George A. Romero, the US filmmaker responsible for the Living Dead franchise, has died aged 77.

Romero's longtime production partner Peter Grunwald said that the director died in his sleep on Sunday (July 16) after a "brief but aggressive battle with lung cancer" in a statement to the LA Times.

Romero died while listening to the score of one his favourite films, 1952’s The Quiet Man, with his wife and daughter at his side, the family said.

Night of the Living Dead, which Romero co-wrote and directed launched his career in 1968, birthing the zombie horror genre as we know it today. A low-budget film, having costed just $114,000 to produce, Night Of The Living Dead was a success with film-watching audiences despite less favourable critical reception, with the film going on to birth the likes of Dawn of the Dead in 1978 and Day of the Dead in 1985 among other films in the series.