George A Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure; however, by all indications, he was very successful. The director of the groundbreaking Dead pentalogy was born February 4, 1940, in New York City. He grew up there until attending the renowned CarnegieMellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.After graduation, he began shooting mostly short films and commercials. He and his friends formed Image Ten Productions in the late 1960s and they all chipped in roughly US$10,000 a piece to produce what became one of the most celebrated American horror films of all time: Night of the Living Dead 1968. Shot in blackandwhite on a budget of just over US$100,000, Romeros vision, combined with a solid script written by him and his Image cofounder John A. Russo along with what was then considered an excess of gore enabled the film to earn back far more than what it cost, became a cult classic by the early 1970s and was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress of the United States in 1999. Romeros next films were a little more lowkey and less seen including Theres Always Vanilla 1971, The Crazies 1973, Hungry Wives 1972 where he met his future wife Christine Forrest and Martin 1977. Though not as acclaimed as Night of the Living Dead 1968, or some of his later work, these films had his signature social commentary while dealing with issues, usually horrorrelated, at the microscopic level. Like almost all of his films, they were shot in, or around, Romeros favorite city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.In 1978, Romero returned to the zombie genre with the one film of his that would top the success of Night of the Living Dead 1968: Dawn of the Dead 1978. He managed to divorce the franchise from Image Ten, which screwed up the copyright on the original and allowed the film to enter into public domain, with the result that Romero and his original investors were not entitled to any profits from the films video releases. Shooting in the Monroeville, Pennsylvania, Mall during latenight hours, Romero told the tale of four people who escape a zombie outbreak and lock themselves up inside what they think is paradise before the solitude makes them victims of their own, and a biker gangs, greed. Shot on a budget of just $1.5 million, the film earned over US$40 million worldwide and was named one of the top cult films by Entertainment Weekly magazine in 2003. The film also marked Romeros first work with brilliant makeup and effects artist Tom Savini. After 1978, Romero and Savini teamed up many times. Dawn of the Dead 1978s success led to bigger budgets and better casts for the filmmaker. First was Knightriders 1981, where he first worked with an upandcoming Ed Harris. Then came perhaps his most Hollywoodlike film, Creepshow 1982, which marked the first, but not the last, time Romero adapted a work by famed horror novelist Stephen King. With many major stars and bigstudio distribution, Creepshow 1982 was a moderate success and spawned a sequel, which was also written by Romero.

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