TomWeaver999 wrote:
<< As for Stan Lee or Rod Serling as candidates . . . well, they're certainly both quite famous, but I thought we were talking about prose fiction writers of short stories and novels <<

The Comment That Started It All was "the most famous science fiction writer on Earth" so I see Rod Serling as a contender. FAHRENHEIT 451, taught in school, enters a kid's life for a couple days, and who know if he/she actually makes a lasting mental note of the author's name; THE TWILIGHT ZONE has been on TV every day for 50 years, for people of allllllll ages. I believe that if you set up a lemonade stand and asked every customer, "Who's Ray Bradbury?" and "Who's Rod Serling?", the people who knew Serling would "win" 10 or 20 to 1. (Setting aside the army of customers who'd say, "Never heard of either of 'em. Shut up and pour!")
I think that used to be true, but you have a couple generarions now who don't like watching anything in black & white, and have probably never watched THE TWILIGHT ZONE.  But they know STAR WARS and AVATAR, so to them George Lucas and James Cameron are probably the most famous "science fiction writers," much better known now than Serling. (This is not meant as a knock against Serling; I love THE TWILIGHT ZONE.)