Evansville native David Emge, star of 'Dawn of the Dead,' dies at 77

EVANSVILLE – David Emge, an Evansville native who became famous to legions of horror fans after starring in the George Romero classic "Dawn of the Dead," died at a senior living center on Saturday. He was 77.

In "Dawn," Emge received top billing as Stephen, a TV traffic reporter who swipes the station's helicopter to fly his girlfriend and others to relative safety after a zombie plague washes over Earth.

He and other survivors end up trapped inside a shopping mall, where they battle the undead until the film's gut-filled conclusion.

"Dawn of the Dead" went onto to become one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and it followed Emge for the rest of his life. In a 2005 interview with the Courier & Press, he said fans even showed up at his apartment in New York.

"People come up and say 'I've watched that movie 100 times,'" he said. "That's a lot more than I have. They're like Trekkies."

Despite the film's success, Emge didn't act in another movie until 1990's "Basket Case 2," and his last film came two years later, in "Hellmaster." Instead, he became a legal researcher for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

David Michael Emge was born in Evansville on Sept. 9, 1946. As a boy he worked his way up to Eagle Scout, and in a precursor to his horror stardom, he took first prize in the 1957 West Side Nut Club Fall Festival Halloween costume contest.

After graduating from Mater Dei High School, he went on to the University of Evansville theatre program, where he quickly established himself as a star alongside other famous alum Ron Glass. He did everything from act in "Hamlet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to work as some productions' makeup chairman. In 1971, he was one of several students to perform at Washington D.C.'s Ford's Theatre as part of the American College Theatre Festival.

In between all that, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, his obituary states.

He returned to Washington D.C. after college and briefly worked the dinner theatre circuit before making his film debut in 1976's "The Liberation of Cherry Janowski."

But he was working as a chef in New York when the call came that would change his life. Romero was finally dipping back into zombies after "Night of the Living Dead," and Emge was tapped to lead the movie.

As Stephen, or "Flyboy" as the other characters call him, he's forced to protect his pregnant girlfriend from not only zombies, but also a sadistic biker gang that breaks into the shopping mall and runs rampant.

"It is gruesome, sickening, disgusting, violent, brutal and appalling," Roger Ebert wrote in his 1979 review. "It is also (excuse me for a second while I find my other list) brilliantly crafted, funny, droll, and savagely merciless in its satiric view of the American consumer society. Nobody ever said art had to be in good taste."

Emge would spend the rest of his life talking about "Dawn" in documentaries and at conventions, where fans would rush him for autographs.

"This movie won't go away," he said in 2005. "It's as inexorable as a zombie."

Emge died Saturday at West River Health Campus. He is survived by three sisters and scores of nieces and nephews. Services were scheduled for Wednesday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville native David Emge, star of 'Dawn of the Dead,' dies at 77