Dan O'Bannon

The screenwriter of Alien.

Dan O'Bannon was an American screenwriter, director and visual effects supervisor who wrote the screenplay for Alien from a story he devised with Ronald Shusett. He also wrote and directed The Return of the Living Dead and worked on Dark Star, Star Wars, Heavy Metal and Total Recall. He died in 2009.

Quick Facts

Birth name

Daniel Thomas O'Bannon

Born

30 September 1946

Birthplace

St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

Died

17 December 2009

Place of death

Los Angeles, California, US

Occupation

Screenwriter
director
actor

Spouse

Diane Lindley (1986)

Children

Lore & Background

Born in St. Louis in 1946, he was a science fiction and horror fan from childhood. He studied art at Washington University in St. Louis and later psychology at MacMurray College, before a magazine article on film schools sent him to the University of Southern California, where he took a film degree in 1970.