Forrest J. Ackerman was sometimes an actor, literary agent, magazine editor and suave eccentric. He is responsible for coining the term “sci-fi”, and discovering writer of the same genre Ray Bradbury. He’s now passed away, after making us laugh at our fears for so many years.

Forrest, also known as Forry, or 4SJ, died of heart failure at 92 in his Los Angeles home, according to Kevin Burns, chief of Prometheus Entertainment and trustee of Ackerman’s estate.

Although his fame flowed somewhat into mainstream literature, Ackerman was a living legend among science fiction fans. He founded pulp magazine of legend Famous Monsters of Filmland, he owned a sizeable private collection of science fiction movie and literature memorabilia, filling up his hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles.

"He became the Pied Piper, the spiritual leader, of everything science fiction, fantasy and horror," Burns said on Friday.

Every Saturday morning, if he was home, Ackerman would open his house to anyone who wanted to view his collection. Some pieces he sold, and others he gave away when he moved to a smaller house in 2002, but still permitted people to visit him on Saturday as long as his health was up to it.

"My wife used to say, 'How can you let strangers into our home?' But what's the point of having a collection like this if you can't let people enjoy it?" an exuberant Ackerman told The Associated Press as he conducted a spirited tour of the mansion on his 85th birthday.

There were more than 50,000 books in his collection, as well as thousands of science fiction magazines and such items as Bela Lugosi’s cape from the original 1931 Dracula.

Arguably his greatest achievement was discovering the writer Ray Bradbury, who authored Fahrenheit 451, and The Martian Chronicles. Ackerman put up a flyer in a Los Angeles bookstore for a science fiction club he was founding, and had Bradbury show up.

The teenage writer was given money by Ackerman to start his own science fiction magazine, Futuria Fantasia, and paid for a trip Bradbury took to New York for an authors meeting that he said helped launch his career.

"I hadn't published yet, and I met a lot of these people who encouraged me and helped me get my career started, and that was all because of Forry Ackerman," the author told the press in 2005.

As a literary agent, Ackerman represented Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and many other science fiction writers.

The abbreviation “sci-fi” was coined by him in 1954 as a play on the term “hi-fi” he had just heard on the radio.

"My dear wife said, 'Forget it, Forry, it will never catch on,'" he recalled.

Ackerman starred in many films over the years, mostly in small roles. He’s appeared in such titles as "Queen of Blood," "Dracula vs. Frankenstein," "Amazon Women on the Moon," "Vampirella," "Transylvania Twist," "The Howling" and the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video.

Forrest J. Ackerman was born in Los Angeles on November 24, 1916. His love affair with science fiction started when he was 9 and read a magazine called Amazing Stories. He kept that publication for the rest of his life.

Ackerman had no children, and followed his wife, Wendayne, to the grave.