George A. Romero | |
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.jpg) Romero at the2009 Venice Film Festival | |
| Born | George Andrew Romero (1940-02-04)February 4, 1940 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | July 16, 2017(2017-07-16) (aged 77) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Burial place | Toronto Necropolis |
| Citizenship |
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| Education | Carnegie Mellon University (BFA) |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1960–2017 |
| Known for | Films based on an imaginedzombie apocalypse |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Website | officialgeorgeromero |
| Signature | |
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George Andrew Romero (/rəˈmɛəroʊ/; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. Regarded as an influential pioneer of thehorror film genre and in particularzombie films, he has been called an "icon" and the "father of the zombie film".[1][2] The first half of hisNight of the Living Dead series—Night of the Living Dead (1968),Dawn of the Dead (1978), andDay of the Dead (1985)—are considered three of the best and most influential horror films ever made, and were major contributors to the image of thezombie in modern culture.[3]
Noted for his frequentsocial commentary, Romero had a prolific career outside of zombie films, albeit mostly still within horror:The Crazies (1973),The Amusement Park (1975),Martin (1977),Creepshow (1982) andMonkey Shines (1988) are regarded as minorcult works, as is hisanthology television seriesTales from the Darkside (1983–1988). His ventures outside horror include thefeministdramaSeason of the Witch (1972) and theaction filmKnightriders (1981), while his final three films,Land of the Dead (2005),Diary of the Dead (2007) andSurvival of the Dead (2009), form the second half of hisNight of the Living Dead franchise.
Romero was born on February 4, 1940, in the New York City borough ofthe Bronx, the son of Anne Romero (Dvorsky) and George M. Romero, acommercial artist.[4] His mother wasLithuanian, and his father was fromSpain and had emigrated toCuba as a child.[5][6] His father has been reported as being born inA Coruña, with his family coming from theGalician town ofNeda,[7][8] although Romero once described his father as ofCastilian descent.[9]
Raised in theParkchester section ofthe Bronx, he would frequently ride the subway intoManhattan to rentfilm reels to view at his house.[10] He was one of only two people who repeatedly rented the opera-based filmThe Tales of Hoffmann, the other was future directorMartin Scorsese.[11] Romero attendedCarnegie Mellon University inPittsburgh.[12]
After graduating from college in 1960,[13][14] Romero began his career shooting short films and TV commercials.[15][16] One of his early commercial films was a segment forMister Rogers' Neighborhood in whichFred Rogers underwent atonsillectomy.[17] With nine friends, including screenwriterJohn A. Russo, Romero formed Image Ten Productions in the late 1960s.[18] This is the production company that producedNight of the Living Dead (1968). Directed by Romero and co-written with John A. Russo,[19][self-published source?] the film became acult classic and a defining moment for modern horror cinema.[20][self-published source?]
Among the inspiration for Romero's filmmaking, as told toRobert K. Elder in an interview forThe Film That Changed My Life,[21] was the British filmThe Tales of Hoffmann (1951), from thePowell and Pressburger team.
It was the filmmaking, the fantasy, the fact that it was a fantasy and it had a few frightening, sort of bizarre things in it. It was everything. It was really a movie for me, and it gave me an early appreciation for the power of visual media—the fact that you could experiment with it. He was doing all his tricks in-camera, and they were sort of obvious. That made me feel that, gee, maybe I could figure this medium out. It was transparent, but it worked.[22]
The three films that Romero created that followedNight of the Living Dead:There's Always Vanilla (1971),Jack's Wife / Season of the Witch (1972) andThe Crazies (1973) were not as well received asNight of the Living Dead or some of his later work.[23]The Crazies, dealing with a bio spill that induces an epidemic of homicidal madness, and the critically acclaimedarthouse successMartin (1978), a film that deals with thevampire myth, were the two well-known films from this period.[24][25]
Romero returned to thezombie genre in 1978 withDawn of the Dead. Shot on a budget of $640,000, the film earned $55 million worldwide and was later named one of the topcult films byEntertainment Weekly in 2003.[26]
Romero shotKnightriders (1981), about a group of modern-day jousters who reenact tournaments on motorcycles,[27] andCreepshow (1982), written byStephen King, an anthology of horror tales modeled after 1950s horror comics.[28] The cult-classic success ofCreepshow led to the creation of Romero'sTales from the Darkside, a horror anthology television series that aired from 1983 to 1988.[29] Romero also drafted "Pinfall", a screenplay forCreepshow 2 based on a draft byStephen King ("Pinfall" was ultimately never filmed).[30] He made the third entry in hisDead series withDay of the Dead in 1985. As the decade drew to a close, Romero directedMonkey Shines (1988), about aservice animal.
Romero updated his original screenplay and executive-produced the 1990 remake ofNight of the Living Dead directed byTom Savini forColumbia/TriStar. Savini is responsible for the makeup and special effects in many of Romero's films includingDawn of the Dead,Day of the Dead,Creepshow, andMonkey Shines.
The early 1990s featured the directorial effortsTwo Evil Eyes (1990), anEdgar Allan Poe adaptation in collaboration withDario Argento, andThe Dark Half (1993), from a novel written byStephen King. In 1991, he made acameo appearance inJonathan Demme'sThe Silence of the Lambs (1991) as one ofHannibal Lecter's jailers.[31][32]
In 1994, Romero shot a short film,Jacaranda Joe, about people running into a community ofBigfoot.[33] Filmed atValencia College in Florida, it was the first film that Romero shot entirely outside of Pittsburgh.[34]
In 1998, Romero produced and directed an unaired pilot aboutprofessional wrestling entitledIron City Asskickers.[35] It was released on DVD and VHS in 2021.[36]
In 1998, he directed alive-action commercial promoting the video gameResident Evil 2 in Los Angeles. The 30-second advertisement featured the game's two main characters,Leon S. Kennedy (portrayed by actorBrad Renfro) andClaire Redfield (Adrienne Frantz), fighting a horde of zombies while in Raccoon City's police station.[37] The project was familiar territory for Romero and theResident Evil series has been heavily influenced by theDead series. The commercial was popular and was shown in the weeks before the game's actual release, although a contract dispute prevented it from being shown outside Japan.Capcom was so impressed with Romero's work that it was strongly indicated that he would direct the firstResident Evil film. He declined at first — "I don't wanna make another film with zombies in it, and I couldn't make a movie based on something that ain't mine"[38] — although in later years, he reconsidered and wrote a script for the first movie. It was eventually rejected in favor ofPaul W. S. Anderson's version.[37]
In the mid 1990s, he wrote a script for a film adaptation of the firstoriginalGoosebumps bookWelcome to Dead House. It was eventually rejected altogether, although Romero's screenplay is kept archived byThe University of Pittsburgh.[39][40]
2000 saw the release ofBruiser, about a man whose face becomes a blank mask.[31] In 2004,Universal Studios produced and released a remake ofDawn of the Dead, with which Romero was not involved. Later that year, Romero kicked off theDC Comics titleToe Tags with a six-issue miniseries titledThe Death of Death. Based on an unused script that Romero had written for hisDead series, the comic miniseries concerns Damien, an intelligent zombie who remembers his former life, struggling to find his identity as he battles armies of both the living and the dead. Typical of a Romero zombie tale, the miniseries includes ample supply of bothgore andsocial commentary (dealing particularly here withcorporate greed and terrorism — ideas he explored in his next film in the series,Land of the Dead). Romero has stated that the miniseries is set in the same kind of world as hisDead films, but featured other locales besides Pittsburgh, where the majority of his films take place.[41]
Romero directedLand of the Dead, released in 2005. The film's working title wasDead Reckoning. ActorsSimon Baker,Dennis Hopper,Asia Argento, andJohn Leguizamo starred and the film was released byUniversal Pictures (who released theDawn of the Dead remake the year before). The film received generally positive reviews.[42]
Romero collaborated with the game company Hip Interactive to create a game calledCity of the Dead, but the project was canceled midway due to the company's financial problems.[43][44]
In August 2006,The Hollywood Reporter announced that Romero signed on to write and directGeorge A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, which follows a group of college students filming a horror movie who proceed to film the events that follow when the dead rise.[45][46]
After a limited theatrical release,Diary of the Dead was released onDVD by Dimension Extreme on May 20, 2008, and later onBlu-ray on October 21, 2008.[47]Shooting began in Toronto in September 2008 on Romero'sSurvival of the Dead (2009). The film was initially reported to be a direct sequel toDiary of the Dead, but the film features onlyAlan van Sprang, who appeared briefly as a rogue National Guard officer, reprising his role from the previous film, and did not retain the first-person camerawork ofDiary of the Dead.[48] The film centers on two feuding families taking very different approaches in dealing with the living dead on a small coastal island. The film premiered at the2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Prior to the US theatrical release of May 28, 2010,Survival of the Dead was made available tovideo on demand and was aired as a special one-night showing onHDNet on May 26, 2010.[49]
Some critics have seen social commentary in much of Romero's work. They viewNight of the Living Dead as a film made in reaction to the turbulent 1960s,Dawn of the Dead as asatire onconsumerism,Day of the Dead as a study of the conflict between science and the military,Land of the Dead as an examination ofclass conflict,Diary of the Dead as a film made in reaction to the "emerging media" andSurvival of the Dead as a study onwar andconflict.[50]
In 2010, Romero stated that he had plans for two moreDead films which would be connected toDiary of the Dead and they would be made depending on how successfulSurvival of the Dead was. Romero, however, said that his next project would not involve zombies and he was going for the scare factor, but offered no further details.[51]
Romero made an appearance in the second downloadable map pack called "Escalation" for the video gameCall of Duty: Black Ops. He appears as himself in the zombies map "Call of the Dead" as a non-playable enemy character.[52] Romero is featured alongside actorsSarah Michelle Gellar,Danny Trejo,Michael Rooker, andRobert Englund, all of the four being playable characters. He is portrayed as a powerful "boss" zombie armed with a movie studio light.
In 2012, Romero returned to video games recording his voice forZombie Squash as the lead villain, Dr. B. E. Vil.Zombie Squash was released by ACW Games for theiPad in November 2012.[53]
In 2014,Marvel Comics began releasingEmpire of the Dead, a 15-issue miniseries written by Romero. The series is broken up into three acts, five issues each, and features zombies andvampires.[54]
A prequel comic book series based on Romero's unproduced zombie film ideaRoad of the Dead was announced byIDW in July 2018.[55][56] The 3-part mini-series was released in December 2018.[56]
In April 2021, it was announced that Romero's unproduced film treatment forTwilight of the Dead was put back into development under the supervision of Suzanne Romero, with co-writer Paolo Zelati finishing the script. Suzanne toldThe Hollywood Reporter, "This is the film he wanted to make. And while someone else will carry the torch as the director, it is very much a George A. Romero film."[57] In August 2023, the film was announced to start production in fall 2023, once the currentSAG-AFTRA strike comes to an end.[58] A month later, it was announced that the film would be directed byBrad Anderson.[59]
Romero was married three times. He married his first wife, Nancy, in 1971. They divorced in 1978. They had one child together, Cameron, who later became a filmmaker.[60]
Romero met his second wife, actressChristine Forrest, on the set ofSeason of the Witch (1972), and they married in 1981.[61] Together they had two children, Tina and Andrew.[62] Tina Romero is a filmmaker who made her directorial debut with the horror-comedyQueens of the Dead (2025).[63]
Romero met Suzanne Desrocher while filmingLand of the Dead (2005), and they married in September 2011 atMartha's Vineyard and lived inToronto.[64] He acquired Canadian citizenship in 2009, becoming a dual Canada-U.S. citizen.[65]
_at_Toronto_Necropolis_1.jpg)
On July 16, 2017, Romero died from a "brief but aggressive battle withlung cancer", according to a statement by his longtime producing partner, Peter Grunwald. Romero died while listening to the score of one of his favorite films,The Quiet Man (1952), with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and daughter from his second marriage, Tina Romero, at his side. He was 77.[66] He was buried atToronto Necropolis.
Romero ranked his top ten films of all time for the 2002Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll. They areThe Brothers Karamazov,Casablanca,Dr. Strangelove,High Noon,King Solomon's Mines,North by Northwest (a film on which a teenaged Romero worked as a gofer),The Quiet Man,Repulsion,Touch of Evil andThe Tales of Hoffmann. Romero listed the films in alphabetical order, with special placement given toMichael Powell'sThe Tales of Hoffmann, which he cites as "my favorite film of all time, the movie that made me want to make movies."[67]
On October 27, 2009, Romero was honored with the Mastermind Award at Spike TV'sScream 2009. The tribute was presented by longtime Romero fanQuentin Tarantino, who stated in his speech that the "A" in George A. Romero stood for "A Fucking Genius."[68]
He was presented theBram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015.[69] In 2016, he was honored with the Ted M. Larson Award at theFargo Film Festival for his contribution to cinema.[70]
Regarded as the "Godfather of the Dead",[71] as well as the "Father of the Modern Movie Zombie",[72] criticOwen Gleiberman said of Romero that he was "a maestro of zombie terror who created the ultimate horror-movie metaphor" and remarked that "the real metaphor isn't only about Vietnam, or capitalism, or even disease, or anything else that you can stuff into a fortune cookie. It's about something more basic but ethereal, something that you can sense without putting it into words: the hidden aggression we all feel deep down, as the price of too much civilization."[73]
In 2010, writer and actorMark Gatiss interviewed Romero for his BBC documentary seriesA History of Horror, in which he appears in the third episode.[74]Los Angeles Times. Romero's influence, and that ofNight of the Living Dead, is widely seen among numerous filmmakers and artists, in particular those who have worked in the zombie subgenre,[75] including comics writerRobert Kirkman,[72] novelistSeth Grahame-Smith,[76] and filmmakersJohn Carpenter,[77][78][79]Edgar Wright[80] andJack Thomas Smith.[81]
Theseason eight premiere episode "Mercy" of the zombie-based showThe Walking Dead, the first to air after Romero's death, dedicated the episode to Romero; showrunnerScott M. Gimple said that the show "owes a great debt" to Romero for his impact on popular culture.[82]
In May 2019, theUniversity of Pittsburgh announced it had acquired George Romero's archives and that a multimedia exhibit be created and open to the public in the university'sHillman Library.[83][84]
The George A. Romero Foundation is anonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Romero's legacy. Founded in 2018 by Romero's wife Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, the Foundation's mission is to advance the causes for which George Romero was a champion – creativity within the horror genre and independent filmmaking in general – as well as preserving and documenting the history of the genre in all forms and contributing to its future by encouraging new generations of filmmakers, artists, and creators.
[...] when the Pulp Fiction director presented Romero with the Mastermind Award at the 2009 Scream Awards, Tarantino noted that the 'A' in 'George A. Romero' stands for 'A Fucking Genius.'
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