Tracy Tormé, a UFO expert and son of stylish crooner Mel Tormé who co-created the 1990s series Sliders and was hand-picked by Gene Roddenberry to serve as the head writer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, has died. He was 64.

Tormé died Thursday of complications from diabetes in Escondido, California, his sister and brother, actress Daisy Tormé (Superman & Lois) and recording artist James Tormé, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Tormé also was a writer on Saturday Night Live during its eighth season (1982-83); wrote and produced with Travis Walton the fantasy drama film Fire in the Sky (1993), starring D.B. Sweeney and Robert Patrick; and was a consultant on the acclaimed Robert Zemeckis sci-fi drama Contact (1997).

He wrote the original treatment for the Francis Lawrence-directed I Am Legend (2007) and received co-producer credit on that film, which grossed $585.4 million for Warner Bros. Smith battles mutants as the last human in New York in the post-apocalyptic thriller that was based on a Richard Matheson novel.