Early life

Savini was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is of Italian descent. He was raised in the Catholic religion and graduated from Central Catholic High School. As a boy, his inspiration was actor Lon Chaney, Sr., and Savini attributes his earliest desires to create makeup effects to Chaney and the film Man of a Thousand Faces. Experimenting with whatever medium he could find, the young Savini practiced creating makeup effects on himself, later convincing his friends to let him practice his craft on them. He also discovered another passion, acting. Combining his makeup applications and homemade costumes, he especially enjoyed scaring his friends. Savini attended Point Park University for three years, before enlisiting in the United States Army. After his tour in Vietnam, he attended Carnegie-Mellon University, as the first undergraduate to be awarded a full fellowship in the acting and directing program. He appeared in stage productions throughout college and continued on stage long after his tour of duty in Vietnam.

Savini served as a combat photographer during the Vietnam War. In a 2002 interview, he told the Pittsburgh Post "When I was in Vietnam I was a combat photographer. My job was to shoot images of damage to machines and to people. Through my lens, I saw some hideous . To cope with it, I guess I tried to think of it as special effects. Now, as an artist, I just think of creating the effect within the limitations we have to deal with." He continued to practice with makeup in Vietnam, often frightening indigenous peasants by appearing to suddenly transform into a "monster". Using the lens of his camera, Savini separated himself from the real life horrors of war; however, all the images still haunted his mind. Savini said his wartime experiences influenced his eventual style of gory effects: "I hated that when I watched a war movie and someone dies. Some people die with one eye open and one eye half-closed, sometimes people die with smiles on their faces because the jaw is always slack. I incorporated the feeling of the stuff I saw in Vietnam into my work." In 1970, while on guard duty, a flare was triggered in the jungle area Savini was watching. Against military protocol, Savini fired into the bush without informing his superiors. Other soldiers likewise began firing until a duck wandered from the bush completely unharmed. Due to his failure to follow orders, Savini was taken off guard duty from his bunker on the following evening. That same evening, the bunker came under attack and several soldiers were wounded or killed. As a result of this incident, Savini earned the nickname "Duck Slayer" and to this day will not eat duck.

Among the many talents Savini achieved as a young man was the art of fencing, he is a tournament fencer as well as an accomplished gymnast. Much of his stunt work and some of his characters reflect these graceful abilities; however, he is also accomplished with a bull whip and can easily execute a motorcycle stunt. Many of his characters have been bikers or madmen who are hardened and eerily evil.

Career

Savini is primarily known for his groundbreaking work in the field of special make-up effects, also known as prosthetic makeup. His signature style and techniques bring vivid realism to genre films. Early in Savini's career, Dick Smith became an inspiration and a guide, later becoming an associate at Savini's Special Make-up Effects Program. Among other projects, Smith is known for his groundbreaking work in The Exorcist.

Savini got his breakthrough working with Pittsburgh filmmaker George A. Romero, providing a convincing wrist-slashing effect in the opening scenes of Martin (1977). The following year, working with a larger budget on Dawn of the Dead, Savini created his signature palette of severed limbs and bite-marks. In the 1980 slasher film Friday the 13th, Savini expanded his repertoire of blood and gore. He continued to perfect those techniques in another film that year, Maniac. Along with the 1981 films The Burning and The Prowler, Savini earned the nickname "The Sultan of Splatter". In 1982, he created more traditional horror effects in the film Creepshow directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King. In 1984, he agreed to work on Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, where he killed his creation Jason Voorhees. Returning to the zombie genre in 1985, Savini was nominated and won the 1985 Saturn Award for Best Makeup Effects for his work on the Romero's Day of the Dead. In 1986, Savini worked with director Tobe Hooper on the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Savini has also worked on films by Italian director Dario Argento, first in 1990 on the film Two Evil Eyes and again on the 1993 film Trauma. In the 1991 film Heartstopper, he created special effects for director John A. Russo. Although focusing more on his acting career in recent years, Savini has continued to be active with special makeup effects and in 2011 supervised the effects for the Australian film Redd Inc.

As an actor, Savini has appeared in many of the same films he was creating effects for. His first appearance was a relatively straight, innocuous character in Martin in 1977; however, he played a menacing biker called Blades in his next film Dawn of the Dead (1978), a role he reprised in zombie form with a cameo appearance in the 2005 continuation of the series, Land of the Dead. In the 1980 film Maniac, his brief role in the film found him facing the maniac's shotgun and having his head blown off in a spectacular display. Savini had a much more prominent role as biker and antagonist Morgan, the Black Knight, in George A. Romero's Knightriders (1981). Continuing with the biker theme, Savini played the universally recognized, whip-wielding, vampire-fighting biker "Sex Machine" in the 1996 Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk till Dawn. (This character was a riff on Blades from Dawn of the Dead replete with the same costume.)

In 2007, Savini had a role in Planet Terror, one of two stories in the Grindhouse film, directed by Robert Rodriguez. Savini plays Deputy Tolo, who fights to save his town from an infestation of zombie-like creatures. In another Rodriguez film, Machete, based on a fake movie trailer played during the film Grindhouse, Savini played Osiris Amanpour, hired to track and kill the main character, Machete. Savini reprised his role in the sequel, Machete Kills. Throughout the years, Savini has appeared in movie roles from cameos as the vampire David Van Etten in Lost Boys: The Tribe, as the sheriff in the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, or tongue in cheek characters, like Jesus Christ in Zombiegeddon (2003). In 2006, Savini essayed the role of Prester John, the mythical villain in the dreamlike Sea of Dust. That year also saw the release of Johannes Roberts' Forest of the Damned, in which Savini played a mad hermit surrounded by angels cast from heaven. In 2008, he made a brief appearance in Zack & Miri Make a Porno as a thieving slumlord. He also appeared in The Dead Matter, along with Andrew Divoff and Jim O'Rear. Savini voiced himself on the The Simpsons episode "Worst Episode Ever". While making an appearance at Android's Dungeon, Savini performs the "Gutbuster" gag, covering the crowd in "blood and guts" and consequently humiliating the Comic Book Guy. In 2012, Savini appeared as a shop teacher, Mr. Callahan, in the Pittsburgh-set teen drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower, starring Logan Lerman. Savini also appeared as one of the Trackers in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. Future projects include Savini starring in the Nazi zombie film The 4th Reich directed by Shaun Robert Smith, playing the role of SS-Standartenführer Oskar Dirlewanger. As a film director, Savini helmed episodes of the syndicated television series Tales from the Darkside, the aforementioned 1990 color remake of Night of the Living Dead and, House Call, the pilot of the proposed series The Chill Factor, which starred Pittsburgh actor Bingo O'Malley. In 2011, he directed "Wet Dreams", one of six segments to the horror film The Theatre Bizarre. In 2009, Savini announced his plan to direct a new film, Death Island, with special make-up effects by his former protege Greg Nicotero. On September 1, 2013, Savini began a crowd funding project on Indiegogo for Death Island. His plans are to begin filming by the end of 2013.

In the 2008 novel Bad Moon Rising by Jonathan Maberry, Savini appears as one of the real-world horror celebrities who are in the fictional town of Pine Deep when monsters attack; other celebrities include James Gunn, Jim O'Rear, Brinke Stevens, Ken Foree, Stephen Susco, Debbie Rochon, Joe Bob Briggs and blues man Mem Shannon.

Savini also briefly took part in Jerry Lawler's 2010 revival of the Memphis Wrestling pro wrestling television show. His on-screen character sent horror-movie monsters (played by wrestlers from the Memphis area) onto the show to get revenge for Savini who blamed Lawler for the death of Savini's friend Andy Kaufman; the monsters' handler was manager "Hollywood" Jimmy Blaylock.

In 2012, American filmmaker Jason Baker debuted a biography of Savini entitled Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini.

He stated during a Q&A with fans that the hardest movie he has ever worked on was Creepshow because it was "5 movies in 1".

FX education

Main article: Tom Savini's Special Make-Up Effects Program

Savini runs the Tom Savini's Special Make-Up Effects Program at the Douglas Education Center in Monessen, Pennsylvania. Savini is happy to say that he refers offers he receives for movie make-up effects projects to his students and graduates of his school as well. Savini's longtime associate Dick Smith had incorporated an advanced professional make-up seminar into the last semester of the program, but it is no longer offered.

Savini is the author of several books on special effects including Grande Illusions I and II (1983, 1994) which detail the production and mechanical workings of many of his famous film effects. In Horror F/X, a 1989 direct-to-video interview conducted by frequent collaborator John A. Russo, Savini explains many of his effects techniques, illustrated by film clips and behind-the-scenes video footage. He is also associated with other books in the horror genre including Book of the Dead and Horror 101 for which he wrote the foreword. Savini has also appeared in public demonstrating his effects, including two memorable appearances in the 1980s on Late Night With David Letterman in which he demonstrated such effects as "fire gel" and a gunshot to the head on Letterman himself.

Filmography

As actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1977	Martin	Arthur	First film with George A. Romero
1978	Dawn of the Dead	Blades	Second film with George A. Romero
	Effects	Nicky
1980	Maniac	Disco boy
1981	Knightriders	Morgan	Third film with George A. Romero
1982	Creepshow	Garbage Man #2	Fourth film with George A. Romero (cameo)
1984	The Boy Who Loved Trolls	Motorcyclist
1985	The Ripper	Jack the Ripper	Direct-to-video; shot in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma
1986	Twisted Sister: Come Out and Play	Teacher	Cameo
1987	Creepshow 2	The Creep
1990	Two Evil Eyes	The Monomaniac (Uncredited)	Fifth film with George A. Romero
1992	Innocent Blood	News Photographer
1994	Heartstopper	Lt. Ron Vargo
1995	The Demolitionist	Roland
1996	Mr. Stitch	Chemical Weapons Engineer	Television movie
	From Dusk till Dawn	Sex Machine
2000	Sheena	Peter Reynolds	Episode "Lost Boy"
2001	The Monster Man	Uncle Joe
	Web of Darkness	Rouge
	Children of the Living Dead	Deputy Hughs
	The Simpsons	Himself	Episode "Worst Episode Ever"
2002	Eyes Are Upon You	Eddie Rao
	Ted Bundy	Salt Lake City Detective
2003	Blood Bath	Stranger
	Zombiegeddon	Jesus Christ	New York City Horror Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award
2004	Vicious	Kane
	Dawn of the Dead	The County Sheriff	Remake of the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead
	Death 4 Told	Man	Cameo
	Unearthed	Victor Tonelli
2005	Forest of the Damned	Stephen
	Land of the Dead	Blades (Zombie)	Sixth film with George A. Romero
2006	A Dream of Colour in Black and White	Caddy
	Beyond the Wall of Sleep	Sheriff
	The Absence of Light	The Higher Power
2007	Grindhouse	Deputy Tolo	Segment Planet Terror
	Loaded Dice	The Bishop
2008	Silent Vengeance	Daniel Phillips
	It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To	Uncle Tom
	Lost Boys: The Tribe	David Van Etten	Sequel to the 1987 film The Lost Boys
	Zack and Miri Make a Porno	Jenkins
	Sea of Dust	Prester John
2009	Eldorado
2010	The Dead Matter	Sebed
	Machete	Osiris Amanpour
	Horrorween	Killer
	Aqua Teen Hunger Force	Cop	Episode "One Hundred"
2012	The Theatre Bizarre	Dr. Maurey
	Django Unchained	Tracker Chaney
	The Perks of Being a Wallflower	Mr. Callahan
2013	Machete Kills	Osiris Amanpour
	The 4th Reich	SS-Standartenführer Oskar Dirlewanger
	LocoCycle	Holt Ryebach (live acting only)	Video game
2016	From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series	Burt

As make-up artist/special effects technician

Year	Film	Notes
1972	Deathdream
1974	Deranged
1977	Martin
1978	Dawn of the Dead	Nominated: Saturn Award for Best Make-Up Effects
1980	Friday the 13th
	Effects
	Maniac
1981	Eyes of a Stranger
	The Burning
	The Prowler
	Knightriders
1982	Xiao sheng pa pa
	Creepshow
	Alone in the Dark
	Midnight
1984	Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
	Maria's Lovers
1985	Day of the Dead	Saturn Award for Best Make-Up Effects
1986	Twisted Sister: Come out and Play
	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
1987	Creepshow 2
1988	Tales From the Darkside	Episode "Family Reunion"
	Monkey Shines
	Red Scorpion
1990	Two Evil Eyes
1991	Heartstopper
	Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh
1993	Killing Zoe
	Trauma
	H.P. Lovecraft's: Necronomicon
1994	Backstreet Justice
1997	Cutting Moments
1999	Cold Hearts
2001	Web of Darkness
2002	Ted Bundy
2011	Death from Above
2012	Redd Inc
2017	Nightmare City

As director

Year	Film	Notes
1984-1988	Tales from the Darkside	TV, three episodes
1990	Night of the Living Dead	Remake of the 1968 film
2004	Chill Factor: House Call
2011	The Theatre Bizarre	Segment "Wet Dreams"
2017	Nightmare City	Remake of Nightmare City (1980)

Bibliography

• Grande Illusions: A Learn-By-Example Guide to the Art and Technique of Special Make-Up Effects from the Films of Tom Savini ISBN 0-911137-00-9
• Grande Illusions II ISBN 0-911137-07-6
• Bizarro! (A reissue of Grande Illusions, arbitrarily re-titled by its publisher) ISBN 0-517-55319-8

[ Source: Wikipedia ]