Daniel Thomas `` Dan '' O'Bannon ( September 30 , 1946 -- December 17 , 2009 ) was an American film screenwriter , director , visual effects supervisor , and occasional actor , usually in the science fiction and horror genres . O'Bannon is best known for having written the screenplay for Alien , adapted from a story he wrote with Ronald Shusett . He also contributed computer animation to Star Wars , worked on cult classics such as Dark Star , Heavy Metal and Total Recall , and both wrote and directed the horror comedy The Return of the Living Dead .
Dan O'Bannon was a pacifist.