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Original ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Actor David Emge Has Passed Away
Known to horror fans for playing Stephen ‘Flyboy’ Andrews in George A. Romero’s horror classic Dawn of the Dead, actor David Michael Emge has passed away at the age of 77. Emge passed on Saturday, January 20 at the West River Health Campus in Evansville, Indiana.
David Emge’s ‘Flyboy’ was one of the main characters in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, the pilot for the WGON-TV station who ends up trapped in a mall during the zombie apocalypse. ‘Flyboy’ eventually becomes a zombie himself later in the movie, and Emge’s performance ensured that ‘Flyboy Zombie’ has endured as one of the most iconic movie zombies of all time.
David Emge made a few more stops in the horror genre in the wake of 1978’s Dawn, also appearing in the horror movies Basket Case 2 (1990) and Hellmaster (1992).
The actor’s memorial page at the Pierre Funeral Home notes, “David was born September 9, 1946 in Evansville to the late Richard Andrew and Gertrude Mary (Wipf) Emge. He was a member of the Boy Scout Troop at Sacred Heart and a proud Eagle Scout. David studied drama at the University of Evansville and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While attending U of E, David was drafted into the United States Army and served during the Vietnam War. David began his acting career on stage at the Pittsburgh Playhouse in 1971 and made his film debut in the lowbrow comedy The Booby Hatch. He briefly lived in Washington, D.C., where he performed in dinner theatre. In 1976, he moved to New York City. He was working as a chef in New York when he was cast as the helicopter pilot in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.”
David Emge is survived by three sisters, Sue (Bob) Berry, Kathleen (Bob) Wittgen and Barbara (Allen) Rexing and many nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews.
You can pay tribute to David Emge through the Pierre Funeral Home website, where you can share memories, post photos, and send flowers and gifts to the family.
‘Dawn of the Dead’
“She’s mine, and I’m hers.”
The prison movie is a cornerstone of the cinematic landscape. Often adjacent to horror, there’s something inherently horrific about a building full of “convicts” jockeying for power. Criminal masterminds and the wrongfully convicted alike become pawns in a dehumanizing system and struggle to stay alive in the restrictive environment. Claire Denis pushes this genre to its outer limits with sci-fi and horror elements comparing incarceration to the prison of the human body. Her 2018 film High Life follows a group of prisoners turned astronauts who struggle to retain their humanity after the world has cast them out.
When we first meet Monte (Robert Pattinson), he’s raising a toddler on an isolated space station in the galaxy’s outer reaches. His daughter Willow was conceived through assault by fellow inmate Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche) as a part of her mission to reproduce in space. As Denis unpacks the story of this troubled crew, they slowly realize they have been discarded and forgotten. Some find freedom to enact their violent agendas while others try to retain a semblance of normalcy in the extreme environment. Essentially guinea pigs, Monte and his crewmates hurtle through space and grope for a reason to keep existing.
The Lady Killers continue Killer Moms Month with Claire Denis’ beautifully complex film. Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Mae Shults, Rocco T. Thompson, and Sammie Kuykendall chart the mysteries of the cosmos in their quest to understand the glacial plot. They’ll chat about screaming babies, space gardens, black holes and spaghetti along with heavier themes like reproduction and bodily autonomy. Why is Dr. Dibbs so obsessed with pregnancy? Why doesn’t Monte partake of the sex box? Does Mia Goth actually have a big booty and what really happened on that spaceship filled with dogs? They’ll approach the black hole and try to withstand spaghettification while zeroing in on the unpleasant themes of this exceptional film.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
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