10 Actors Who Returned To Horror Franchises YEARS Later
5. Bill Hinzman - Night of the Living Dead
Now here's a fascinating one. You might not know the name Bill Hinzman, but you'll almost certainly recognise his face.
Hinzman played "Zombie #1" in George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead - the iconic cemetery ghoul encountered by Barbra (Judith O'Dea) and Johnny (Russ Streiner) at the very start of the 1968 undead classic, which went on to spawn a franchise of Romero-directed zombie flicks.
While this small but memorable role seemed like an absolute one-off, Hinzman was ultimately given the opportunity to reprise it in Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition.
This was a modified cut of Romero's film created by original writer John Russo, featuring a new musical score and new scenes written and directed by Russo himself. One of these sequences saw Hinzman reprise the role of Zombie #1, where it's revealed that he was an executed child murderer who was being buried on the day that the undead apocalypse took hold, leading to the events of the original '68 film.
Fan reception to the 30th Anniversary Edition is wildly mixed at best, and there's no getting around Hinzman unavoidably looking much older in the new footage, but it was certainly a wildly left-field way to bring the actor back.