The Associated Press is reporting that sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant Forrest J. Ackerman has died at the age of 92. The AP says Ackerman discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term ‘sci-fi.’ They say he died Thursday of heart failure in Los Angeles.
(I would link directly to the AP story but I’m getting this right off the wire and I don’t know how!)
Here’s a video of Mr. Ackerman receiving his Horror Hall of Fame Award in 1990. It’s a nice video, with tributes from some familiar faces. Uncle Forry’s influence can’t be overstated.
Try this: http://tinyurl.com/5c5wcl
Sorry to hear this. Ackerman was an important figure in science fiction and in popularizing the horror film.
One writer I knew once met him. She talked about seeing him and complimenting him about a ring he wore. “Oh, it’s the ring Lugosi wore in Dracula,” he said.
A great, long life.
He had a good run, and did much for Science Fiction. I’d call it a worthy life.
Coincidentally, I saw Nudist Colony Of The Dead (in which he played Judge Rhinehole) on the shelf the other day and almost watched it again.
Oh wow. Sorry to hear it.
I used to own a first edition of Vonnegut’s first book, Player Piano, that Forrie (he signed it that way) had presented to Philip Jose Farmer with a long inscription - basically telling Farmer to read this book and use it for guidance as he wrote his novels…
4SJ was important long before Famous Monsters. He was among the first of the fans, and I have sf mags from the '30s with letters from him in the letter pages.
I got to meet him, since my parents once lived a few blocks from the Ackermansion before he donated his collection to the Los Angeles Library. Not only was the house filled with books, but he had many classic props, such as some of the armature from King Kong, and Lugosi’s cape from Dracula. (I forget all the stuff, but it was very impressive.) He also had an entire bookshelf of autographed books.
Whatever you think about his Perry Rhodan translations for Ace, he also included old sf gems serialized, such as Edison’s Conquest of Mars. He was very important in keeping alive the gosh wow stuff.
I’ll see if I can find “A Way of Life” one of his few stories, about how sf fans take over the world after a nuclear war (they have all the mimeographs) and where people fly on Heinleiners to Moskowitz, Russia.
Longer AP article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081205/ap_en_ce/obit_ackerman;_ylt=AqHpmeCfYz823puuVbpjLwis0NUE
It wasn’t a surprise, he’s been ill for a while. Still a loss, though.
ONE OF US!
ONE OF US!
…Forry was one of us.
A good Fan.
Goodnight, Mr Ackerman.
Wow. I’m very sad to hear that.
As I get older, the number of childhood heroes that have passed away is mounting up far too quickly.
Ddamn! I’m sorry to see Forry go. Met him at a con once; he was accessible and lots of fun to talk to.
We’ll miss you, brother. 
AICN (including parting thoughts of Mr. Ackerman)
Brian
There was once a flap between Ackerman and Harlan Ellison – Ackerman apparently coined the term “Sci-Fi,” and Ellison derided that as “the sound of crickets making love.” So I got a message-button made up special: “I 
COPULATING CRICKETS.” Ackerman saw me wearing it at a con and later, when I visited his famous SF library in L.A., said he “got a lot of smileage” out of it. 
Man. He was… he was an original. No, really. He was the mold from which Fandom as a whole sprung.
I think he saw great things and died a happy man, relatively speaking.
Man, oh, man.
His influence on young people who, as adults, went on to great fame in the genre should be mentioned. A lot of the sci-fi and horror we read and watch today was/is produced by the ‘nieces’ and ‘nephews’ of Uncle Forry.
Another of those people who was a big influence in my life – I got my first copy of his Famous Monsters of Filmland just as I was going into a hospital for the first time, and read the mag for years afterwards.
I met him at the NoreasCon in Boston in 1989, it was the Worldcon that was the 50-th anniversary of the first Worldcon. He came dressed in a duplicate of the “Space” outfit he wore to the first one. I shook hands with him, and he was wearing that damned Dracula ring (which I’d seen pictured in FM years before).
Aaaawwwww shit.
That man was one of my early heroes. I think I may have picked up some of my admiration for certain kinds of horror movies – namely the “Jurassic classics” and the cheesy-but-fun ones – from him. And I know he had a lot to do with my delectation of pun-gent pun-ishment…
Ave, Uncle Forry. Thanks for sharing so much fun with all us monster kids.
Could we say then that Forry was a proto-Doper ?
Another one who is gonna miss him, even if I didn’t read him in over 30 years. I guess it is time for me to go in the basement and forrage in my boxes for old copies of Famous Monster
On a lighter note, do you think he will be part of next year’s In Memoriam at the Oscars. Should fans petition to make sure he’s included in it ?
Ackerman was a great guy, but he didn’t coin “sci fi.” There’s a 1949 cite in a letter by Heinlein.
I read FMF & all the other Warren publications as a kid & only dreamed of visiting the Ackermansion. I finally did so twice in the last 13 years, and would have a third time this past spring except my brother had the temerity to be in the hospital with a food allergy. The first time I met him was at the world premiere of “The Haunted World of Edward Wood Jr.”, and we (Mom, Brother & myself) were at the Ackermansion the next morning.
We went again a few years ago. Both times, he was totally a class act, gracious & amusing & delighting to entertain us & autograph our stuff & sell us a lot more stuff.
I know you didn’t believe a word of it, but God bless you, Uncle Forry, and Happy Reunion with Wendayne.
Stephen King tells a story of how he submitted a story to Ackerman in the late 1960’s. Ackerman rejected the story but kept the manuscript. Twenty years later King was doing a book signing and Ackerman showed up with the story and had it autographed.
As King put it: Man oh man. Talk about a ghost from your past.