George A. Romero
From CreepshowCreeps.com's ''CreepWiki''
George Romero biography written for CreepshowCreeps.com by Jordy Verrill (John Brandon)
George Anthony Romero was born February 4th, 1940 in New York City, New York, USA. He spent his life in Brooklyn until winning a scholarship to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was to be the place where Romero would soon meet his future collaborators in fellow students John A. Russo and Richard Ricci. The three would soon go on to form Image Ten Productions, and later Latent Image Studios, that would serve as a way for the three of them to produce and direct local commercials and industrial films. One gloomy afternoon in downtown Pittsburgh at Samreny’s Restaurant while having lunch with business partners Russo and Ricci, Russo came up with a way they could make a cheap monster movie and break out of commercials. Ricci thought the two were mad, but Romero became immediately intrigued. He decided they could shoot a workprint on black and white filmstock and transfer the negative to 35mm later. So with about $10,000 apiece from each of their friends and a whole lotta love George Romero made “Night Of The Living Dead”. Which despite a condemning review in Reader’s Digest became an instant cult classic. Romero continued to make films throughout the 70s, none garnering quite the same reputation or popularity of “Night Of The Living Dead”. “There’s Always Vanilla” (1971), “Hungry Wives” (aka. “Season of the Witch”) (1972), “The Crazies” (1973), “Martin” (1977), and the successor to "Night", “Dawn Of The Dead” (1978). “Dawn Of The Dead” once again solidified that George Romero was a force to be reckoned with. Winning glowing reviews and surpassing its predecessor in profit and some would say cult status. Around this time Romero married his second wife, actress Christine Forrest, and made “Knightriders” (1981). It was on the set of this film that Romero would bond with fellow horror aficionado Stephen King. Romero and King expressed a mutual appreciation for each other’s work, as well as a consolidated influence by the works of William M. Gaines’ EC comic books of the 50’s. And the spark would happen that spawned our beloved “Creepshow”. “Creepshow” (1982) was to be the first ever Hollywood produced horror anthology. Based on a compilation of Stephen King penned short stories and storyboarded and shot in the same vein as the original “Tales from the Crypt” EC comics. “Creepshow” was also aided by special effects wizard, Tom Savini, who’s crafty magician-like way of fooling an audience in no doubt helped only to add to the effectiveness of “Creepshow”. Though ‘The Show’ was only a moderate success at the box office it remains to this day a favorite among horror fans and is unanimously accepted as one of the best of its genre.
Romero continued to make films up until the early 90s, even doing another "Dead" film, “Day Of The Dead” (1985), which some still call the best of the existing four but was panned by critics and flopped at the box office (What do critics know?, right kiddies...heh, heh, heh),another horror anthology in “Two Evil Eyes” (1990), and even another film based on King’s work, “The Dark Half” (1993). Disillusioned with the film business and burnt out on convincing investors to fund his projects, Romero retired from the business until 2001. During his eight year sabbatical George Romero wrote what was to be his fourth zombie film in the ongoing takeover saga. “Land Of The Dead” was produced by Mark Canton and distributed by Universal Pictures in 2005. Romero’s films have inspired countless others, and he himself is even in the pantheon of such well-known directors as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino as an influence. George Romero has received some of the highest critical praise one could imagine for his biting social commentary and satire shown in all of his work. Romero today lives still lives in his "Favorite City" Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and has two children who are currently attending New York University and studying filmmaking. “Just because I'm showing somebody being disemboweled doesn't mean I have to get all heavy about it”, Romero once said when asked about the underlying meaning of his work. I would say George Romero has the right idea, he’s not taking it all that seriously, he’s just going with the flow. And much like the stars of his most popular flicks, he just won’t seem to stay dead!
