The Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott's Alien, H. R. Giger, has died aged 74, a spokesperson at Giger's museum in Gruyere has confirmed.

He died in hospital of Monday after he fell down stairs at his Zurich home.

Born in 1940, Giger was best known for his 'Xenomorph' alien in Scott's sci-fi horror masterpiece for which he won a visual effects Oscar in 1980.

He studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich and was known for creating strange dreamscapes. Meticulously detailed, Giger's surrealist paintings were usually produced in large formats and then reworked with an airbrush and usually feature scenes of humans and machines fused together.

Giger described his style as 'biomechanical'.

One of his pieces in particular - Necronom IV - inspired the titular alien killer in Sir Ridley's hit film.

He also worked on Aliens 3 (1992) and, more recently, appeared in a documentary about director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade film of the book Dune. In 1998, he opened his own museum in Gruyeres, Switzerland, which alongside his own paintings and sculptures, displays works from his own art collection from the likes of Salvador Dali, Dada and Ernst Fuchs.

The museum is run by the artist's wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger.

In December 2004, Giger received the prestigious award, La Medaille de la Ville d.