Raymond Abrashkin (March 9, 1911 – August 25, 1960) was an American writer and filmmaker. He is known for writing, co-producing, and co-directing '' Little Fugitive'' and for co-creating and co-writing with Jay Williams the ''

Danny Dunn Danny Dunn is a fictional character, the protagonist of a series of American juvenile science fiction/adventure books written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams beginning in 1956. Background The stories are set in the fictional American to ...

'' series of science fiction books for children. He also wrote the story "Little Cowboy" (1948).

Family

Raymond's parents were Harry Abrashkin, born in what is now

Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, and Bertha Kornfeld, born in England. Raymond was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He graduated from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and taught in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

public schools. His writing career began as the education editor of ''PM Newspaper''. He became the principal writer for Young People's Records. He wrote the syndicated comic strip ''Timmy'', drawn by Howard Sparber. Around 1935, he married Evelyn Kurinski. They had two children, John Michael (West) Abrashkin, an artist (1941–1992), and William Henry (Hank) Abrashkin, a Trial Court Judge in Massachusetts (b. 1944). There are two grandchildren, Karen Anna Abrashkin (b. 1981) and John Raymond Abrashkin (b. 1983). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Abrashkin served in the

United States Maritime Service The United States Maritime Service (USMS) was established in 1938 under the provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 as voluntary training organization to train individuals to become officers and crewmembers on merchant ships that form the U ...

on supply ships in the Atlantic. During and after the war, he lived in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, New York. In 1951 he and his family moved to a converted barn in

Weston, Connecticut Weston is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,354 at the 2020 census with the highest median household income in Connecticut. The town is served by Route 57 and Route 53, both of which run through the t ...

, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

''Little Fugitive''

In 1952 Abrashkin wrote the screenplay for '' Little Fugitive'' under the name "Ray Ashley", which he co-produced and co-directed with Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin. The movie, which came out in 1953, was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

, and won acclaim and praise from

François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...

as setting the stage for the

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

movement. While working on the movie at

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

, Abrashkin was stricken with

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS, also known as

Lou Gehrig's disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

), from which he died, aged 49.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abrashkin, Raymond 1911 births 1960 deaths American people of Ukrainian descent American people of English descent 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers American children's writers American male novelists Danny Dunn American science fiction writers United States Merchant Mariners of World War II Writers from Brooklyn Novelists from Connecticut Deaths from motor neuron disease Neurological disease deaths in Connecticut People from Weston, Connecticut Novelists from New York (state)