Glendale, CA. (2008)--The no-nonsense Captain Rhodes, easily the most colorful character in the epic George A. Romero cult classic Day Of The Dead, elevated the theatrically-trained Joseph Pilato from bit part obscurity to cult figure. The fact that it was only his third motion picture role, at the time, surprises many.Pilato's first role, a small part in 1978s Dawn Of The Dead (as a police officer), led to yet another small part in Knight Riders (as a disgruntled fair worker), alongside Ed Harris, followed closely by his signature role as Captain Rhodes in Day Of The Dead. In fact, it's his memorable death scene that really grabbed the attention of fans. Not surprisingly, it was Pilato himself who introduced the notion that if Rhodes was going to succumb to the zombie menace, he wouldn't do so quietly. That blood-and-guts-spewing delivery of his final line, "Choke on 'em!" will live on in the annals of cult movie history for as long as such annals exist.
On being a horror fan On being cast in Dawn Of The Dead
On character connection in Dawn Of The Dead and Day Of The Dead
On being cast as Rhodes in Day Of The Dead
On creating the Rhodes character
On the script dialog for Day Of The Dead
On Romero's direction for the Rhodes character
On fleshing out the Rhodes character
On ad-libbing Rhodes' dialogue
On working underground for the entire shoot
On getting into the Rhodes character
On working with Richard Liberty, aka Dr. Logan
On the script for Day Of The Dead
On what his favorite scenes and pieces of dialog from Day of the Dead
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