George Andrew Romero (/rəˈmɛroʊ/; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer and editor, best known for his series of gruesome and satirical horror films about an imagined zombie apocalypse, beginning with Night of the Living Dead (1968), which is often considered a progenitor of the fictional zombie of modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985). Aside from the Dead series, his works include The Crazies (1973), Martin (1978), Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988) and The Dark Half (1993).

Romero is often noted as an influential pioneer of the horror film genre, and has been called an "icon" and the "Father of the Zombie Film".

Spouses:

Nancy Romero (m. 1971–1978)
Christine Forrest (1980–2010)
Suzanne Desrocher (2011–2017, his death)

Children: 3

Early life

Romero was born in the New York City borough of The Bronx, to a Cuban-born father and a Lithuanian American mother. His father has been reported as born in A Coruña, with his family coming from the Galician town of Neda, although Romero once described his father as of Castilian descent. His father worked as a commercial artist. Romero was raised in the Bronx, and would frequently ride the subway into Manhattan to rent film reels to view at his house. Romero attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Career

After graduating from university in 1960, Romero began his career shooting short films and commercials. One of his early commercial films was a segment for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in which Rogers underwent a tonsillectomy. With nine friends, Romero formed Image Ten Productions in the late 1960s, and produced Night of the Living Dead (1968). Directed by Romero and co-written with John A. Russo, the movie became a defining moment for modern horror cinema.

Among the inspiration for Romero's filmmaking, as told to Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life, was the British film, The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) from the Powell 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.”

Three films that followed were less popular: There's Always Vanilla (1971), Jack's Wife / Season of the Witch (1972) and The Crazies (1973) were not as well received as Night of the Living Dead or some of his later work. The Crazies, dealing with a bio spill that induces an epidemic of homicidal madness, and the critically acclaimed arthouse success Martin (1978), a film that deals with the vampire myth, were the two well-known films from this period. Like many of his films, they were shot in or around Pittsburgh.

Romero returned to the zombie genre with Dawn of the Dead (1978). Shot on a budget of $500,000, the film earned over $55 million internationally and was named one of the top cult films by Entertainment Weekly in 2003. Romero made the third entry in his "Dead Series" with Day of the Dead (1985).

Between these two films, Romero shot Knightriders (1981), another festival favorite about a group of modern-day jousters who reenact tournaments on motorcycles; and Creepshow (1982), written by Stephen King, an anthology of tongue-in-cheek tales modeled after 1950s horror comics. The cult-classic success of Creepshow led to the creation of Tales from the Darkside, a horror anthology television series that aired from 1983 to 1988. Romero served as executive producer and wrote four episodes.

From the latter half of the 1980s and into the 1990s came Monkey Shines (1988), about a killer helper monkey; Two Evil Eyes (a.k.a. "Due occhi Diabolici", 1990), 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 (1990) directed by Tom Savini for Columbia/TriStar. Savini is also responsible for the makeup and special effects in many of Romero's films including Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Creepshow, and Monkey Shines. Romero had a cameo appearance in Jonathan Demme's Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as one of Hannibal Lecter's jailers.

In 1998, he directed a live-action commercial promoting the videogame Resident Evil 2 in Tokyo. The 30-second advertisement featured the game's two main characters, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, fighting a horde of zombies while in Raccoon City's police station. The project was obvious territory for Romero; the Resident Evil series has been heavily influenced by the "Dead Series". The commercial was rather 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, it was strongly indicated that Romero would direct the first Resident 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" — although in later years, he reconsidered and wrote a script for the first movie. It was eventually rejected in favor of Paul W. S. Anderson's version.

Universal Studios produced and released a remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004), with which Romero was not involved. Later that year, Romero kicked off 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 for his "Dead 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 both gore and social commentary (dealing particularly here with corporate greed and terrorism — ideas he would also explore 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 his Dead films, but featured other locales besides Pittsburgh, where the majority of his films take place.

Romero, who lived in Toronto, directed a fourth Dead movie in that city, Land of the Dead (2005). The movie's 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 starred, and the film was released by Universal Pictures (who released the Dawn of the Dead remake the year before). The film received generally positive reviews.

Some critics have seen social commentary in much of Romero's work. They view Night of the Living Dead as a film 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 conflict between science and the military, and Land of the Dead as an examination of class conflict.

Romero collaborated with the game company Hip Interactive to create a game called City of the Dead, but the project was canceled midway due to the financial problems of the company.

In June 2006, Romero began his next project, called Zombisodes. Broadcast on the Web, they are a combination of a series of "Making of" shorts and story expansion detailing the work behind the film George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (2007). Shooting began in Toronto in July 2006.

In August 2006, The Hollywood Reporter made two announcements about Romero, the first being that he would write and direct a film based on a short story by Koji Suzuki, author of Ring and Dark Water, called Solitary Isle and the second announcement pertaining to his signing on to write and direct George 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. The film was independently financed, making it the first indie zombie film 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 Romero's Survival of the Dead (2009). The film was initially reported to be a direct sequel to Diary of the Dead, but the film features only Alan 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 of Diary of the Dead. 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 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 on 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.

In 2010, Romero was contacted by Claudio Argento to direct a 3D remake of the Dario Argento film, Deep Red (1975). 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 find out that Dario was unaware of a remake and Romero ended up declining Claudio's offer. Romero stated that he had plans for two more "Dead" movies which would be connected to Diary of the Dead and they would be made depending on how successful Survival 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.

In 2012, Romero returned to video games recording his voice for "Zombie Squash" as the lead villain, Dr. B. E. Vil. "Zombie Squash HD Free" game was released by ACW Games for the iPad in November 2012.

In 2014, Marvel Comics began releasing Empire of the Dead, a 15-issue miniseries written by Romero. The series, which is broken up into three five-issues acts, features not only zombies but also vampires. In May 2015, it was announced at Cannes that the production company Demarest was developing the comic series in to a TV series. The series will be written and executive produced by Romero and Peter Grunwald.

In May 2017, Romero announced plans for George A. Romero Presents: Road of the Dead, a film that he co-wrote with Matt Birman, who would direct the film making it Romero's first zombie related film that he did not direct himself. Romero and Birman along with Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell will produce the film. Birman was the second unit director on Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. Birman pitched the idea to Romero ten years earlier, saying the movie is like The Road Warrior meets Rollerball at a NASCAR race, with significant inspiration from Ben-Hur and that "the story is set on an island where zombie prisoners race cars in a modern-day Coliseum for the entertainment of wealthy humans".

On July 13, 2017, Romero released the first poster for Road of the Dead and discussed the plot for the movie saying "it's set in a sanctuary city where this fat cat runs a haven for rich folks, and one of the things that he does is stage drag races to entertain them," Romero told Rue Morgue. "There's a scientist there doing genetic experiments, trying to make the zombies stop eating us, and he has discovered that with a little tampering, they can recall certain memory skills that enable them to drive in these races. It's really The Fast and the Furious with zombies". Romero died three days later, and the status of the film is currently unknown.

Personal life

Romero married Christine Forrest, whom he met on the set of Season of the Witch (1973). They had two children together, Andrew and Tina Romero; the couple later divorced. Romero met Suzanne Desrocher while filming Land of the Dead (2005). They married in September 2011 at Martha's Vineyard and lived in Toronto. He took up Canadian citizenship in 2009, becoming a dual Canada-U.S. citizen. His son Cameron, is a filmmaker, responsible for the film Origins (2015), which is the prequel to Night of the Living Dead.

Death

On July 16, 2017, Romero died in his sleep following a "brief but aggressive battle with lung 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, with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and daughter, Tina Romero, at his side.

Influences

Romero ranked his top ten films of all time for the 2002 Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll. They are The 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 and The Tales of Hoffmann. Romero listed the films in alphabetical order, with special placement given to Michael Powell's The Tales of Hoffmann, which he cites as "my favourite film of all time; the movie that made me want to make movies".

Romero has also cited Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (1962) as an influence on his work.

Awards and nominations

On October 27, 2009, Romero was honored with the Mastermind Award at Spike TV's 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."

Legacy

In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Romero for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror, in which he appears in the third episode.

Regarded as the "Godfather of the Dead" and the "father of the modern movie zombie", Romero's influence, and that of Night of the Living Dead, is widely seen among numerous filmmakers and artists, in particular those who have worked in the zombie subgenre, including comics writer Robert Kirkman, novelist Seth Grahame-Smith, and filmmakers John Carpenter, Edgar Wright and Jack Thomas Smith.

Books

1. Dawn of the Dead (with Susan Sparrow; movie tie-in), 1979.
2. Bizarro! by Tom Savini (foreword), 1984. ISBN 0-517-55319-8
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), 2004–2005.
6. ZOMBIES! An Illustrated History of the Undead Foreword by George A. Romero.
7. The Extraordinary Adventures of Dog mendonça and Pizzaboy – Apocalypse by Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia (foreword), 2011. 
8. Empire of the Dead (Marvel Comics), 2014–2015.
9. Nights of the Living Dead co-edited by Jonathan Maberry and George Romero (St. Martin's Griffin), 2017.