Science fiction writer Harlan Ellison dead at 84

June 28 (UPI) -- Science fiction writer Harlan Ellison died in his Los Angeles home at the age of 84, his family said Thursday.

Lawyer Christine Valada wrote on Twitter that Ellison's wife, Susan Ellison, asked her to announce the writer died in his sleep and that arrangements for a celebration of life were pending.

Ellison was born in Painesville, Ohio, in 1934 and moved to California in 1962.

While in California he worked as a writer at Walt Disney Studios, but was fired for making irreverent suggestions about the company's characters.

Throughout his career Ellison wrote stories including "Jeffty Is Five," "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," and "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream."

He won Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, Edgar Awards and many others for his work, although he dismissed the idea of awards in a 2013 column for Variety.

"I do not merely hate all awards shows, I wish to see them beheaded, stakes driven through their black and corrupted widdle hearts, and to see the decapitated remains buried at a crossroads come midnight," Ellison wrote.

He also wrote the Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever," which was rewritten by Star Trek staffers who sought to remove an anti-war message.

Decades later in 2009 he sued CBS Paramount Television seeking revenue from merchandising and other sources from the episode and reached a settlement six months later.

In 1980, Ellison won $337,000 from ABC and Paramount Studios for copyright infringement on his short story "Brillo" and later reached a settlement in a suit against James Cameron, claiming The Terminator drew from two episodes of The Outer Limits he wrote.