George A. Romero

Early Life

George Andrew Romero was born on February 4th, 1940, in New York City. He attended the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and upon completion, in 1960. Romero passed away on July 16th,2017.

Career

Considered by many to be the father of modern Zombie movies, he was nicknamed Godfather of all Zombies. George A. Romero has redefined the zombie genre with his "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). Many games incorporate zombies who are similar to those envisioned by Romero, he has in that way, indirectly influenced the video game industry as well.

He began his career by shooting commercials and short films. His breakthrough came in 1968 with the movie "Night of the Living Dead", it almost instantly became a classic and the movie redefined both zombie movies and zombies themselves. The movie was well received by both critics and the public, the budget of the movie was 100.000 $, making 42.000.000$ on release, it was an incredible financial success as well. As mentioned, this movie redefined the zombie genre. Before, zombies were living people enslaved by voodoo priests, Romero introduced zombies as re-animated human corpses who are guided by one single instinct, the search for food, they are almost exclusively cannibals.

George A. Romero remains primarily known for his "Dead" series, although he has acted in other movies as well, he played a small role of an FBI Agent in "Silence of the Lambs".

George A. Romero's "Dead" series:

1. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
2. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
3. Day of the Dead (1985)
4. Land of the Dead (2005)
5. Diary of the Dead (2007)
6. Survival of the Dead (2010)

In Video Games

His perhaps most well known appearance is in Call of Duty: Black Ops in the zombie map Call of the Dead where he appears as a special zombie.

Resident Evil

George Romero directed a live-action commercial for the Resident Evil 2 video-game shortly before its release exclusively for Japan, starring Brad Renfro (who was only 15 at the time) as Leon Scott Kennedy.

Romero was also originally asked to direct the then-upcoming live-action Resident Evil movie. George was initially reluctant since he didn't want to direct another zombie movie, though he reconsidered after some time. His script was meant to center more so around the original Resident Evil game, including the same cast of characters and locations. Fans and producers were impressed, yet it was still shot down in favor of Paul Anderson's script. Paul has since gone on to direct and/or produce five sequels, creating an alternate ''movie-verse'' of the Resident Evil franchise.