Philip K Dick

Philip K. DICK, the science-fiction author who struggled for years with personal demons, never saw "Blade Runner," the first Hollywood adaptation of his writing. He died of a stroke just four months shy of its release in 1982. His grieving daughter Isa, then 15, remembers going to see the film in a San Rafael theater hoping that it might, somehow, keep part of her father alive.

It has been nearly two decades since author Philip K. Dick died of a heart attack at 53, but the sci-fi guru whose plots spawned such films as "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall" continues to be a source of inspiration for Hollywood filmmakers. On Friday, Dimension Films will release a new movie based on Dick's writings titled "Impostor."