I always feel a bit sorry for Duane Jones, a talented actor who did much of note but still found himself defined by one iconic role.

He studied at the Sorbonne and had degrees from both the University of Philadelphia and New York University.  He volunteered with the Peace Corps. and was working as an English teacher when he auditioned for a film called Night of the Living Dead.  At a time when it was rare for any black actor (outside of Sidney Poitier, who certainly wasn’t going to appear in a low-budget film about the dead returning to life) to get a lead role, Duane Jones was given the starring role as Ben.  Jones gave a performance of such authenticity and authority that it would be years before many people were willing to admit that Ben had actually been incorrect about not going in the cellar.  Jones final scenes, in which Ben is gunned down by a posse of rednecks, gave Night of the Living Dead a political jolt that it would not have had without him and his powerful performance.

Jones acted in other films, including starring in another acclaimed horror film, Ganja and Hess.  But he reportedly always worried that people would only know him as Ben from Night of the Living Dead.  Even while acting, Jones continued to work as an academic, heading up the literature department at Antioch College and working as the executive director of the Black Theater Alliance.  He was also an in-demand acting teacher.  He passed away at the far-too early age of 51 in 1988.

In this scene, from Night of the Living Dead, Ben talks to the catatonic Barbara about what is happening in the outside world.  Jones’s intensity brings the scene to life and gives Night of the Living Dead the momentum to continue to enthrall audiences to this day.