Events
- May 25 – 40th anniversary of Star Wars was celebrated by fans worldwide. The 2017 Star Wars Celebration convention in Orlando was dedicated to this date, [1] and several anniversary collectibles were released. [2]
- December 14 – Disney announced it would acquire 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion. The deal includes rights for many science fiction franchises, such as Avatar, Alien, Futurama, Firefly, among others.
Deaths
- January 19 – Hilary Bailey, writer, critic and editor (The Fall of Frenchy Steiner, Frankenstein's Bride, Mrs Rochester, Fifty-First State)
- January 25 – John Hurt, English actor (Alien, Contact, Snowpiercer, Nineteen Eighty-Four, V for Vendetta)
- February 7 – Richard Hatch, American actor (Battlestar Galactica)
- February 10 – Edward Bryant, writer
- February 25 – Bill Paxton, American actor (The Terminator, Weird Science, Aliens, Predator 2, Edge of Tomorrow)
- March 22 – Daisuke Satō, writer (Highschool of the Dead, Imperial Guards, Seito, Red Sun Black Cross)
- March 26 – Marie Jakober, writer (The Mind Gods, The Black Chalice)
- April 5 – Huang Yi, writer (A Step into the Past)
- April 22 – William Hjortsberg, writer (Gray Matters, Legend)
- April 28 – Grania Davis, writer and editor (The Boss in the Wall, a.o.)
- June 9 – Adam West, American actor (Batman, Robinson Crusoe on Mars)
- July 15 – Martin Landau, American actor (Space: 1999)
- July 27 – H. A. Hargreaves, writer, professor
- August 3 – Jack Wodhams, writer (Ryn, Mostly Meantime)
- August 13 – Victor Pemberton, scriptwriter, television producer (Doctor Who)
- August 19 – Brian Aldiss, English writer (Super-Toys Last All Summer Long)
- August 31 – Richard Anderson, American actor (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Forbidden Planet)
- September 8 – Jerry Pournelle, writer, scientist, journalist
- September 10 – Len Wein, American comic book writer (Swamp Thing, Wolverine)
- September 15 – Harry Dean Stanton, American actor (Alien, Escape from New York, Repo Man, The Avengers)
- September 24 – Kit Reed, writer (The Attack of the Giant Baby, Thinner Than Thou, The Night Children, The Baby Merchant)
- October 9 – ElizaBeth Gilligan, author, former secretary for the Science Fiction Writers of America board of directors
- October 9 – Yoji Kondo aka. Eric Kotani, writer, editor and astrophysicist (Star Trek: Death of a Neutron Star, Requiem)
- October 17 – Julian May, writer (Saga of Pliocene Exile, Galactic Milieu Series)
- November 25 – Rance Howard, American actor (Independence Day, Cocoon, Mars Attacks!)
