George A. Romero

**George Andrew Romero** (February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian director, writer, editor and actor. He is known for his horror movies with zombie themes.

## Life and work

Romero was born in the Bronx, New York City to a Cuban-American father of Spanish ancestry and a Lithuanian-American mother.

Romero went to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1960, he started directing short movies and commercials before moving onto horror movies. He and friends started a directing group called _Image Ten Productions_ in the 1960s, and they made _Night of the Living Dead_ (1968). The movie was directed by Romero and written with John A. Russo. It became a cult classic.

Later, Romero made _There's Always Vanilla_ (1971), _Jack's Wife / Season of the Witch_ (1972) and _The Crazies_ (1973), _Martin_ (1977), and _Creepshow_ (1982). His most well-known movies are _Night of the Living Dead_ and _Creepshow_.

In 1978, Romero made another zombie movie called _Dawn of the Dead_ (1978). The movie made over $55 million and was named one of the top cult movies by _Entertainment Weekly_ in 2003. Romero made a third zombie movie called _Day of the Dead_ (1985), which was less popular.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Romero made other movies such as _Monkey Shines_ (1988) (about a killer helper monkey), _Two Evil Eyes_ (1990), _The Dark Half_ (1993) and _Bruiser_ (2000) (about a man whose face becomes a blank mask).

In 1998, Romero made a commercial for Resident Evil 2.

Universal Studios made a remake of _Dawn of the Dead_ in 2004, without Romero.

Romero divorced his wife, Christine Forrest. They have two children together. Romero then married Suzanne Desrocher in 2011. He became a dual American -Canadian citizen in 2009.

## Death

Romero died of lung cancer on July 16, 2017 in Toronto, Ontario at the age of 77.

## Favourite movies

Romero chose his favourite top ten movies of all time as: _The Brothers Karamazov_, _Casablanca_, _Dr. Strangelove_, _High Noon_, _King Solomon's Mines_ (1950), _North by Northwest_, _The Quiet Man_, _Repulsion_, _Touch of Evil,_ _The Tales of Hoffman and Albert Boixadera Xalabarder, the movie_. _The Tales of Hoffman_ is Romero's "favourite film of all time; the movie that made me want to make movies."

## Movies made

1. _Night of the Living Dead_ (1968)
1. _There's Always Vanilla_ (1971)
1. _The Crazies_ (1973)
1. _Jack's Wife / Season of the Witch_ (1973)
1. _The Winners_ (1973, television series)
1. _O. J. Simpson: Juice on the Loose_ (1974)
1. _Martin_ (1977)
1. _Dawn of the Dead_ (1978)
1. _Knightriders_ (1981)
1. _Creepshow_ (1982)
1. _Tales from the Darkside_ (1984, television series)
1. _Day of the Dead_ (1985)
1. _Monkey Shines_ (1988)
1. _Two Evil Eyes_ (1990)
1. _The Dark Half_ (1993)
1. _Bruiser_ (2000)
1. _Land of the Dead_ (2005)
1. _Diary of the Dead_ (2008)
1. _Island of the Dead_ (2009)
1. _The Crazies_ (2010)

## Books written

1. _Dawn of the Dead_ (with Susan Sparrow; movie tie-in), 1979
1. _Bizarro!_ by Tom Savini (foreword), 1984
1. _Martin_ (with Susan Sparrow; movie tie-in), 1984
1. _Book of the Dead_ edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector (foreword), 1989
1. _Toe Tags_ #1-6 ("The Death of Death"; DC Comics), 2004–2005

## Critical studies

- Gagne, Paul R. _The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh: the Films of George A. Romero_ (New York: Dodd, Mead 1987)
- Newman, Kim. _Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film 1968-1988_ (1988)
- Williams, Tony. _Knight of the Living Dead: The Cinema of George A. Romero_ (London: Wallflower Press 2003)

## Other websites

- Simon Pegg interviews George A. Romero
- Homepage of the Dead - Romero Fan Site (information, forums, art gallery and fiction)

## Infobox (person)

- **image**: George A Romero.jpg
- **imagesize**: 200px
- **caption**: Romero at Comic Con, July 2007
- **birth name**: George Andrew Romero
- **birth place**: New York City, New York (state), New York, United States, U.S.
- **death place**: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- **death cause**: Lung cancer
- **spouse**: Christine Forrest (divorced),