Rod Serling creator of the Twilight Zone

Rodman Edward Serling was born in Syracuse, New York, on December 25, 1924, and grew up in Binghamton, the son of a wholesale meat dealer. By his own account, he had no early literary ambitions, though from an early age, he and his older brother, Robert, immersed themselves in movies and in shows like Astounding Stories and Weird Tales.

On the day he graduated from high school, Serling enlisted in the U.S. Army 11th Airborne Division paratroopers, and after basic training (during which time he took up boxing and won 17 out of 18 bouts) he was sent into combat in the Philippines and wounded by shrapnel.

After being discharged in 1946, Serling enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he majored in Physical Education. He soon switched to Language and Literature, and began writing, directing, and acting in weekly productions on a local radio station. Serling sold his first television script, "Grady Everett for the People," to Stars Over Hollywood for one hundred dollars in 1949, when he was still a student.

Serling married Carolyn Louise Kramer in 1948. After graduation, the pair moved to Cincinnati, where Serling became a staff writer for WLW radio and collected rejection slips for his freelance writing -- forty in a row at one point!

Serling's fortunes changed when he began writing full-time. From 1951 to 1955, more than seventy of his television scripts were produced, garnering both critical and public acclaim. Full-scale success came early in 1955 with the production of a script called "Patterns," deemed a "creative triumph" by critics, and the winner of the first of Serling's six Emmy awards. Serling went to work on screenplays for MGM and as a writer for Playhouse 90, for which he

crafted ninety-minute dramas. A critical and financial success, Serling shocked many of his fans in 1957 when he left Playhouse 90 to create a science-fiction series he called The Twilight Zone.

156 episodes of Twilight Zone, ninety-two written by Serling, aired on CBS over the next five years. The show went on to be one of the most widely recognized and beloved series in television history, and achieved a permanent place in American pop culture with its instantly recognizable opening, theme song and charismatic host, Rod Serling. With appearances by personalities such as Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, and more, Twilight Zone became a launching pad for some of Hollywood's biggest stars.

After the production of Twilight Zone ended in January 1964, Serling continued to write for film and television series and movies, and often appeared in his own productions, such as Rod Serling's Night Gallery. He returned to Antioch College as a professor and lectured at college campuses across the country. Politically active, Serling spoke out against the Vietnam War in the late Sixties and early Seventies.

Rod Serling died on June 28, 1975 in Rochester, New York, of complications arising from a coronary bypass operation.