Dan O’Bannon was born on 30 September 1946. He died at the age of 63.

O’Bannon was a great screenwriter who wrote many iconic psychotronic films. These include Dark Star, Alien, Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars, and Total Recall. He also directed a couple of excellent horror films: The Return of the Living Dead and The Resurrected.

It’s shocking he created so much great stuff when he died so young.

In general, O’Bannon shares screenwriting credit for his work. For example, three of his films were co-written with Don Jakoby. O’Bannon was the visionary or genius. Jakoby was the craftsman. Or at least that’s what film journalists will tell you. I think such generalizations are mostly nonsense. Both men loved the kind of horror and science fiction they wrote. Jakoby, for example, co-wrote Arachnophobia without O’Bannon.

Dan O’Bannon also collaborated with Ronald Shusett on two big hits: Alien and Total Recall. People say exactly the same thing about this relationship.

There is one wrinkle. The two men supposedly wrote Dead & Buried together. But according to O’Bannon, he only put his name on the screenplay to get it made. He hated the final film. That’s too bad. It’s actually quite good. This was after they wrote Alien together but before Total Recall. I smell a rat. Temperamental artists with journalists recording every silly thought they have.

It is hard to pick a film to celebrate Dan O’Bannon’s birthday. But I really think we have to go with The Return of the Living Dead. It’s one of his few directorial efforts. And he wrote the screenplay (but not the story). And it works very well to this day.

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Dan O’Bannon by JaSunni under CC BY-SA 3.0.