Rod Serling

Served in the United States Army, under the service number 32-738-306, from January 1943 to January 1946. Discharged in the rank of Technician 5th Grade (the equivalent of a Corporal) having served as an Infantry Combat Demolition Specialist and a Paratrooper.

Born into a Reform Jewish family, he later became a Unitarian upon his marriage in 1948.

Father of Jodi Serling (born 1950) and Anne Serling (born 1955) with Carol Serling.

Along with many other famous faces, he was a pie-in-the-face recipient on The Soupy Sales Show (1953). Serling's turn came in 1962.

Like most writers and dramatists, Rod Serling struggled for many years to establish himself. This began to change from about 1955 onward, when his plays were adapted for television.

The first George Foster Peabody Award for television writing was the 1956 Personal Award given to Serling for his script of Days Of Wine & Roses - Cliff Robertson & Piper Laurie, "Playhouse 90" Original TV Version: Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956).

He wanted Richard Egan to do the narration for The Twilight Zone (1959) because of his deep smooth voice. However, due to strict studio contracts of the time, Egan was unable to. Serling said "It's Richard Egan or no one. It's Richard Egan, or I'll do the thing myself," which is exactly what happened.

Robert Marshall Hosfeldt authored a 1961 MA Thesis at San Jose State College called "Analysis of the techniques and content of characterization in the Academy Award winning plays of Rod Serling". In this case, "Academy" referred to the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

A news item in TV Guide the week of December 7, 1963 said that Serling would be visiting Hong Kong to film a television pilot called "Jeopardy Run".

Was friends with Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) creator Gene Roddenberry, who had the honor of reading the eulogy at Serling's funeral.

He owned a 1968 Glen Pray made replica of the 1937 Cord automobile. During the making of the game show Liar's Club (1969), he would go riding with friend and fellow actor and car enthusiast Tommy Bond, who played Butch in the Little Rascals series from the 1940s.

He was credited as writer under the pseudonym "John Phillips" on the pilot episode of the television series The New People (1969). While Serling's name remained as the series developer, he was sufficiently annoyed with ABC-TV's editing of the pilot (this was cut from 52 to 45 minutes to adapt into a 90 minute time slot along with another series) that he preferred to remove his real name. He possibly got this particular pseudonym from the novelist John Phillips (John Phillips Marquand Jr.), whose only novel "The Second Happiest Day" was adapted to an episode of the television series Days Of Wine & Roses - Cliff Robertson & Piper Laurie, "Playhouse 90" Original TV Version: The Second Happiest Day (1959), for which series Serling had himself written a dozen episodes of prior to The Twilight Zone (1959).

Host of the syndicated radio show "The Zero Hour" (1973-1974).

On June 28, 1975, he was mowing his lawn, when all of a sudden, he began to experience some chest pains and collapsed. His neighbor found him and called the ambulance. When he arrived in the operating room, the doctors saw that the artery leading to his heart was disintegrating and there was no hope for him. He died later that day in the hospital.

His schoolteacher Helen Foley encouraged him in his writing and he always believed he owed his success to her. A schoolteacher in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) was named Helen Foley in her honor.

Posthumously inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame (1985) and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame (2008).

Posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on October 6, 1988.

In 1994, 19 years after his death, he returned to "host" the pre-show area of "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" attraction at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in Orlando, Florida. Through clever use of carefully edited vintage The Twilight Zone (1959) footage, new footage processed in black and white and special additional dialogue recorded by a Serling soundalike (reportedly selected personally by Serling's widow, Carol), Serling appears in a Twilight Zone episode based on the ride's storyline and introduces theme park visitors to the attraction. This brief introduction, which is shown on a special vintage television in the attraction's pre-show area, represents the first "new" introduction of The Twilight Zone that he appears in since the series' end in 1964.

Ranked #1 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (August 1, 2004 issue), the only real person on the list. All the others are television series characters.

Appears on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp, issued 11 August 2009, in the Early TV Memories issue honoring The Twilight Zone (1959).

His play, "Requiem for a Heavyweight" at The Artistic Home in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 2019 Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for Play Production.