Goodbye Dan O'bannon

I woke up this morning to find that Dan O’Bannon passed away yesterday.

Dan was a true creative genius, one of a kind. He wrote the screenplay for ALIEN, the 1979 groundbreaking horror sci-fi classic. He wrote the screenplay for TOTAL RECALL, (a film I’m proud to say I’ve hosted on my program) based on the Philip K. Dick short story “We can remember it for you wholesale.” He wrote the segment in HEAVY METAL (the animated film) with the WWII Bomber and the zombies, the coolest sequence in the entire film.

And speaking of zombies, he wrote and directed my favorite zombie film of all time. It is a movie that perfectly blends horror and humor, gore and laughs, shivers and scares. I’m talking, of course, about RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.

The reports that I’ve read so far just mention that he passed away after a short illness, so not exactly sure the cause of death. But I do know that age 63 is waaay too young. Goodbye Dan, rest in peace. You’ll be missed but your films will live forever.

My Recommended Movie of the Week Featuring Return of the Living Dead: