Ellison moved to California in 1962, and subsequently began to sell scripts to such television shows as
Burke's Law,
Route 66, The Outer Limits,
Star Trek and
Cimarron Strip. His
Memos from Purgatory was adapted into an episode of
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Ellison's scripts "
Demon with a Glass Hand" (for
The Outer Limits) and "
The City on the Edge of Forever" (for
Star Trek) won Best Original Teleplay awards from the
Writers Guild of America; each is often cited as one of the best of its series.
During the late 1960s, Ellison wrote a column about television for the
Los Angeles Free Press. Titled "The Glass Teat", the column addressed political and
social issues and their portrayal on television at the time. The columns have been reprinted in two collections,
The Glass Teat and
The Other Glass Teat.
In 1966, in an article that
Esquire Magazine would later name as the best magazine piece ever written, the journalist
Gay Talese wrote about the goings-on around the enigmatic Frank Sinatra. The article, entitled "
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," briefly describes a clash between the young Harlan Ellison and
Frank Sinatra, when the crooner suddenly took exception to Ellison's boots during a billiards game. At the time, Ellison was working on a screenplay for a 1966 film called
The Oscar.
Ellison continued to publish short pieces, fiction and nonfiction, in various publications, and some of his most famous stories were written in this period. "
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman" (1965) is a celebration of civil disobedience against repressive authority. "
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (1967) is an allegory of Hell, where five humans are tormented by an all-knowing computer throughout eternity. The story was the basis of a 1995
computer game, with Ellison participating in the game's design and providing the voice of the god-computer AM. "A Boy and His Dog" examines the nature of friendship and love in a violent,
post-apocalyptic world. It was made into the 1975
film of the same name, starring
Don Johnson.
Ellison has won ten
Hugo Awards, four
Nebula Awards, and five
Bram Stoker Awards (presented by the Horror Writers Association) including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
He has also been honored with the
Edgar Award by the
Mystery Writers of America twice, the
Georges Méliès fantasy film award twice, and the Silver Pen for Journalism by
International PEN, the international writers' union. He was presented with the first Living Legend Award by the International Horror Guild at the 1995
World Horror Convention. He is also the only author in Hollywood ever to win the
Writers Guild of America Award for Most Outstanding Teleplay (solo work) four times, most recently for "
Paladin of the Lost Hour" in 1987.
In March 1998, the National Women's Committee of
Brandeis University honored him with their 1998 Words, Wit, Wisdom award. In 1990, Ellison was honored by International PEN for continuing commitment to artistic freedom and the battle against censorship.
The story for a rather famous and popular film can also be credited to Ellison, though he had to go to court to get the credit. Some aspects of the story for
The Terminator were sufficiently similar to two episodes ("
Soldier" and "
Demon with a Glass Hand") of the TV series
The Outer Limits — both written by Ellison — that Ellison sued
James Cameron. Ellison settled for several hundred thousand dollars, and the film's
end credits now include the simple statement: "Acknowledgment to the works of Harlan Ellison."
He also edited the influential science fiction anthology
Dangerous Visions (1967), which collected stories commissioned by Ellison, accompanied by his commentary-laden biographical sketches of the authors. He challenged the authors to write stories at the edge of the genre. Many of the stories went beyond the traditional boundaries of science fiction pioneered by respected
old school editors such as
John W. Campbell, Jr. As an editor, Ellison was influenced and inspired by experimentation in the popular literature of the time, such as the
beats. A sequel,
Again Dangerous Visions, was published in 1972. A third volume,
The Last Dangerous Visions, has been repeatedly postponed (see
Controversy).
The screenplay for his projected television series
The Starlost was also given a Writers Guild Award, though the actual series, produced in 1972-73, was so altered by the producers that Ellison had his name removed from the credits. Ellison was the first author to win the Writers Guild Award three times.
Ellison served as creative consultant to the science fiction TV series
The Twilight Zone (1980s version) and
Babylon 5. As a member of the
Screen Actors Guild (SAG), he has voiceover credits for shows including
The Pirates of Dark Water,
Mother Goose and Grimm,
Space Cases,
Phantom 2040, and
Babylon 5, as well as making an onscreen appearance in the
Babylon 5 episode "
The Face of the Enemy".
He does all his writing on a manual Olympia
typewriter, and has a substantial distaste for
personal computers and most of the internet.
For two years, beginning in 1986, Ellison took over as host of the Friday-night radio program,
Hour 25, on
Pacifica Radio station
KPFK-FM, Los Angeles, after the death of Mike Hodel, the show's founder and original host. Ellison had been a frequent and favorite guest on the long-running program. In one semi-legendary episode, he brought in his typewriter and proceeded to
write a new short story... live on the air (he titled the story "Hitler Painted Roses").
Hour 25 also served as the inspiration for his story, "The Hour That Stretches".
Ellison's 1992 novelette "The Man Who Rowed
Christopher Columbus Ashore" was selected for inclusion in the 1993 edition of
The Best American Short Stories.
Ellison was hired as a writer for
Walt Disney Studios, but was fired on his first day after being overheard by
Roy O. Disney in the studio commissary joking about making a
pornographic animated film featuring Disney characters. He recounted this incident in his book
Stalking the Nightmare, as part 3 of an essay titled "The 3 Most Important Things in Life".
Ellison has provided vocal narration to numerous
audiobooks, both of his own writing and others. Ellison has helped narrate books by authors such as
Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Williamson and
Terry Pratchett.
Ellison lives in
Los Angeles, California with Susan, his fifth wife. In 1994, he suffered a
heart attack and was hospitalized for quadruple
coronary artery bypass surgery.
In 2006, Harlan Ellison received the title of SFWA Grand Master from the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The
Board of Directors and past Presidents of SFWA inducted Ellison as the newest Grand Master at the Nebula Awards Weekend in May of that year.