Keith Wayne

American actor, professional wrestler and singer (1945-2010)

Keith Wayne played Tom, the young man who dies with Judy at the petrol pump. He was born Ronald Keith Hartman in Washington, Pennsylvania, and took the stage name, he said, "because it sounded good and I hated Ronald". He had performed since he was five, took a B.S. in Music Education at Mansfield State College, and led a band, Ronnie and the Jesters, which toured three summers - the best of them 1966, when they played a show with the Beatles in Milwaukee. His single "Say Hey, Hey Hey" came out on the St. Clair label the same year.

Richard Ricci heard him singing in a club in 1967, learned he had acting training, and put him up for the part. He filmed while still performing at the Gaiety Follies in Myrtle Beach, commuting between South Carolina and Pittsburgh, and took a flat fee of 1,500 dollars and expenses rather than two per cent of the gross - he bought a car with it. It was his only feature.

He left entertainment, moved to Cary, North Carolina, and qualified as a chiropractor in 1984, practising under his own name as Dr Ronald Keith Hartman; he was president of the North Carolina Chiropractic Association's Eastern District, and in 1990 was ranked first in the country at the National Masters Powerlifting Championship. He came back to the film once, at the 25th anniversary Zombie Jamboree in 1993. He died on 9 September 1995, by suicide, survived by his wife Brenda and two children.