S P A C E L I G H T
INDEX
Name: SERLING, Rodman Edward
Aged: 50
Born: December 25, 1924
Where: Syracuse, New York
Died: June 28, 1975
Where: Rochester, N.Y.
Interred: Interlaken, New York
Married: Carolyn Kramer
When: July 31, 1948
Awards: 3 Hugos for Twilight Zone
(1960, 61, 62 Dramatic Presentation), 6 Emmys, beginning with 1956's
Screenplay for "Patterns"; 1957's Screenplay for "Requiem for a Heavyweight"; 1958's Screenplay for "The Comedian"; 1960 & 1961 for Twilight Zone; and 1964 Screenplay adaption for the Chrysler Theater. There were also 3 Writer's Guild of America awards; 2 Sylvania Awards; a Golden Globe Award; a George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award; Harcourt-Brace Award; Look Magazine Television Award; and a Televison-Radio Writers Award. All of which made Rod Serling the most honored writer in television history.
Rod Serling
"Some people possess talent...others are possessed by it.
When that happens, talent becomes a curse."
Born of parents with a history of heart problems, Serling would not escape that fate. A tough man for his size, Rod took up boxing and joined the US Army's 11th Airborne paratroopers during WWII. While in the Pacific he received shrapnel wounds to a wrist and leg that left him with a permanent limp. The death of his father from a heart attack occurred at this time and Serling left the military embittered. Rod turned to fiction, in part, as a means of escape and release.
One of the early, major figures in script writing for television. Educated at Antioch College, Serling began writing radio plays. He authored over 200 television plays, many 90 minutes long. Host and creator of the groundbreaking TV programs, The Twilight Zone, 1959-64, and Night Gallery, 1970-3. Serling was the primary writer for Twilight Zone with Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson almost tieing for second with about 20 scripts each.
"I just want them to remember me a hundred years from now. I don't care that they're not able to quote a single line that I've written. But just that they can say, 'Oh, he was a writer.' That's a
sufficiently honored position for me."
BIOGRAPHY: Who Was Who in America, Vol VI, p368
OBITUARY: Copyrighted by Edward Hudson, The New York Times, Sunday, June 29, 1975, p35. L.A. Times, June 29, 1975, pt1, p8.
WWII DATA: Army SN 32738306, Rodman E. Serling, res Broome county, New York. Enlisted Binghamton, New York, on Jan 26, 1943. Pvt. Born 1924, New York. White. 4 years high school. Single.
