Savini was born in Pittsburgh, where he graduated in Journalism from Carnegie-Mellon University. Working on special effects and film make-up was in the circle of his interests since childhood. His passion was awakened in 1957 by the movie Man of a Thousand Faces, causing Tom Savini to spend every free moment creating his own make-up. His designs are known for the realistic brutality inherent in gore production, which he learned while working as a war photographer in Vietnam. He was able to transfer the terrible scenes that he witnessed at the time to a film set, arousing terror among his fans.
He created special effects, incl. for the films Friday, the 13th , Maniac , Dawn of the Living Dead and Day of the Living Dead . As an actor, he appeared in productions such as Land of the Damned , where he played the role of Stephen, From Dusk to Dawn as the Sex Machine, or Eyes of Satan, where he played a monomaniac. As a director, he was responsible for Tales from the Dark Side, Night of the Living Dead, The Theater Bizarre, Nightmare City and the Creepshow series