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Harve Bennett, who produced four of the Star Trek movies featuring the original cast as well as numerous TV shows, has died aged 84.

According to reports by Star Trek expert Larry Nemecek, Bennett passed away on February 25 in a hospital near his home in Jackson, Oregon. Bennett is credited by many fans with saving Star Trek after he produced the second film, The Wrath of Khan, which revitalised the franchise.

Nicholas Meyer, who co-wrote and directed that film told Deadline, “He was a remarkable man and he was unpretentious and self-effacing. I don’t think there would be a Star Trek franchise without him. He rescued it.  He’s endangered of being lost in the shuffle, but he’s the guy who figured it out . . . He watched all 79 of those original episodes and he was the one who plucked out Khan.” Bennett went on to produce three further Trek films, although his plans for a Starfleet Academy movie were not moved forward – ironic given the success that the idea of the crew’s early days had when brought to the screen by JJ Abrams in 2009.

Bennett’s other genre credits included executive producing The Six Million Dollar Man (and voicing its iconic opening narration – “Steve Austin, a man barely alive…”), The Bionic Woman (for which he is also credited with the story for The Bionic Dog episodes), The Invisible Man (David McCallum version), and Gemini Man as well as the often-forgotten Salvage 1 before working on the Trek movies. After his departure from the franchise, he also produced Time Trax and the animated Invasion: America.

He appeared on screen in Star Trek V as the Starfleet Chief of Staff, and voiced the American President for Invasion: America.