You’re so cool, Winslow.
Last night’s episode of “The Walking Dead,“ titled ‘New Best Friends,’ was highlighted by a walker that many are considering to be the show’s most badass to date. Rick and friends found their way into a junkyard inhabited by new group The Scavengers, and in order to prove himself to their leader, Rick was forced to do battle with a zombie that was, well, nearly unkillable.
With a metal helmet and sharp spikes sticking out of his head and body, the junkyard walker proved to be a worthy adversary even to Grimes, a proven zombie-killing machine. Rick sustained a serious injury to his hand during the battle, but was eventually able to decapitate the COOLEST WALKER EVER with a piece of glass. As we soon learned, the zombie’s name was Winslow.
Winslow was portrayed by Emmy-winning makeup artist Gino Crognale.
Crognale, who has been on Greg Nicotero’s makeup team since the show’s early beginnings, has portrayed a handful of walkers throughout the show’s run on AMC. In Season 3 episode ‘I Ain’t a Judas,’ he played the walker that Andrea cut the arms off of, and he also attacked Carl in Season 4 episode ‘After.’ Most memorably, Crognale was prominently featured in Season 5 episode ‘What Happened and What’s Going On’; he was the walker that bit Tyreese, ultimately resulting in the beloved character’s death. Yes, the same man killed Tyreese and nearly killed Rick!
But Crognale’s zombie credits don’t start and stop with “The Walking Dead.”
Way back in the early 2000s, Gino Crognale was a ghoul in the final act of Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, and Zombie was so impressed with his performance that he featured Crognale on the film’s poster art; he’s only briefly seen in the film, but has become one of its most iconic images. A few years later, he portrayed “policeman zombie” in Romero’s Land of the Dead.
Behind the scenes, Crognale is even more prolific. Working with legends like Greg Nicotero and Tom Savini, he’s served as a special makeup effects artist on films like A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, In the Mouth of Madness, Phantasm 4: Oblivion, From Dusk Till Dawn, Wishmaster, The Mist, and The Hateful Eight.
Check out some of the badass zombies Crognale has played below!
