At the time of his death, Dr. Duane Jones was the head of the Theater Department at the State University of New York at Old Westbury.
First African-American to have a starring role in a mainstream horror film - Night of the Living Dead (1968).
He never saw any of George A. Romero's other films including Dawn of the Dead (1978) or Day of the Dead (1985).
His role in Night of the Living Dead (1968) was the first time in American cinema that a Black actor was cast in a lead role of a major motion picture that did not specify that the part had to be played by a black actor.
In an audio interview conducted shortly before his untimely death in 1988, he recalled an occasion during which he met with a group of his theater students at a local café near the Old Westbury campus on Long Island, New York, when they were suddenly awestruck at the film then playing on TV. Duane turned around and noticed that the movie playing on the television in the café was none other than Night of the Living Dead (1968). His students were amazed to see their professor on screen, because Duane never usually made any mention of his movie roles to his students. After this occasion, the word spread that "Night of the Living Dead's" star hero was teaching at Old Westbury college on Long Island.