George A.

Romero
George Andrew Romero (/rmro/; born February 4,
1940) is an American-Canadian lm director, lm producer, screenwriter and editor, best known for his series
of gruesome and satirical horror lms about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse, beginning with Night of the Living
Dead (1968).[1]

the vampire myth, were the two well-known lms from

this period. Like many of his lms, they were shot in or
around Pittsburgh.
In 1978, Romero returned to the zombie genre with Dawn
of the Dead (1978). Shot on a budget of just $500,000,
the lm earned over $55 million worldwide and was
named one of the top cult lms by Entertainment Weekly
in 2003. Romero made a third entry in his Dead Series
with Day of the Dead (1985).

Life and career

Between these two lms, Romero shot Knightriders

(1981), another festival favorite about a group of modernday jousters who reenact tournaments on motorcycles,
and the successful Creepshow (1982), written by Stephen
King, an anthology of tongue-in-cheek tales modeled after 1950s horror comics.

Romero was born in New York City borough of The

Bronx, to a Cuban-born father and a Lithuanian American mother.[2] His father has been reported as born in A
Corua with his family coming from the Galician town of
Neda,[3][4] although George A. Romero once described
his father as of Castilian descent.[5] His father worked
as a commercial artist.[6] Romero attended Pittsburgh's
Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1960,[7]
he began his career shooting short lms and commercials.
One of his early commercial lms, a segment for Mister
Rogers Neighborhood in which Mr. Rogers underwent
a tonsillectomy,[8] inspired Romero to go into the horror
lm business. He, along with nine friends, formed Image
Ten Productions in the late 1960s, and produced Night of
the Living Dead (1968). The movie, directed by Romero
and co-written with John A. Russo, became a cult classic
and a dening moment for modern horror cinema.

From the latter half of the 1980s and into the 1990s came
Monkey Shines (1988), about a killer helper monkey, Two
Evil Eyes (1990) (aka, Due occhi Diabolici), an Edgar
Allan Poe adaptation in collaboration with Dario Argento, The Dark Half (1993) written by Stephen King,
and Bruiser (2000), about a man whose face becomes a
blank mask.

Romero updated his original screenplay and executive

produced the remake of Night of the Living Dead directed
by Tom Savini for Columbia/TriStar in 1990. Tom Savini
is also responsible for the makeup and special eects in
Other inspiration for Romeros lmmaking, as told to many of Romeros lms including Dawn of the Dead, Day
Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That of the Dead, Creepshow and Monkey Shines. Romero
Changed My Life,[9] was the lm The Tales of Homann. had a cameo appearance in Jonathan Demme's Academy
Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs in 1991 as one
of Hannibal Lecters jailers.
It was the lmmaking, the fantasy, the fact
In 1998, he directed the live-action commercial promotthat it was a fantasy and it had a few frightening the videogame Resident Evil 2 in Tokyo, Japan. The
ing, sort of bizarre things in it. It was every30-second advertisement featured the games two main
thing. It was really a movie for me, and it gave
characters, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redeld, ghtme an early appreciation for the power of viing a horde of zombies while in Raccoon City's Police
sual mediathe fact that you could experiment
Station. The project was obvious territory for Romero;
with it. He was doing all his tricks in-camera,
the Resident Evil series has been heavily inuenced by
and they were sort of obvious. That made me
Romeros Dead projects. The commercial was rather
feel that, gee, maybe I could gure this medium
popular and was released in the weeks before the games
out. It was transparent, but it worked.[10]
actual release, although a contract dispute prevented the
commercial from being shown outside Japan. Capcom
Three lms that followed were less popular: Theres Alwas so impressed with Romeros work, it was strongly inways Vanilla (1971), Jacks Wife / Season of the Witch
dicated that Romero would direct the rst Resident Evil
(1972) and The Crazies (1973) were not as well received
lm. He declined at rst I don't wanna make another
as Night of the Living Dead or some of his later work.
lm with zombies in it, and I couldn't make a movie based
The Crazies, dealing with a bio spill that induces an epion something that ain't mine although in later years,
demic of homicidal madness, and the critically acclaimed
he reconsidered and wrote a script for the rst movie. It
arthouse success Martin (1977), a lm that deals with
1

1 LIFE AND CAREER

was eventually rejected in favor of Paul W. S. Anderson's tion of a series of Making of shorts and story expansion
version.
detailing the work behind the lm George A. Romeros
of the Dead. Shooting began in Toronto in July
Universal Studios produced and released a remake of Diary[12]
2006.
Dawn of the Dead in 2004, with which Romero was not
involved. Later that year, Romero kicked o the DC
Comics title Toe Tags with a six-issue miniseries titled
The Death of Death. Based on an unused script that
Romero had previously written as a sequel to his Dead
Trilogy, the comic miniseries concerns Damien, an intelligent zombie who remembers his former life, struggling to nd 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 both gore and
social commentary (dealing particularly here with corporate greed and terrorism ideas he would also explore in his next lm in the series, Land of the Dead).
Romero has stated that the miniseries is set in the same
kind of world as his 'Dead' lms, but featured other locales besides Pittsburgh, where the majority of his lms
take place.[11]
Romero, who lives in Toronto, lmed a fourth Dead
movie in that city titled Land of the Dead. The movies
working title was Dead Reckoning. Its $16 million production budget was the highest of the four movies in the
series. Actors Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, and John Leguizamo star in the lm. It was released on June 24, 2005 by Universal Pictures (who released the Dawn of the Dead remake). The lm received
generally positive reviews.

In August 2006, The Hollywood Reporter made two announcements about Romero, the rst being that he will
write and direct a lm based on a short story by Koji
Suzuki, author of Ring and Dark Water, called Solitary
Isle[13][14] and the second announcement pertaining to his
signing on to write and direct George A. Romeros Diary
of the Dead, which follows a group of college students
lming a horror movie who proceed to lm the events
that follow when the dead rise.[15][16] The lm was independently nanced, making it the rst indie zombie lm
Romero has made in years.
After a limited theatrical release, Diary of the Dead was
released on DVD by Dimension Extreme on May 20,
2008, and later to Blu-ray Disc on October 21, 2008.
Shooting began in Toronto in September 2008 on
Romeros Survival of the Dead. The lm was initially reported to be a direct sequel to Diary of the Dead, but the
lm features only Alan Van Sprang, who appeared briey
as a rogue National Guard ocer, reprising his role from
the previous lm, and did not retain the rst-person camerawork of Diary of the Dead. The lm centered on two
feuding families taking very dierent approaches in dealing with the living dead on a small coastal island. The lm
premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Prior to the May 28, 2010 theatrical release in the
United States, Survival of the Dead was made available
to Video on Demand and was aired as a special one night
showing May 26, 2010 on HDNet.
Romero made an appearance in the second downloadable
map pack called Escalation for the video game Call of
Duty: Black Ops. He appears as himself in the zombies
map Call of the Dead as a non-playable enemy character. Romero is featured alongside actors Sarah Michelle
Gellar, Danny Trejo, Michael Rooker, and Robert Englund, all of the four being playable characters. He is portrayed as a powerful boss zombie armed with a movie
studio light.

Romero attending a horror convention, 2005

Some critics have seen social commentary in much of

Romeros work. They view Night of the Living Dead as
a lm made in reaction to the turbulent 1960s, Dawn of
the Dead as a satire on consumerism, Day of the Dead as
a study of the conict between science and the military,
and Land of the Dead as an examination of class conict.
Romero collaborated with the game company Hip Interactive in creating a game called City of the Dead, but the
game was canceled midway due to the nancial problems
of the company.

In 2010 Romero was contacted by Claudio Argento to direct a 3D remake of the Dario Argento lm, Deep Red.
Claudio was expected to write the screenplay and told
Romero that his brother Dario would also be involved.
Romero, who showed interest in the project, decided to
contact his longtime friend Dario only to nd out that
Dario was unaware of remake and Romero ended up declining Claudios oer. Romero has stated that he has
plans for two more Dead movies which will be connected
to Diary of the Dead and they will be made depending on
how successful Survival of the Dead was. Romero however said that his next project would not involve zombies
and he is going for the scare factor, but oered no further
details.[17]

In June 2006, Romero began his next project, called

Zombisodes. Broadcast on the Web, they are a combina- In 2012, Romero returned to video games recording his

3
voice for Zombie Squash as the lead villain, Dr. B. E. 6 Legacy
Vil.[18] Zombie Squash HD Free game was released by
ACW Games for the iPad in November 2012.[19]
In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed
In 2014, Marvel Comics began releasing Empire of the Romero for his BBC documentary series A History of
[26]
Dead, a 15-issue miniseries written by Romero. The se- Horror, in which he appears in the third episode.
ries, which is broken up into three ve-issues acts, features not only zombies but also vampires.[20]

7 Books
2

Personal life

Romero is divorced from Christine Forrest, whom he

met on the set of Season of the Witch. They have three
children together. Romero currently lives in Toronto
with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher, whom he met while
lming Land of the Dead. They married in September
2011 on Marthas Vineyard.[21] His son Cameron, is a
lmmaker,[22] who lmed 2015 the lm Origins,[23] which
is the sequel to his Night of the Living Dead.
He took up Canadian citizenship in 2009 along with his
native U.S. citizenship.[24]

Inuences

Romero ranked his top ten lms of all time for the 2002
Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll. They are The Brothers Karamazov, Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove, High Noon,
King Solomons Mines, North by Northwest (a lm on
which a teenaged Romero worked as a gofer), The Quiet
Man, Repulsion, Touch of Evil and The Tales of Homann. Romero listed the lms in alphabetical order, with
special placement given to The Tales of Homan, which
he cites as my favourite lm of all time; the movie that
made me want to make movies.[25]

1. Dawn of the Dead (with Susan Sparrow; movie tiein), 1979.

2. Bizarro! by Tom Savini (foreword), 1984.
3. Martin (with Susan Sparrow; movie tie-in), 1984.
4. Book of the Dead edited by John Skipp and Craig
Spector (foreword), 1989.
5. Toe Tags #1-6 (The Death of Death"; DC Comics),
20042005.
6. ZOMBIES! An Illustrated History of the Undead
Foreword Written by George A. Romero.
7. The Extraordinary Adventures of Dog mendona
and Pizzaboy - Apocalypse by Filipe Melo and Juan
Cavia (foreword), 2011.
8. Empire of the Dead (Marvel Comics), 2014-2015.

8 Critical studies
Dupuis, Joachim Daniel (2014), George A. Romero
and the zombies, Autopsy of a living-dead. Paris :
L'Harmattan (in French).
Gagne, Paul R. (1987). The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh: the Films of George A. Romero. New York:
Dodd, Mead.
Newman, Kim (1988). Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film 19681988.

Filmography

Main article: George A. Romero lmography

Williams, Tony (2003). Knight of the Living

Dead: The Cinema of George A. Romero. London:
Wallower Press.

Moreman, Christopher M. (2008). A modern

meditation on death: identifying buddhist teachings in George A. Romeros Night of the Living
Dead". Contemporary Buddhism 9 (2): 151165.
doi:10.1080/14639940802556461.

Awards and nominations

On October 27, 2009, Romero was honored with the

Mastermind Award at Spike TVs Scream 2009. The
tribute was presented by longtime Romero fan Quentin
Tarantino, who stated in his speech that the A in George
A. Romero stood for A fucking genius.

9 References
[1] J.C. Maek III (2012-06-15). The Zombication Family
Tree: Legacy of the Living Dead. PopMatters.

[2] The GENRE ONLINE.NET Interview - Writer and Director George A. Romero
[3] George A Romero: un director de cine casi nedense, article by historian Manuel Prez Grueiro in Revista de Neda.
Anuario Cultural do Concello de Neda, n 11, pp 21-24,
2008, re-published on Central Librera Ferrol bookshops
website.
[4] Os zombis teen orixe galega, Praza Pblica, 1/10/2013.
[5] George A. Romero On His Latino Heritage: 'I Was The
Shark, Not The Jet'".
[6] George A. Romero Biography (1940)
[7] George Romero
[8] Mr. Rogers Gets a Tonsillectomy. Archived from the
original on 2007-02-16. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
[9] The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors
on Their Epiphanies in the Dark: Robert K. Elder:
9781556528255: Amazon.com: Books. Amazon.com.
Retrieved 2012-05-25.
[10] Romero, George A. Interview by Robert K. Elder. The
Film That Changed My Life. By Robert K. Elder.
Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011. N. p261. Print.
[11] newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php
[12] George A. Romeros Next Project
[13] Dark Water (book) Stories in Dark Water
[14] aintitcool.com
[15] cinescape
[16] aintitcool.com
[17] George A. Romero Oers More Living Dead Updates,
Comments on Deep Red Remake. DreadCentral.
[18] Zombie Squash (Video Game 2012) - IMDb.
IMDb.com.
[19] George Romeros Zombie Squash Game is Now Available for the iPad. DailyDead.com.
[20] Smith, Zack (22 October 2013). ROMERO Zombies Don't Run in Marvels EMPIRE OF THE DEAD.
Newsarama.
[21] http://www.scifimoviepage.com/art_landof.html
[22] George Romeros Son Cameron Crowdfunding Night of
the Living Dead Prequel Origins
[23] Cameron Romeros Night of the Living Dead Prequel Origins Headed Our Way
[24] Norman Wilner. Q&A: George A. Romero.
[25] BFI - Sight & Sound Top Ten Poll 2002
[26] A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss - Q&A with Mark
Gatiss. BBC. Retrieved 2010-11-12.

10

EXTERNAL LINKS

10 External links
George A. Romero at the Internet Movie Database
New York Times short bio
Senses of Cinema:
Database

Great Directors Critical

George Romero @ THE DEUCE: Grindhouse Cinema Database

Works by George A. Romero at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about George A. Romero at Internet
Archive
Interviews
Short interview with George A. Romero about 'Diary of the Dead' in Sitges Festival on YouTube
Simon Pegg interviews George A. Romero
The Onion A.V. Club interview
Speaking of the Dead - An interview with George
A Romero (July 2009)

11
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