Where's Romero? George's Many Cameos In His Own Films!

As part of this weekend's ongoing celebration of the 72nd birthday of George A. Romero, I wanted to take a look back at several of George's blink and you miss him cameos in his own films over the years. Much like Hitchcock, Romero inserted himself into most of the horror films he made, oftentimes in camoes so small that finding him has become a 'Where's Waldo?' of sorts for horror fans. When I Google'd around for a picture filled listing of all of these cameos earlier today, I surprisingly couldn't find a single website that had done such a thing, so I knew it was up to me to hunt down those cameos and compile such a list.

So here's the internet's very first pictorial look at George Romero's many cameos in the films he directed, in chronological order and with timestamps indicating where you can find him!



NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - 56:29

That's a cherubic looking George on the far left there, as a news reporter trying to figure out why the hell dead people are coming back to life. Though he's hard to recognize given how different he looked back then, it's the voice that gives this one away.



THE CRAZIES - 19:37

Romero apparently has a couple cameos in this one, as a member of a crowd being hurried into a school towards the beginning of the film (seen above) and then later on as either the mayor of the town or one of the President's men, seen on a television screen. I've heard accounts of both but don't own the film so I can't go back and find out for sure. Huge thanks goes to reader David Foskey for screen grabbing this image for me!!



MARTIN - 1:03:11

In his largest role to date, Romero appeared in Martin for a several minute long scene as Father Howard, a cigarette smoking wine enthusiast priest. I don't know about you, but I'd totally start going to church if Romero was the priest!





DAWN OF THE DEAD - 00:59 & 1:47:08

Romero has a couple cameos in Dawn, first as a TV director at the beginning of the film, a cameo which is very easy to spot if you've ever seen the man. Towards the end is a much more hard to spot cameo, where George appears for a split second as a Santa suit clad biker, during the scene where the biker gang is throwing pies at the zombies' faces. All hail Romero Claus!!



DAY OF THE DEAD - 1:34:57

Though never seen from the waist up, Romero appears very briefly in Day right after Capt. Rhodes is ripped apart, as a cart pushing zombie with a scarf wrapped around his waist. Romero in fact wears this plaid scarf on the set of all of his movies for good luck, so this was a nice little reference to that fact.



DIARY OF THE DEAD - 44:50

After only providing a vocal cameo in Land of the Dead (as the voice of a puppeteer), George returned in front of the camera for Diary, playing police chief Arthur Katz. He appears during a televised press conference that the characters are watching and provides a cover-up for the zombie outbreak.



**BONUS CAMEO!!**

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - 1:13:05

Though not a film he directed, Romero pops up very briefly during the scene where Hannibal delivers the iconic 'silence of the lambs' speech to Clarice, while inside his holding cell. Romero plays an FBI agent who pulls Clarice out of harm's way when Hannibal gets a little too close for comfort. You go, George!!