George A. Romero, director of the groundbreaking "Dead" films, was born February 4, 1940, in New York City. He grew up there until attending Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. After graduation, he and his friends chipped in roughly $10,000 each to produce what became one of the most celebrated American horror films of all time: "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). Shot in black-and-white, the film earned back far more than what it cost, became a cult classic by the early 1970s and was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress of the United States in 1999. In 1978, Romero returned to the zombie genre with the one film of his that would top the success of "Night of the Living Dead": "Dawn of the Dead." This led to "Creepshow" (1982), based on a novel by Stephen King. His more recent films include "The Dark Half" and "Land of the Dead."