David Emge, star of horror classic “Dawn of the Dead,” dies at 77

David Emge, whose brief acting career included a performance that would become iconic to horror fans – he played the doomed pilot-turned-zombie in George Romero’s 1978 Dawn of the Dead – died January 20 at the West River Health Campus in Evansville, Indiana. He was 77.

Emge studied drama at the University of Evansville where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and during that time, he served for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. After starting his acting career with on-stage work in the early 1970s, Emge would make his feature film debut in the movie The Booby Hatch, a comedy released in 1975. He’s also had roles in the films The Liberation of Cherry Janowski and The Devil and Sam Silverstein, both of which were released in 1978.

After his role in The Booby Hatch, David Emge was working as a chef in New York when he happened to meet legendary horror filmmaker George A. Romero. At the time, Romero was looking to make a sequel to his classic film Night of the Living Dead, which is credited as the grandfather of modern zombie horror films. Romero wound up casting Emge in the role of traffic reporter Stephen Andrews, aka “Flyboy,” one of the film’s main characters.

In addition to Romero’s 1978 sequel to his 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead, Emge appeared in such other films as The Devil and Sam Silverstein (1976), The Liberation of Cherry Janowski (1976), Basket Case 2 (1990) and Hellmaster (1992).

His death was announced by his family to the Evansville Courier & Press. A cause of death was not disclosed.

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