Obituaries

Forrest Ackerman dies at 92

Here's how AP announces the news:

Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," has died. He was 92.

Ackerman died Thursday of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman's estate.

Although only marginally known to readers of mainstream literature, Ackerman was legendary in science-fiction circles as the founding editor of the pulp magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. He was also the owner of a huge private collection of science-fiction movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles.

"He became the Pied Piper, the spiritual leader, of everything science fiction, fantasy and horror," Burns said Friday.

Ackerman's meetings of the Los Angeles chapter of the Science Fiction League at Clifton's Cafeteria in the '30s and '40s attracted later sci-fi figures such as Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. More later.


More by Kevin Roderick:
Standing up to Harvey Weinstein
The Media
LA Times gets a top editor with nothing but questions
LA Observed Notes: Harvey Weinstein stripped bare
LA Observed Notes: Photos of the homeless, photos that found homes
Recent Obituaries stories on LA Observed:
LA Observed Notes: Photos of the homeless, photos that found homes
LA Observed Notes: Trump's new war, media notes and more
Dick Gregory
Gary Friedman, 62, longtime LA Times photojournalist
Kelly Wong, 29, Los Angeles firefighter
John Severson, 83, founder of Surfer magazine
Cecilia Alvear, 77, trail blazing NBC News producer
Rosie Hamlin, 71, writer and singer of 'Angel Baby'


 

LA Observed on Twitter