Dan O'Bannon Movies and Career Information

Daniel Thomas "Dan" O'Bannon (September 30, 1946 – December 17, 2009) was an American motion picture screenwriter, director and occasional actor, usually in the science fiction and horror genres. O'Bannon was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Bertha (née Lowenthal) and Thomas Sidney O'Bannon, a carpenter. When O'Bannon was in USC, he met John Carpenter and they collaborated on the 45-minute USC School of Cinema-Television short Dark Star (1970). Carpenter expanded the short into a feature which was released in 1974 with a final budget of only US$60,000. O'Bannon was along, serving in a number of capacities, including scripting, editing and acting as one of the leading roles (Pinback). In 1975 Dark Star won the Golden Scroll award (as the Saturn Awards were known in the early years) for Best Special Effects. O'Bannon, growing up a science fiction and horror enthusiast, had abandoned technical work (including a stint as a computer animator on George Lucas' classic Star Wars) for screenwriting. Following Star Wars he was attached to supervise special effects for a Alejandro Jodorowsky production of Frank Herbert's Dune but this fell apart in 1975 leaving O'Bannon homeless and