One incident in Dark Star concerns a comic beachball alien that escapes into the gizzards of the ship causing mayhem. O'Bannon revisited this scene and the episode begat the Alien franchise.

O'Bannon cornered the market for a while in scripting movies from the novels of Philip K. Dick, with Total Recall and Screamers. Although O'Bannon and Carpenter fell out, Carpenter always mentioned an O'Bannon directed USC short concerning a bathroom suicide, 'Blood Bath', as being something special, O'Bannon finally got to direct a feature with the hilarious (and scary!) Return of the Living Dead.

If that weren't enough, there's Dead and Buried and Blue Thunder too.

Opinionated and critical he always makes for good listening on DVD commentary tracks. Watch for those chicken cameo shots too, "there's always a chicken in a Dan O'Bannon movie" he says.

Dan O'Bannon, one of a kind. RIP