Duane Jones reportedly argued to keep the ending of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead over a happier alternative, believing its impact was stronger because the hero who died was Black.
After surviving the night, Ben is killed by a white posse that mistakes him for a zombie. Jones is widely recognized for his performance as Ben, the survivor who takes charge, the first Black lead in a major horror film.
Jones won the lead in the 1968 film because the filmmakers thought he gave the strongest audition. Ben’s race wasn’t specified in the screenplay.
The part had been conceived as a coarse-spoken trucker, and another actor, Rudy Ricci, had been considered. Jones, an actor and teacher based in New York, was visiting family in Pittsburgh when he auditioned.
Jones helped reshape Ben’s speech, reducing the character’s crudeness. Romero kept the script free of added dialogue about his leading man’s race. Jones later said he’d never assumed being Black was the reason he got the job, though he understood the significance of the casting.
Other Black actors had already played leading roles that weren’t written around race, including Sidney Poitier in The Bedford Incident (1965). Jones’s place in horror history rests on bringing that kind of casting to a genre-defining film released during the civil rights struggles of 1968.
The ending gave his casting another dimension.
