Celebrity Biographies
George A. Romero
George A. Romero, author of the classic “Night of the Living Dead,” considered a master of B-horror, died at age 77 of lung cancer in Toronto on July 16, 2017. In At the time of death, he was listening to the music of “The Quiet Man”, one of his favorite movies, together with Suzanne, his wife, and Tina, one of his daughters. “He waged a tough battle against the disease,” said Peter Grunwald, producer and partner of the filmmaker.
Born on February 4, 1940, New Yorker George Andrew Romero was the son of a Cuban and a Lithuanian. As a child he already tried to emulate his idol, Orson Welles , shooting movies with an 8mm camera. After graduating in Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, he began his professional journey with shorts, and working on the television program Mister Rogers Neighborhood . He then founded with two partners, Russell Streiner and John Russo, The Latent Image company, dedicated to filming commercials.
Although the company was not doing badly financially, its managers were not satisfied with dedicating themselves exclusively to sales. Inspired by Richard Matheson ‘s book “I Am Legend,” they began envisioning 1968 ‘s Night of the Living Dead , which Romero would direct, co-writing the script with Russo. Shot in black and white on 35mm film, despite its low budget it was quite impressive, due to its disturbing zombies moving in slow motion and its dramatic ending, which is why it became a great success. It is considered the great classic that gave rise to the subgenre in which the dead rise from their graves.
However, George A. Romero failed miserably with his next works, There’s Always Vanilla, The Witch’s Station , Martin and The Crazies , so in 1978 he decided to shoot Zombie , a bloody sequel to his debut film, already in color, more violent, less subtle and very inferior. After the curious The Knights of the Motorcycle , about guys who organize medieval motorcycle tournaments, he would join his talents with that of the writer Stephen King to give rise to Creepshow , a memorable compilation of short horror stories, which paid homage to EC comics, which left their mark on a generation of American readers.
Perhaps it was the director’s best work, outside of his zombies, since from the rest of his filmography it is worth mentioning “The truth in the case of Mr. Valdemar”, one of the two fragments of The Devil’s Eyes ; the other was directed by Italian Dario Argento , the disturbing monkey experiment film The Devil’s Attraction , and The Dark Half , a correct adaptation of one of King’s less memorable novels. He devoted the end of his career to ill-fated sequels to his walking dead saga, with Land of the Walking Dead , Diary of the Dead, and Resistance of the Dead., which closed its filmography in 2009. Despite the insistence of the producers, he refused to direct a chapter of the series clearly indebted to his work The Walking Dead . “Those zombies do not belong to me, they are not my idea,” he declared.
He had been together with Suzanne Desrocher since 2011, after divorcing costume designer Nancy, the sweetheart of his youth, in 1978, and actress Christine Forrest , mother of his two children, Tina and George. He spent the last years of his life in Canada, and had even obtained dual citizenship.