Joseph Pilato

Joseph Pilato was an American actor.

Pilato studied acting at Emerson College and Suffolk University, in Boston, and soon he was working with such notable troupes as Boston Repertory Theatre, Stage One Theatre Company and Reality Theatre.

Pilato’s best known role was that of mentally unhinged soldier Captain Henry Rhodes in George Romero’s classic 1985 zombie horror film Day of the Dead. He had a small part as a police officer in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead seven years earlier.

His other films include Knightriders (with Ed Harris), Gung Ho (with Michael Keaton), The Evil Inside Me (with Roddy McDowell), and Music from Another Room (with Jude Law). Pilato played a Dean Martin lookalike in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

Pilato’s television resume includes Spenser: For Hire, The Young and the Restless, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Beetleborgs, and Digimon: Digital Monsters, the last two of which were animated series for which Pilato provided voice-over.

Pilato died March 24, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. He was 70.