Riley leftDead Reckoningto lower the city's main gateway, the bridge called The Throat, to enter the city, but found the vehicle surrounded by clawing and lunging zombies when he returned, so he was forced to re-enter through the escape hatch on its roof.Romero's choice of a black lead actor was due to his low budget, but was still revolutionary - the character was the first African-American to play the heroic lead role in a horror film.In early July, 1932, Z.Smith Reynolds, the youngest 20 year-old son of the cigarette patriarch R.J.Reynolds, was suspiciously murdered with a gunshot wound to the head at the family estate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.You wait for me to talk.I like that.Jeff: I never found out much listening to myself.Sterling's girlfriend/mistress, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer) had shot Sterling four times, connecting only once, and then had fled the scene.The sale of black leather jackets and motorcycles (to emulate the dress, attitudes and behavior of Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin) reached new heights after the film's release, and motorcycles became a symbol of youth rebellion.