Biography
Dan O'Bannon was an American screenwriter, director and visual effects supervisor, primarily associated with science fiction and horror films. He studied film at the University of Southern California, where he collaborated with John Carpenter on the 1974 feature Dark Star, for which he also contributed effects and acted.
O'Bannon worked on computer animation for Star Wars (1977) and co-created the story for Alien (1979) with Ronald Shusett, writing the screenplay himself. He later wrote and directed The Return of the Living Dead (1985) and co-wrote Total Recall (1990). He died in Los Angeles on 17 December 2009.
