George Romero, the godfather of the zombie genre, has passed away at age 77…
George Romero — the iconic creator behind ‘Night of the Living Dead’ as well as ‘Dawn of the Dead’, ‘Day of the Dead’ and numerous other features — has died at the age of 77.
Romero passed away after a short battle with lung cancer according to his producing partner Peter Grunwald.
Romero burst on the directing scene in 1968 with his classic zombie film ‘Night of the Living Dead’, which remains one of the most iconic horror movies of all time and it helped launch his career.
While Romero directed numerous features throughout the years, he is best known for his work in the zombie genre, which included numerous films that followed ‘Night of the Living Dead’.
Romero directed the 1978 cult classic ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and then returned to the genre again in 1985 for ‘Day of the Dead’ as well. All of his ‘dead’ films up to that point had been filmed in Pittsburgh, Penn., which became Romero’s adopted home after he moved there for college after being born in New York.
Romero embraced the horror and zombie genres throughout his legendary career and he eventually put out three more films in the ‘dead’ franchise including ‘Land of the Dead’, ‘Diary of the Dead’ and ‘Survival of the Dead’.
In 2014, Romero crossed over to comic books with the series ‘Empire of the Dead’, which was released by Marvel with hopes of adapting the series for television as well.
Romero will always be remembered for helping to launch the zombie genre with series such as ‘The Walking Dead’ paying homage to him and his huge contribution to the genre for more than 40 years.
