Ray Bradbury: 1920-2012

Acclaimed science fiction author Ray Bradbury died Tuesday evening at the age of 91.

Best known for his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury's writing career broke with the publication of The Martian Chronicles, based on a collection of previously released stories, in 1950.

Other works of note include Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Illustrated Man.

In addition to science fiction, horror and mystery novels, Bradbury also contributed a number of screenplays and teleplays throughout his career, including It Came From Outer Space, Moby Dick, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Twilight Zone.

He also wrote 65 episodes of The Ray Bradbury Theatre which aired on HBO and the USA Network between 1985 and 1992.

A number of these episodes were based on previously released novels and short stories, and often featured famous actors such as Robert Culp, Jean Stapleton, Elliott Gould, William Shatner, Drew Barrymore, Jeff Goldblum, Shelley Duvall, and Peter O'Toole.

In 2000, Bradbury was awarded an honorary National Book Award medal for lifetime achievement.

During his acceptance speech, he noted: "Everything I've done is a surprise, a wonderful surprise. I sometimes get up at night when I can't sleep and walk down into my library and open one of my books and read a paragraph and say, 'My God, did I write that? Did I write that?', because it's still a surprise."

He received an Emmy Award for his screenplay The Halloween Tree in 1994, and President George W. Bush presented Bradbury with the National Medal of Arts in 2004.

In 2007, he was honoured with a special citation presented by the Pulitzer Board "for his distinguished, prolific, and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy."