Alien Writer Dan O'Bannon Dies

You may not know his name, but you certainly know his movies. Writer Dan O'Bannon gave us such sci-fi and horror classics as, Alien, Dead and Buried, Heavy Metal, Blue Thunder, Lifeforce, The Return of the Living Dead, and Total Recall to name a few.

O'Bannon started his film career developing a student project when he was in college with fellow student John Carpenter (Halloween) to create the film Dark Star. Later Carpenter expanded the student film into a feature, which was released in 1974. The film won several awards, including a Golden Scroll award for special effects.

After college O'Bannon found a job at director George Lucas' production company, Industrial Light and Magic, where he worked as a computer animator, creating some computer effects for Star Wars. However technical work was not his first love, and he soon left ILM to pursue a writing career.

It was as a struggling writer, crashing on a friend's couch that he thought up the idea for Alien, which he eventually was able to sell to 20th Century Fox. Alien became a critical and box office success, launching a writing and directing career that spanned three decades.

Last Thursday, December 17th, O'Bannon died from Crohn's disease, a gastrointestinal disorder of which he suffered all of his adult  life.