Here is an excerpt of a letter that I received from Richard France on May 18th, 2006.  He played Dr. Millard Rousche in Dawn of the Dead.

It’s kind of you to give George the attention he deserves. Allow me to suggest another of his films well worth considering, “Monkey Shines”.

Our last face-to-face, and the only version of “Dawn” I ever saw, was when George invited us to a rough cut that he was working on at the Brill Bldg. It was over 3 hours long; my wife covered her face for much of it, while George and I laughed our heads off. When we finished dinner and went our separate ways, I don’t think that it occurred to either of us that we would never see each other again. But such is the case.

Neither Howard Smith, with whom I shared the scene in that photo, nor I are actors. And the scene itself was completely ad-libbed, with George himself shouting insults at me off camera (my other scene was scripted). Howard and I are both writers, so George permitted us to throw out his scene and devise our own dialogue.

But because I am not an actor, I don’t cling to past roles that way an actor typically does. About the only thing I remember about this role was George fitting me with the eye patch. When I asked why, he smiled and said “Because you died in The Crazies.” It was, in other words, the same character in both films – and I’m damned if I can remember either of their names. George’s motivation – yes! He loved in-jokes. And to have someone with a Ph.D. playing his scientist delighted him to no end.