At a glance
| Born | February 4, 1940, New York City |
| Died | July 16, 2017, Toronto |
| Known for | Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead |
| Role | Director, screenwriter, editor |
Overview
George A. Romero directed Night of the Living Dead (1968), the film that set the rules for the modern zombie: slow, hungry, and contagious. Dawn of the Dead (1978) moved the same idea into a shopping mall. Day of the Dead (1985) moved it into a bunker. He did not invent the word zombie, and he barely used it in the first film. He did invent the version of the monster that later films, shows, and games mean when they say zombie.
Career
Romero worked in Pittsburgh industrial films and commercials before Night. The feature was shot outside the city with a local cast, a farmhouse, and money from a production company he ran with partners. Duane Jones plays Ben. The ending, with a Black protagonist shot by a white posse, was not written as a civil-rights statement and has been read as one ever since. The film fell into the public domain over a missing copyright notice, which is why so many cheap copies exist.
Dawn of the Dead, written after the success of the first film and after Martin (1977), is the satire. Survivors live in a mall. The dead come back because the mall is where they went in life. Day of the Dead is angrier and gorier, with Tom Savini on the effects and a smaller audience. Land of the Dead (2005) was the studio return. Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009) closed his run. He also directed Creepshow (1982) with Stephen King, Monkey Shines (1988), and The Dark Half (1993).
He moved to Toronto later in life and died there of lung cancer in 2017. Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead (2004) is a remake he did not direct. The Walking Dead is a television version of a comic that exists because his films existed. He did not make that show.
Notable credits
- Night of the Living Dead (1968) — director, co-writer, editor
- Martin (1977) — director, writer, editor
- Dawn of the Dead (1978) — director, writer
- Creepshow (1982) — director
- Day of the Dead (1985) — director, writer
- Land of the Dead (2005) — director, writer
Trivia
- The undead in Night are called ghouls in the dialogue, not zombies.
- A 1990 remake of Night was written by Romero and directed by Tom Savini.
- Dawn of the Dead’s mall was the Monroeville Mall outside Pittsburgh. Stores were shot after hours.
- The public-domain status of Night is why the film has been colorized and recut by people who did not make it.
- He has a cameo tradition in his own films, usually brief.
- Creepshow’s comic-book frame was drawn to look like the EC horror comics that influenced him.