Ella Mae Smith, who played one of the flesh-eating ghouls in George Romero's 1968 horror classic Night Of The Living Dead has passed away yesterday at the age of 93.
A lifelong resident of Evans City PA, she and her husband, Philip, lived in a home right in front of the farmhouse where the movie was filmed. They were sitting in their front yard one day when a car pulled up and asked them if they wanted to be in a movie. Ella Mae persuaded Philip and they both appeared as ghouls. Little did they know at the time that they were participating in the creation of one of the greatest and most recognizable horror films of all time.
40 years after her lone acting role, Smith was interviewed in the documentary One for the Fire: The Legacy of Night of the Living Dead. She also appeared in the doc Autopsy of the Dead and the featurette Walking Like the Dead.
The official Night of the Living Dead FaceBook page wrote "for at least the past 20 years Ella Mae Smith has been the beloved local ambassador to Night of the Living Dead, always making time to meet with visiting fans and escort them around her property and the adjacent filming location where the farmhouse originally stood."
"You wouldn't believe how many people stop here at my house and ask me where this movie was made. And I tell them, and I tell them I was in it and everything, and we have lots of fun about it," Smith said in One for the Fire. "I didn't make much money, but I had a million dollars worth of fun out of this movie."
Haunted Barn Museum proprietor and fellow Out Of Bodies member, Joey Vento, shares his memories and pictures...
"...We used to visit Ella Mae Smith each time we were in Evans City. This is the day we took her out for ice cream. She was a dear, sweet lady who would tell us such great stories - not only about her Night of the Living Dead days, but local stuff - about EC in the 50s.
Right before this, she had sent us a letter and photo, inviting us down and we always had a place to take a break while visiting a convention down there or something. She would always make us tea and share MORE stories.
One visit, she took down, out of a closet, a box full of the derma-wax that was used on her husband Phil's hand in the movie. Her daughter had saved it, and used it in a school composition she did called "My Mother and Father were in Night of the Living Dead". At a screening I went to of NOTLD Ella was in the audience and yelled "that's MY MAILBOX" during the scene when the posse is forming... right in front of her home in the movie!
Oh, the stories... One really great one is when she told us that right before they burned the famous farmhouse (which was right down the road from her house) the dummies used as static ghouls were still in the house, propped up - sitting on the sofa and chairs - and they frightened the heck out of the local kids who were curious enough to peek inside through the windows!!
Ella kept them coming!! We will never forget her kindness to many fans and travelers, like us. Rest in Peace Ella and Phil!"
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Special thanks to Joey for contributing memories and pics
There's something hilarious about the fact that when we'd send home-made DVDs to each other in the mail that we'd have to put a "NO BUDD" promise on the packaging!!...
