Photo: Randy Reichardt, 2009
Today in Blerd History, we remember Duane Jones, born on this day in 1937. A graduate of the Sorbonne in Paris and a professor of English lit, Jones also acted and directed for the stage and served as artistic director at the Richard Allen Center in his native New York City. When cast as the lead in George Romero’s indie classic “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), Jones broke pop culture ground in the horror genre by portraying an African American as the hero. As the indefatigable “Ben,” Jones brought a craftsmanlike artistry to the film that would set it far apart from its B-Movie contemporaries.
While continuing to pursue academia and theater, Jones would become iconic in indie horror throughout the 1970s and ’80s, but his life was cut tragically short when, in 1988, he passed from heart failure at age 52.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TAGtIQvebs
To learn more about Jones’ onscreen work, see his profile @ IMDb: Duane Jones
Currently portraying General Glenn Talbot on ‘Agents of SHIELD’, Persian American actor Adrian Pasdar is probably better known as Nathan Petrelli, superhuman politician from Tim Kring’s NBC series Heroes.
The actor has done any number of horror roles on both TV and in the cinema and these are two of my favorites.
Near Dark (1987)
Near Dark was a cult hit blending vampires into a modern Western motif. Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker, Zereo Dark Thirty) co-wrote and helmed this dramatic road trip horror. Her direction gives things a feel that is somehow both epic and trashy. A 21 year old Pasdar stars in one of his first sizable roles. He is the heart-throb reluctant hero while Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton up the creepy factor with over-the-top bad guy action. A classic.
Home Movie (2008)
A dark and effective horror indie in the found footage motif that takes a seemingly idyllic family into sociopathy with a tinge of the supernatural. Here, 20 years after Near Dark, Pasdar plays an earnest pastor and adoring dad trying to create normalcy where there is increasingly less and less of it.
Dark Matters 
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