Dan O'Bannon, the man who gave the world Alien and Total Recall, has died aged 63, the New York Times reports.

O'Bannon passed away at his home in Santa Monica, California, last Thursday, as a result of the gastrointestinal disorder Crohn’s disease, which he'd suffered for 30 years.

O'Bannon's sci-fi screenwriting career began when he and fellow University of Southern California film school student John Carpenter hooked up to write the low-budget Dark Star, which made its way to the big screen in 1974.

After a stint working as a computer animator on Star Wars, O'Bannon penned Alien, of which he said: “I love gore films and I grew up with ’50s monster movies. The idea for the monster in Alien originally came from a stomach ache I had.”

His other contributions to cinema include screenplays for The Return of the Living Dead (1985), which he directed, Total Recall (1990), Screamers (1995) and Bleeders (1997).

O'Bannon also helmed 1992's The Resurrected, based on The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft, who he applauded as “the greatest horror writer who ever lived". ®