Page "Night of the Living Dead" Paragraph 11

* Duane Jones as Ben: The lead role of Ben was played by unknown stage actor Duane Jones.

His performance depicted Ben as a " comparatively calm and resourceful Negro ", according to a contemporary ( 1969 ) movie reviewer.

Casting Jones as the hero was, in 1968, potentially controversial.

At the time, it was atypical for an African-American man to be the hero of a film when the rest of the cast was composed of whites ; but Romero said that Jones " simply gave the best audition ".

After Night of the Living Dead, he was in a few other films, and continued as a theater actor and director until his death in 1988.

Despite his other film roles, Jones worried that people only recognized him as Ben.