Television Screen Writer, Producer. He is best remembered for the television series, "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery." Born Rodman Edward Serling, the second of two sons in Syracuse, New York, to Samuel and Esther Serling, he was raised in Binghamton, New York, graduating from Binghamton High School. During World War II, at age 19, he joined the Army, serving from January 1943 to January 1946, and attained the rank of Technician 5th Class, where he was trained as a Demolition Specialist. He also became a paratrooper, and served in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division. Although he was short, only 5 feet, 4 inches tall, he was a noted boxer on his regimental sports team. While fighting the Japanese in the Philippines, he was seriously wounded in the wrist and knee, and was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Combat Infantryman's Badge, among many decorations. Due to his wartime experiences, he would later suffer from nightmare flashbacks for the rest of his life. At the end of the war, he was discharged and entered Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, on the G.I. Bill, where he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Literature in 1950. He married his lifelong wife, Carol, on July 31, 1948; they would have two children. Following graduation, Serling took a staff writer job with WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. A lifelong chain smoker, Serling often smoked as many as five or more packs of cigarettes a day. In 1951, Serling moved on to television, writing scripts for Fireside Theater, the Hallmark Hall of Fame, Kraft Television Theater, and similar shows. In 1955, he wrote a play "Patterns" for Kraft Television Theater, and it became so popular that it was presented for a second time the following week, the first such show to be run twice consecutively; this made Serling noted by television moguls. Serling also wrote "The Rack" and "Requiem for a Heavyweight," both shows noted as perhaps the best of television drama. In 1959, Serling began a series for CBS television called "The Twilight Zone," in which Serling would introduce each episode. Fighting the television producers for artistic control, Serling won, giving him an opportunity to provide social messages in a science-fiction setting. The show proved to be an instant hit, and ran for five seasons. Of the 156 episodes, Serling personally wrote 92 of them. In 1970, NBC picked up Serling's follow-up series, "Night Gallery," an hour-long show that ran three tales during each show. Serling would write nearly one-third of the shows for "Night Gallery" during its three-year run. After that, Serling's stories from "The Twilight Zone" and from "Night Gallery" were published in book form as "The Season to be Wary" (1968). In his later years, Serling wrote screenplays for movies, including "Seven Days in May" (1964), a movie about an attempted military coup against the President of the U.S., "Planet of the Apes" (1968), and "The Man" (1972), a movie about the first Black U.S. President. In 1975, he suffered two heart attacks before he entered a Rochester hospital for heart bypass surgery. During the operation, he suffered another heart attack, and died the next day. His lifelong smoking habit was considered a likely cause of his death. During his long writing life, Serling had earned six Emmys for his work. About his life's work, Serling once said, "If you need drugs to be a good writer, you are not a good writer."