Joseph Pilato

He was born in Fitchburg in 1949 to an Italian-American family. His father was a professional trombonist with the Les Brown Orchestra. Joseph was enrolled into Catholic school and became an altar boy, where his talent for acting was developed.^[1]

Day of the Dead and success

In 1984, six years after the release of Dawn of the Dead, director George A. Romero was planning a new zombie film called Day of the Dead. Pilato had appeared as a cameo in Dawn of the Dead as a police officer, which had been his first feature film role. Pilato was selected to play United States Army Captain Rhodes. His best known for this performance, and the film, along with its predecessors, have become classics.^[2]

Later career and other projects

Pilato later voiced Vexor in Big Bad Beetleborgs under the alias of "Joey Pal"^[3] and worked in the English dub of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 voicing MetalGreymon.^[4] He would later land minor roles in such films as Wishmaster, Pulp Fiction, Digimon: The Movie, and Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D.^[5]

Joe Pilato died in his sleep on March 24, 2019, eight days after his 70th birthday.^[6]

Joe Pilato had one daughter, Gianna Pilato, who was born in 1994.

Television and film

Video games

• Joseph Pilato at IMDb
• Joe Pilato Preservation Page at the Wayback Machine (archived October 26, 2009)
• [1] Archived 2012-11-05 at the Wayback Machine