David Emge was an actor best known for playing Stephen “Flyboy” Andrews in the horror classic “Dawn of the Dead.”
- Died: January 20, 2024 (Who else died on January 20?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 77.
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David Emge’s legacy
Emge’s acting credits were few but notable to fans of horror movies. His most well-known appearance was in “Dawn of the Dead,” George Romero’s (1940–2017) 1978 follow-up to his iconic zombie classic “Night of the Living Dead.” Emge played the helicopter pilot known as Flyboy, one of the movie’s main characters who held out and fought zombies through much of the film before being turned into a zombie himself. Emge was a favorite of horror moviegoers and continued to attend fan conventions throughout his life.
Emge’s other movies included “Basket Case 2” and “Hellmaster.” He also worked as a chef, and he was a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War.
Emge on his zombie persona
“I had to do something that separated myself from everybody else. And so everyone had to come up with their own ‘personality-less’ creatures. It was whatever personality came out of a creature came from whatever happened to it. All that walking around on the side of my foot – the way I carried my body – came out of what had happened to him, so that defined how I was going to be a zombie. And [Romero] liked it so that’s all that mattered. But it was different than anybody else.” —from a 199 interview with Brian Ridgway
Tributes to David Emge
Full obituary: Pierre Funeral Home
