Farewell to the captain. Saying goodbye to Joe Pilato

Farewell to the captain. Saying goodbye to Joe Pilato

This week has been rough.. Not only am I fighting a pretty bad case of bronchitis, but I was sent home from work last week with a high fever which resulted in me being hospitalized twice. Laying down Monday, I woke up to the worst news ever.

Joe Pilato had died.

Joe is best known for playing Captain Rhodes in George A Romero's Day Of The Dead (1985) One of the most over the top and iconic villains of all time. Joe along with the bloody mind blowing effects, were the two true stars of this third entry in the dead trilogy, and Joe goes down in history as featuring one of the best on screen deaths ever featured in a horror movie. 

Long before Negan was one of the most famous villains to battle the undead there was Rhodes.

Captain Rhodes was one of my first movie crushes, and for years I had promised myself when I got the chance I would meet Joe and let him know how much his role in Day Of The Dead meant. I still get chills whenever I think of the elevator slowly beeping and all of the military men standing back as Rhodes stands back and watches the dozens of zombies slowly lower into the underground bunker.

With his over the top lines, beyond attractive dark black hair, and of course epic showdown with Bub the zombie, Rhodes has forever cemented himself as one of key favorite characters in a horror movie, and is a huge reason why Day of The Dead has always been my favorite. In fact back in 2017 I oddly found this movie a huge comfort to me, and watched on a constant loop. It seems unreal that Joe is gone now, and the sad reality that I never got the chance to meet him is truly sinking in.

Joe was from Boston, and appeared in the underrated film Effects, a cameo in Dawn Of The Dead, and Wishmaster. He was also originally supposed to be written as the lead in From Dusk Till Dawn. Man that would have been something! Just recently he did some independent work as well as being the lead in the comic series.

 He always seemed to be a complete joker at conventions, and always had a drink in his hand. Totally my kind of dude. I really have to hand it to George Romero for going against grain and casting this short attractive Italian man as the man villain. He stole every scene he was in, and truly made you wonder what made a man like Rhodes tick. Clearly there was more going on behind him than what we were shown.

My only comfort at this time is knowing that Joe will forever live on in Day Of The Dead, and if there hadn't been this dark classic movie back in 1985, there probably wouldn't have been a Walking Dead, which gave birth to iconic villains following in Rhodes' footsteps like Negan.

So three cheers to Joe. I'm sure whenever he is, he's with George having a stuff drink, and telling those zombies that they are puss fucks. Until next time Captain. Thank you for the memories!

RIP