- Born
- Died
- Birth nameGeorge Andrew Romero
- Nickname
- King of the Zombies
- Height6′ 5″ (1.96 m)
- George A. Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure; by all indications, though, he was very successful. The director of the groundbreaking "Living Dead" films was born February 4, 1940 ,in New York City to Ann (Dvorsky) and Jorge Romero. His father was born in Spain and raised in Cuba, and his mother was Lithuanian. He grew up in New York until attending the renowned Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.
After graduation he began shooting mostly short films and commercials. He and his friends formed Image Ten Productions in the late 1960s and they all chipped in roughly $10,000 apiece to produce what became one of the most celebrated American horror films of all time: Night of the Living Dead (1968). Shot in black-and-white on a budget of just over $100,000, Romero's vision, combined with a solid script written by him and his "Image" co-founder John A. Russo (along with what was then considered an excess of gore), enabled the film to earn back far more than what it cost; it became a cult classic by the early 1970s and was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress of the United States in 1999. Romero's next films were a little more low-key but less successful, including The Affair (1971), The Crazies (1973), Season of the Witch (1972) (where he met future wife Christine Forrest) and Martin (1977). Though not as acclaimed as "Night of the Living Dead" or some of his later work, these films had his signature social commentary while dealing with issues--usually horror-related--at the microscopic level. Like almost all of his films, they were shot in, or around, Romero's favorite city of Pittsburgh.
In 1978 he returned to the zombie genre with the one film of his that would top the success of "Night of the Living Dead"--Dawn of the Dead (1978). He managed to divorce the franchise from Image Ten, which screwed up the copyright on the original and allowed the film to enter into public domain, with the result that Romero and his original investors were not entitled to any profits from the film's video releases. Shot in the Monroeville (PA) Mall during late-night hours, the film told the tale of four people who escape a zombie outbreak and lock themselves up inside what they think is paradise before the solitude makes them victims of their own, and a biker gang's, greed. Made on a budget of just $1.5 million, the film earned over $40 million worldwide and was named one of the top cult films by Entertainment Weekly magazine in 2003. It also marked Romero's first work with brilliant make-up and effects artist Tom Savini. After 1978, Romero and Savini teamed up many times. The success of "Dawn of the Dead" led to bigger budgets and better casts for the filmmaker. First was Knightriders (1981), where he first worked with an up-and-coming Ed Harris. Then came perhaps his most Hollywood-like film, Creepshow (1982), which marked the first--but not the last--time Romero adapted a work by famed horror novelist Stephen King. With many major stars and big-studio distribution, it was a moderate success and spawned a sequel, which was also written by Romero.
The decline of Romero's career came in the late 1980s. His last widely-released film was the next "Dead" film, Day of the Dead (1985). Derided by critics, it did not take in much at the box office, either. His latest two efforts were The Dark Half (1993) (another Stephen King adaptation) and Bruiser (2000). Even the Romero-penned/Tom Savini-directed remake of Romero's first film, Night of the Living Dead (1990), was a box-office failure. Pigeon-holed solely as a horror director and with his latest films no longer achieving the success of his earlier "Dead" films, Romero has not worked much since, much to the chagrin of his following. In 2005, 19 years after "Day of the Dead", with major-studio distribution he returned to his most famous series and horror sub-genre it created with Land of the Dead (2005), a further exploration of the destruction of modern society by the undead, that received generally positive reviews. He directed two more "Dead" films, Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009).
George died on July 16, 2017, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was 77.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Travis Stoffs (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpousesSuzanne Desrocher-Romero(September 2011 - July 16, 2017) (his death)Christine Forrest(1981 - 2010) (divorced, 2 children)Nancy Romero(1971 - 1978) (divorced)
- Children
- Often features radio or television news broadcasts playing in the background.
- Zombie films with an underlying social commentary
- Films often contain extreme carnage with make-up effects by Tom Savini
- Strong minority and female characters
- Towering height and slender frame
- Frequently cast African-Americans as the heroes of his films, although the roles weren't usually written specifically for any particular race, going against the stereotype of the black character dying early in horror films.
- Began making movies at the age of 14 with an 8mm camera.
- He passed away "peacefully in his sleep" while "listening to the score of The Quiet Man (1952)", one of his all-time favorite films.
- Was originally set to direct two Stephen King stories that would later turn into television features: Salem's Lot (1979) and The Stand (1994).
- His favorite of his own films, saying it's closest to the vision he had for it, is Martin (1977). He spent much of the time since his smash directorial debut, Night of the Living Dead (1968), trying to distance himself from the horror genre but has said the satisfying experience of creating "Martin" energized him to make Dawn of the Dead (1978), which would become his greatest financial and critical success.
- If I fail, they [the film industry] write me off as another statistic. If I succeed, they pay me a million bucks to fly out to Hollywood and fart.
- [on his fourth installment of the "Living Dead" series, Land of the Dead (2005)] The idea of living with terrorism--I've tried to make it more applicable to the concerns Americans are going through now.
- If one horror film hits, everyone says, "Let's go make a horror film!" It's the genre that never dies.
- If you have 60 people dress like zombies and you show them something that you like, you get 60 people doing the exact same thing. My opinion of a good zombie walk is to loll your head as if it's a little too heavy and the muscles have begun to atrophy.
- I'm like my zombies. I won't stay dead!
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