George Andrew Romero (February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American director and screenwriter known for his B-Movies and horror films, most famously the Living Dead Series, in which he had occasion to invent a well-known trope.
Romero was born and raised in New York City, to a Spanish-Cuban immigrant father and a Lithuanian-American mother. After attending Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, he began making short films and television commercials, subsequently banding together with some friends and investors to found a film production company. When it came time to write a feature script, Romero and co-writer John Russo drew inspiration from Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend, in which The Virus kills almost all of humanity and turns the rest into semi-sentient bloodthirsty vampires. Romero and Russo ran with this concept, but tweaked the idea to make their monsters into even less intelligent, flesh-eating “ghouls”.
The resultant film was Night of the Living Dead, which not only went on to become one of the most successful independent movies of all time, but also helped to redefine the word "zombie". The term originally came from voodoo, or rather Hollywood Voodoo, and referred to voodoo zombies: dead or comatose people who were re-animated and enslaved by a master using voodoo magic. Romero's concept of the zombie became so iconic that it pretty much displaced the voodoo zombie in popular culture.
Romero continued making films, including The Crazies, Season of the Witch, and Martin, but those didn't catch on with the public like Night of the Living Dead had, so he went back to the zombie well with Dawn of the Dead, and later Day of the Dead and Land of the Dead. His other credits included the horror movies Creepshow and Monkey Shines, and he was an executive producer of the 1980s syndicated horror television series, Tales from the Darkside.
Romero passed away in his sleep on July 16, 2017, after a battle with lung cancer.
Filmography:
- The Living Dead Series
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
- Dawn of the Dead (1978)
- Day of the Dead (1985)
- Night of the Living Dead (1990; writer only)
- Land of the Dead (2005)
- Diary of the Dead (2007)
- Survival of the Dead (2009)
- There's Always Vanilla (1971)
- Hungry Wives a.k.a. Season of the Witch (1973)
- The Crazies (1973)
- Martin (1977)
- Knightriders (1981)
- Creepshow (1982)
- Tales from the Darkside (television series, 1984-88; writer only)
- Creepshow 2 (1987; writer only)
- Monkey Shines (1988)
- Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990; writer only)
- Two Evil Eyes (1990)
- The Dark Half (1993)
- Bruiser (2000)
- Deadtime Stories: Volume 1 (2009) (actor only)
- Deadtime Stories: Volume 2 (2010) (actor and executive producer)
- The Amusement Park (2019)note
Tropes Associated with Romero's work:
- Approval of God: Nope. Romero was pretty disappointed by the 2004 remake of Dawn, finding it just too serious and lacking the humour of the original. He also famously absolutely loathed the late 00s, early 10s zombie craze, even if it allowed him to have a Career Resurrection just by association, having a lot of harsh words to say about things like World War Z or The Walking Dead.
- The one exception to this of course is Resident Evil; which Romero loved and was touched by the many homages to his work found in it, stating games like it and House of the Dead was what truly resurrected the genre in the late 90's. Not only did he pen a sadly unused screenplay for a movie, he was commissioned by Capcom to make a a live-action commercial for the second game.
- The one exception to this of course is Resident Evil; which Romero loved and was touched by the many homages to his work found in it, stating games like it and House of the Dead was what truly resurrected the genre in the late 90's. Not only did he pen a sadly unused screenplay for a movie, he was commissioned by Capcom to make a a live-action commercial for the second game.
- As Himself: Guest-starred in Call of Duty: Zombies as himself... turned into a zombie monster while filming a movie.
- Author Tract: Romero really hated military and armed forces of any kind. As a result, any work of his that could fit it in included some form of Militaries Are Useless.
- Cool Old Guy: George A Romero was a cool, respectable, easygoing, Nice Guy in real life.
- Crazy-Prepared: A year after his death, his wife announced that he'd left behind almost fifty completed scripts that had not been produced, which she's now trying to get going.
- Creator's Oddball: There's Always Vanilla is a Romantic Comedy-cum-Dramedy, in contrast to the horror and action films making up the rest of his oeuvre.
- Filibuster Freefall: Dawn and Day are noticeably more political and satirical than Night, in which the subtext was mostly accidental. This was actually for the better, as their deeper subtext helped to elevate the films into horror classics and make social commentary a hallmark of the zombie genre. Opinions are more divided, however, on the three later Living Dead films, which grew increasingly heavy-handed.
- He Also Did: He started his career working as a cameraman on—we kid you not— Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. His own directorial debut was in fact a short documentary entitled Mr. Rogers Gets a Tonsilectomy, with a bizarre tone that he later credited as a direct inspiration for the Living Dead Series. (Fred Rogers later watched Night of the Living Dead and declared that it was "really fun.")
- Humans Are Bastards: Even though Romero seemed like a respectable person in real life, this is a recurring motif in his zombie films, almost to a point that one could make the argument that the zombies themselves are actually the good guys. It's been argued that, from at least Land of the Dead on, this trope actually hurt Romero's storytelling, as he kept rehashing the same message.
- Odd Friendship: With Fred Rogers, of all people! Romero started working in film as a cameraman for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and would often point out later on that Rogers was extremely supportive and a great friend. Rogers was apparently even a fan of Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.
- One-Hit Wonder: He did dozens of movies, but he's almost entirely associated with of the Dead series, particularly the first three.
- Our Zombies Are Different: While the earliest depictions of zombies in films are Voodoo Zombies controlled by necromancy, Romero popularized the idea of zombies as a result of viral infection, going after uninfected humans.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Most of his films, especially his zombie films, tend to lean quite heavily on the cynical end.
- Useless Protagonist: His female protagonists, particularly in the "Living Dead" series are completely useless and don't help out whatsoever during the zombie outbreak.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Practically every Living Dead film.
