American filmmaker (1940–2017) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
George A. Romero | |
---|---|
Born | George Andrew Romero February 4, 1940 |
Died | July 16, 2017 77) | (aged
Cause of death | Lung cancer |
Spouse(s) | Christine Forrest (divorced), Suzanne Desrocher
(m. 2011; "his death" is deprecated; use "died" instead. 2017) |
Romero was born in the Bronx, New York City to a Cuban-American father of Spanish ancestry and a Lithuanian-American mother.[1][2]
Romero went to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1960,[3] 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.
Romero died of lung cancer on July 16, 2017 in Toronto, Ontario at the age of 77.[4]
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 and The Tales of Hoffman. The Tales of Hoffman is Romero's "favourite film of all time; the movie that made me want to make movies."[5]