As another cinema legend leaves us, we pay tribute to GEORGE A. ROMERO, the man who changed the face of zombie movies - and horror films - forever… True icons are a rare breed.
Icons of horror are an even scarcer species. Faces that are instantly recognisable and are automatically identifiable with their work. One such face belonged to George Andrew Romero, a lover of cigars, who sadly passed away on July 16th after a short battle against an aggressive form of lung cancer, as he listened to the score from The Quiet Man, one of his favourite films. George is survived by his second wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and his children – a daughter and two sons.
His legacy is so engrained within the psyche of genre fans that he shall be forever known in death - as he was in life - as the ‘father of the zombie film’.
Born on February 4th, 1940 to a Cuban father and Lithuanian-American mother and raised in the Bronx, New York, George would ride the subway into Manhattan to rent film reels to view at his house; the seeds of a future career being nurtured early on.
On one trip to the cinema in the early ‘50s, a young and impressionable George wanted to go and see the latest Tarzan movie, but was overruled by his aunt and uncle who instead decided to go and see The Tales of Hoffman, by Michael Powell. George admitted that he was glad his choice was vetoed, stating, “I fell in love with it. It’s just beautiful. Completely captivating. It’s the movie that made me want to make movies.”
George will, of course, be remembered most fondly for his pioneering work within nay, creating - the zombie subgenre.
Released in 1968, Night of the Living Dead was the first film to utilise zombies not that the undead creatures on the screen were ever called that in the film - in the way that is so recognised today. Prior to the release, zombies were heavily connected to voodoo practices that originated in Haiti and were most popular in films like the Bela Lugosi-starring White Zombie.
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