Raymond Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois.  When Ray was eleven years old, he was in the audience at one of the Great Blackstone’s performances.  Ray was asked to come onstage and receive the rabbit that was magically pulled out of a hat.  The next year at a traveling carnival, Ray met Mr. Electrico, a man who harnessed lightning.  He touched Ray with a sword and told him that he would live forever.  The boy magician was born.

During the Great Depression, Ray’s family moved to Los Angeles.  Bradbury discovered fandom in 1937 when he attended a meeting of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society.  He met Forrest Ackerman, who immediately hired him to work on a fan magazine.  It was there that Bradbury met Ray Harryhausen, another teenager who also loved dinosaurs.  They were to become lifelong best friends, and the two promised each other to grow old together, but never grow up.  In 1939, Ray took the bus across the country to attend the first World Science Fiction Convention and visit the New York World’s Fair (“The World of Tomorrow”).  He took with him a portfolio of artwork by Hannes Bok to show the editors of the magazines.  This helped to launch Bok’s career, even though it would be two years before Bradbury made his own first professional sale. 

With Julius Schwartz as his agent, Ray’s stories began earning a half a cent a word as they appeared in the early 1940s.  He sold newspapers on the street corner until he was able to make a living as a full-time writer.  In 1947, he married Marguerite Susan McClure, and together they raised four daughters.  In the early 1950s, Ray published several important books:  The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and Fahrenheit 451 (1953).  Following these successes, Ray was able to transition to more prestigious fiction magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post.  Finally getting to work with Ray Harryhausen, two of Bradbury’s stories were adapted as films in 1953: It Came from Outer Space and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. 

In 1956, Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s film Moby Dick.  Ray’s stories have been adapted for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.  In 1964, he wrote American Journey for the American Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.  Several other books have been made into major films, including Fahrenheit 451 (1966) and The Illustrated Man (1969).

Bradbury served as President of the Science Fantasy Writers of America during 1951-53.  He was a member of the Board of Directors for the Screen Writers Guild of America, 1957-61.  Ray has received many awards, including the O. Henry Prize (1947, 1948); Benjamin Franklin Award (1954); American Academy Award (1954); Golden Eagle Award (1957); Ann Radcliffe Award (1965, 1971); American Writers Guild Award (1974); World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award (1977); Aviation Space Writer’s Award (1979); Gandalf Award (1980); Nebula Grand Master Lifetime Achievement Award (1989); and, the inaugural Julie Award (1998) from DragonCon.

In 1980, Ray’s The Martian Chronicles was adapted as a television mini-series.  Walt Disney filmed Something Wicked This Way Comes (1981).  Ray authored the narrative for EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth in 1982.  In 1985, the Ray Bradbury Theater television series began.  Ray was Guest of Honor at the 1986 World Science Fiction Convention.  In 1989, he received the Bram Stoker Award in three different categories from the Horror Writers of America.  In 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited Bradbury to present Ray Harryhausen with the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for a lifetime of achievement.  Bradbury received an Emmy Award in 1993 and was named Citizen of the Year by the City of Los Angeles in 1995.  In 1999, the Academy of Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Films presented Ray with the George Pal Memorial Award.  That same year he was honored as a Living Inductee into the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. 

In 2001, Ray received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Two years later, he was presented an Honorary Doctorate from Woodbury University.  In 2005, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daly proclaimed April 18 to be “Ray Bradbury Day” in Chicago.  In 2007, Ray received a special citation from the Pulitzer Board for “a distinguished, prolific, deeply influential career as unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy.”  That same year, he received the French Commandeur Ordre des Arts et Lettres medal.  In 2008 he was named Grandmaster by the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and he received the Raymond Z. Gallun Award from I-Con (New York).  In the final years of his life Ray continued being active.  He published new books, co-produced presentations of his plays and attended the theatre, festivals, and conventions. Finally, on June 6, 2012, after living a truly fantastic life in which he met nearly everybody, went almost everywhere and did practically everything, Ray Douglas Bradbury quietly passed away. 

Starting from the time he was twelve years old, Ray faithfully wrote every day during his life.  He championed literacy programs and supported public libraries.  Ultimately, it was in the harnessing of his own literary lightning that Ray Bradbury became Mr. Electrico, and by doing so, it is his stories that will live forever.