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Gene Roddenberry was born 'Eugene Wesley Roddenberry' in El Paso, Texas, USA, on 19 August 1921. Known also as Robert Wesley, and affectionately nicknamed 'The Great Bird of the Galaxy', he would become most well known as the creator of the Star Trek franchise, before succumbing to heart failure at the age of 70 on 24 October 1991.

"A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on and licks it, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away."

Growing up in Los Angeles, he graduating from Los Angeles City College before studying aeronautical engineering. In 1941, after obtaining his pilot's license, he volunteered to join the U.S. Army Air Corps, where he won various medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, for approximately 90 successful B17 combat missions during WW2.

His pilot life was not without its dramas. In 1943 a plane he was piloting for the US Army Air Corps crashed upon takeoff, killing two other crew members. In 1947, after leaving the Corps to become a pilot for Pan American World Airways, he was a passenger on a Pan Am flight that crashed in the Syrian desert, killing 7 crew and 7 passengers. He received a Civil Aeronautics Commendation for his rescue efforts in the aftermath.

Once he was exposed to television, he left Pan Am to pursue screenplay writing. Initially suffering limited success, he was forced to return to work, taking up a job with the Los Angeles Police Department in 1949, where he stayed for 7 years. During this time he continued to write, and sold screenplays to popular television shows of the day. His persistence would pay off in time, as eventually he would secure the head writers role on the popular gunfighter western "Have Gun, Will Travel", where he would write 23 episodes and win a Writers Guild award.

"In the 24th century there will be no hunger, there will be no greed, and all the children will know how to read."

Most of Roddenberry's colorful history and previous television credits have been overshadowed by what he is most well known for - the phenomenon of "Star Trek". In 1964 he penned a story about the experiences of a crew made up of Earth's first space explorers, said to be in response to the popularity of "Buck Rogers" and "Flash Gordon". Originally rejected as 'too cerebral', Roddenberry then pitched the series as 'The Wagon Train to the Stars' and, after receiving $500,000 for the pilot, "Star Trek" premiered in 1966.

Unfortunately for Roddenberry, "Star Trek" was canceled after only 3 years

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