Ray Bradbury | 1920 - 2012

Ray Bradbury in 1923 in Waukegan, Ill. ““When I was born in 1920,”” he said in 2000, ““the auto was only 20 years old. Radio didn’'t exist. TV didn'’t exist. I was born at just the right time to write about all of these things."”  (Joshua Odell Editions / Capra Press)

Bradbury is surrounded by toys and treasures in his Beverly Hills office in 1986.  (Doug Pizac / Associated Press)

In 2000, Bradbury chatted with The Times about his classic “Dandelion Wine,” which was turned into a popular musical. The production was being reprised at the Colony Theatre in Burbank.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Charlton Heston was among those at the 80th-birthday bash thrown for Bradbury in 2000 at Burbank’s Colony Theatre.  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

In April of 2002, the author speaks at UCLA’s Royce Hall during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.  (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

In Venice, Bradbury speaks to a crowd during the city’s 2005 centennial celebration. He told of the Venice apartment he shared with wife Marguerite in the 1940s.  (Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times)

Ray Bradbury delivers a talk at the 2007 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on the UCLA campus.  (Charley Gallay / Getty Images)

Ray Bradbury embraces himself as he speaks at the Acres of Books on his last visit to the bookstore on June 25, 2008.  (Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times)

The author signs books during the 2009 L.A. Times Festival of Books at UCLA.  (Christina House / For The Times)

Ray Bradbury happily accepts a gift of a Clifton’s Cafeteria tray from Robert Clinton, grandson of Clifton’s founder Clifford Clinton, as he celebrates his 89th birthday in 2009 with friends at a luncheon at the historic eatery where he was allowed to eat for free when he was a struggling writer. As a young man, Bradbury, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Jack Parsons, inventor of solid rocket fuel, belonged to a science fiction club that met downtown at the cafeteria in the late 1930s.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)