Thomas Vincent Savini (born November 3, 1946[1]) is an American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director.

He is known for his makeup and special effects work on many films directed by George A. Romero, including Martin, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Creepshow, and Monkey Shines; he also created the special effects and makeup for many cult classics like Friday the 13th (parts I and IV), Maniac, The Burning, The Prowler, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

Savini said his wartime experiences influenced his eventual style of gory effects: "I hated that when I watched a war movie and someone dies.

[9] After his tour in Vietnam, he attended Carnegie-Mellon University,[10] as the first undergraduate to be awarded a full fellowship in the acting and directing program.

Savini got his breakthrough working with Pittsburgh filmmaker George A. Romero, providing a convincing wrist-slashing effect in the opening scenes of Martin (1978).

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 1982, he created more traditional horror effects in Creepshow, a movie directed by Romero from a script written by Stephen King.

Returning to the zombie genre in 1985, Savini won the year's Saturn Award for Best Makeup Effects for his work on the Romero's Day of the Dead.

[13] Savini played the whip-wielding, vampire-fighting biker "Sex Machine" in the 1996 Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk till Dawn.

Cameos include roles as the vampire David Van Etten in Lost Boys: The Tribe; as the sheriff in the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake; and the tongue-in-cheek Jesus Christ in Zombiegeddon (2003).

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 2012, Savini appeared as a shop teacher, Mr. Callahan, in the Pittsburgh-set teen drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower, starring Logan Lerman.

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.

In 2009, Savini announced his plan to direct a new film, Death Island, with special make-up effects by his former protege Greg Nicotero.

[18] 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.

[26][27] In May 2019, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor said in an interview that Savini worked to produce and create his new masks for the upcoming We Are Not Your Kind album and subsequent tour cycles.

[32] In Horror F/X, a 1989 direct-to-video interview conducted by frequent collaborator Russo, Savini explains many of his effects techniques, illustrated by film clips and behind-the-scenes video footage.