Living
Dead movie franchise director George A Romero dies at 77
The American-born filmmaker George A Romero, who created
the genre-defining Living Dead movie franchise, has died at the age of 77, his
manager has said.
Romero died in his sleep on Sunday after a
"brief but aggressive battle" with lung cancer, his manager told
Variety.
Romero co-wrote and directed the film that
started the zombie series Night of the Living Dead in 1968.
It led to a number of sequels - and a slew of
imitators.
Manager Chris Roe said Mr Romero died with
his wife and daughter by his side, listening to the score of The Quiet Man,
"one of his all-time favourite films".
At the time of its release, Night of the
Living Dead was criticised for being gory but it went on to be a cult classic
and shape horror and zombie films for decades.
While it did not use the word zombies, it was
the first film to depict cannibalistic reanimated corpses.
Previous films had shown zombies as being
living people who had been bewitched through voodoo.
Despite having a budget of just $114,000, the film made
$30m at the box office and was followed by five sequels and two remakes.
Mr Romero had a non-starring and uncredited
role in the film as a news reporter.
He went on to direct other films including
the 1971 romantic comedy There's Always Vanilla, the 1978 vampire film Martin,
and the 1982 Stephen King adaptation Creepshow.
His only work to top the box office success
enjoyed by Night of the Living Dead was Dawn of the Dead, released in 1978,
which earned more than $40m.
