As a teenager, Ray Nelson was an avid science fiction fan and budding writer in the genre. After graduation from high school, Ray attended the University of Chicago, where he majored in theology. Post college, he spent four years in Paris, where he rubbed elbows with such iconic and influential writers as William S. Burroughs, Jean-Paul Sarte and Allen Ginsburg. He worked with other writers smuggling government-banned Henry Miller novels out of France.
Ray had a number of his stories and cartoons published in a variety of science fiction periodicals. His most famous story — Eight O’Clock in the Morning — was published in late 1963. Nearly twenty years later, director John Carpenter used the tale as the basis for his film They Live. The the late 1960s, Ray befriended and collaborated with author Philip K. Dick on several projects. He also supplied Dick with LSD on several occasions. Ray continued to write into his later years, winning the prestigious Philip K. Dick Award in 1982 for his novel The Prometheus Man.
Ray Nelson passed away in November 2022 at the age of 91.
Despite his success and recognition as a writer, Ray is better remembered for something else. As a high school student in Cadillac, Michigan, Ray invented the propeller beanie cap as a symbol for the science fiction fan community. He also claimed that he created the “Beany” character for the children’s’ television series Time For Beany (later known as Beany and Cecil). Ray said that he submitted the character to a contest in 1948 as a 17-year old. This story is debated and animator Bob Clampett is officially credited as the creator of Beany and Cecil.