Ray Bradbury, LA's coolest octogenarian

Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury: he's the author of Farenheight 451, The Illustrated Man, the Martian Chronicles and many more. He's won a pile of awards, including a Kennedy Center honor in 2004. (What do you think is going through his mind when this photo was taken?) He's 85, and he lives in our very own Pasadena.

After his family moved to LA in the 1930s, Bradbury hung around Hollywood; special effects visionary Ray Harryhausen was the best man at his 1947 wedding. Maybe it's Bradbury's talent for storytelling or his just plain affability, but Bradbury has gone places few writers have gone before: he worked with Disney and with NASA, with movies and TV and radio, and even helped design the Glendale Galleria.

Ray Bradbury will be speaking and signing books at Barnsdall Gallery Theater in Los Feliz next Wednesday, April 5; tickets are $15. The topic is "Future Perfect," which we're sure he can handle, but if he takes questions you might also ask him about his past. Which has been pretty darn good.