Dan O'Bannon

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Dan O'Bannon
Aliases:	Daniel Thomas O'Bannon
Gender:	Male
Medium(s):	Film
Roles:	Director; Writer
Date of birth:	September 30th, 1946
Place of birth:	St. Louis, Missouri
Date of death:	December 17th, 2009
Place of death:	Santa Monica, Los Angeles County, California
1st Horror:	Alien (1979)

Dan O'Bannon was a movie screenwriter born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 30th, 1946. He is best known for writing the script for the 1979 film Alien. Dan O'Bannon's original script treatment for Alien did not include the character of Science Officier Ash. Producers Walter Hill and Ronald Shusett felt that the film needed a secondary story element, so they added the sub-plot of Ash, the android spy who ultimately betrays the crew. O'Bannon was displeased with this, feeling that it was a cheap gag and disingenuous to his original vision. He referred to the new material as suffering from "Russian Spy" syndrome.

Of somewhat lesser, but equally important reknown, Dan O'Bannon is responsible for the creation of the Return of the Living Dead film series. Although Return of the Living Dead is not nearly as revolutionary as George Romero's Night of the Living Dead movie series, it is an important part of horror movie culture; most notably for the fact that introduces the concept of zombies eating brains, which has since become a trademark of zombie culture in later projects.

Dan O'Bannon passed away in Santa Monica, California on December 17th, 2009 at the age of 63.

Body of work

Film

Film	Year	Role
Alien	1979	Writer
Dead & Buried	1981	Writer
Return of the Living Dead	1985	Director; Writer
Lifeforce	1985	Writer
Invaders from Mars	1986	Writer
The Resurrected	1991	Director
Screamers	1995	Writer
Bleeders	1997	Writer

Notes & Trivia

• Dan O'Bannon was also the name of a character from The Fog played by Charles Cyphers.

External Links

• Dan O'Bannon at AMG
• Dan O'Bannon at IMDB
• Dan O'Bannon at the Holosuite
• Dan O'Bannon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Dan O'Bannon at Horrormovies.org

References

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Aliens Actor or Crew member This article relates to actors or production crew members pertaining to the Aliens film franchise. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Aliens crew members category.

Return of the Living Dead Actor or Crew member This article relates to actors or production crew members pertaining to the Return of the Living Dead film franchise. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Return of the Living Dead crew members category.