character of Elliot Garfield on that of his friend, Ellison for the film, The Goodbye Girl (1977).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.To gain insights for his book "Web of the City" Ellison actually joined an inner city gang.When asked by J. Michael Straczynski what role he wanted to play in the production of "Babylon 5" (1994) 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 Harlan Ellison for advice. Ellison replied, "The reason your stories are being rejected is because you're writing crap. Stop writing crap!".Prefers to be called a "fantasist" rather than a "Sci-Fi Writer".While in the U.S. Marines, his sergeant called him The Author because Ellison could usually be found behind a typewriter.Former U.S. Marine.
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A post-apocalyptic tale based on a novella by Harlan Ellison. A boy communicates telepathically with his dog as they scavenge for food and sex, and they stumble into an underground society where the old society is preserved. The daughter of one of the leaders of the community seduces and lures him below, where the citizens have become unable to reproduce because of being underground so long. They use him for impregnation purposes, and then plan to be rid of him.