David Emge, who played memorable helicopter pilot turned zombie Stephen in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, has died. He was 77.
Emge’s family shared the news of his death with the Evansville Courier & Press, a local paper in his Indiana hometown. He died on Jan. 20 at the West River Health Campus. A cause of death was not disclosed.
The actor was most well-known for his role in the well-regarded 1978 horror classic film. His other credits include The Devil and Sam Silverstein (1976), The Liberation of Cherry Janowski (1976), Basket Case 2 (1990) and Hellmaster (1992).
In a documentary about the making of Dawn of the Dead, Emge recalled what was going through his head before filming began.
“Being the zombie was something that I could just like, grab onto,” he said. “I sat there for weeks and weeks watching all of these people coming up with ‘their’ zombie. And I’m thinking,…
