For those of us who are involved in any way in SF fandom, this is a sad day. Without Forrest J Ackerman--"Forry" to everyone he met--SF fandom would be a shadow of what it is. Yeah, you can talk all you want about George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, Steven Spielberg, etc. but without Forry most of those guys never would have heard about SF, let alone known how to tap into SF fandom. He was into SF when it was just crank literature, fit only for neurasthenics, longhairs and other head cases. Yeah, I know I'm coming off like Harlan Ellison here, but goddamnit, even Unca' Harlan has to tip his cap to Forry. He was there at the beginning, with the other giants in the field--Heinlein, Gernsback, Campbell, deCamp, Smith. He was their cheerleader, their champion--truly their biggest fan.
Forry was the greatest champion SF has ever had. Anyone lucky enough to take the grand tour of the Forrymansion and see such sights as his replicas of the robots from METROPOLIS and FORBIDDEN PLANET can attest personal witness to that fact. As to the rest of us, who only knew him from his on-screen appearances or FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine, we knew he was the real thing. He was SF fandom before anyone knew what that was--before STAR TREK/WARS, and about the same time as the original FLASH GORDON and BUCK ROGERS.
God Bless You, Mr Ackerman. And may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
