John Waters Biography

John Samuel Waters, Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, stand-up comedian, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films. Waters' 1970s and early '80s trash films feature his regular troupe of actors known as the Dreamlanders"?among them Divine, Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Edith Massey. Starting with Desperate Living (1977), Waters began casting real-life convicted criminals (Liz Renay, Patty Hearst) and infamous people (Traci Lords, a former porn star).

Waters dabbled in mainstream filmmaking with Hairspray (1988), which introduced Ricki Lake and earned a modest gross of $8 million domestically. In 2002, Hairspray was adapted to a long-running Broadway musical, which itself was adapted to a hit musical film which earned more than $200 million worldwide. After the crossover success of the original film version of Hairspray, Waters's films began featuring familiar actors and celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Edward Furlong, Melanie Griffith, Chris Isaak, Johnny Knoxville, Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci, Lili Taylor, Kathleen Turner, and Tracey Ullman.

Although he maintains apartments in New York City and San Francisco, and a summer home in Provincetown, Waters still mainly resides in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, where all his films are set. Many of his films take place in a neighborhood called Hampden. He is recognizable by his trademark pencil moustache, a look he has retained since the early 1970s.

Early life

Waters was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Patricia Ann (née Whitaker) and John Samuel Waters, who was a manufacturer of fire-protection equipment. His family were upper-middle class Roman Catholics. Waters grew up in Lutherville, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. His boyhood friend and muse Glenn Milstead, later known as Divine, also lived in Lutherville.

The movie Lili inspired an interest in puppets in the seven-year-old Waters, who proceeded to stage violent versions of Punch and Judy for children's birthday parties. Biographer Robert L. Pela says that Waters's mother believes the puppets in Lili had the greatest influence on Waters's subsequent career (though Pela believes tacky films at a local drive-in, which the young Waters watched from a distance through binoculars, had a greater effect).

After attending Towson Jr. High School in Towson, MD, Waters was privately educated at the Calvert School in Baltimore, Calvert Hall College High School in nearby Towson, and ultimately graduating from Boys' Latin School of Maryland. For his sixteenth birthday, Waters received an 8mm movie camera from his maternal grandmother, Stella Whitaker.

Career

Early career

His first short film was Hag in a Black Leather Jacket. According to Waters, the film was shown only once in a "beatnik coffee house" in Baltimore, although in later years he has included it in his traveling photography exhibit.

Waters enrolled at New York University (NYU). The school, however, was not what Waters had in mind:

NYU...I was there for about five minutes. I don't know what I was thinking about. I went to one class and they kept talking about Potemkin and that isn't what I wanted to talk about. I had just gone to see Olga's House of Shame. That was what I was more into.

Extremely influential to his creative mind, Waters tells Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life, was The Wizard of Oz.

I was always drawn to forbidden subject matter in the very, very beginning. The Wizard of Oz opened me up because it was one of the first movies I ever saw. It opened me up to villainy, to screenwriting, to costumes. And great dialogue. I think the witch has great, great dialogue.

Waters has further credited his influences as, among others, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Federico Fellini, William Castle and Ingmar Bergman. He has stated that he takes an equal amount of joy and influence from high-brow "art" films and sleazy exploitation films.

In January 1966, Waters and some friends were caught smoking marijuana on the grounds of NYU; he was soon kicked out of his NYU dormitory. Waters returned to Baltimore, where he completed his next two short films Roman Candles and Eat Your Makeup. These were followed by the feature-length films Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs.

Waters's films would become Divine's primary star vehicles. All of Waters's early films were shot in the Baltimore area with his company of local actors, the Dreamlanders. In addition to Divine, the group included Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Susan Walsh, and others. These early films were among the first picked up for distribution by the fledgling New Line Cinema. Waters's later films premiered at Baltimore's Senator Theatre and sometimes at the Charles Theatre.

Waters's early campy movies present exaggerated characters in outrageous situations with hyperbolic dialogue. Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living, which he labeled the Trash Trilogy, pushed hard at the boundaries of conventional propriety and movie censorship. A particularly notorious scene from Pink Flamingos, added as a non sequitur to the film's end, featured"?in one continuous take without special effects"?a small dog defecating and Divine eating its feces.

Move towards the mainstream

Waters's 1981 film Polyester starred Divine opposite former teen idol Tab Hunter. Since then, his films have become less controversial and more mainstream, although works such as Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker, and Cecil B. Demented still retain his trademark inventiveness. The film Hairspray was turned into a hit Broadway musical which swept the 2003 Tony Awards, and a film adaptation of the Broadway musical was released in theaters on July 20, 2007 to positive reviews and commercial success. Cry-Baby, itself a musical, was also converted into a Broadway musical.

In 2004, the NC-17-rated A Dirty Shame marked a return to his earlier, more controversial work of the 1970s. He had a cameo in Jackass Number Two, which starred Dirty Shame co-star Johnny Knoxville, and another small role as paparazzo Pete Peters in 2004's Seed of Chucky.

In 2007, he became the host ("The Groom Reaper") of 'Til Death Do Us Part, a program on America's Court TV network featuring dramatizations of marriages that soured and ended in murder.

In 2008, Waters was planning to make a children's Christmas film called Fruitcake starring Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey. Filming was planned for November 2008, but it was shelved in January 2009. In 2010, Waters told the Chicago Tribune that "Independent films that cost $5 million are very hard to get made. I sold the idea, got a development deal, got paid a great salary to write it"?and now the company is no longer around, which is the case with many independent film companies these days."

Waters has been known to create characters with alliterated names for his films including Corny Collins, Cuddles Kovinsky, Donald and Donna Dasher, Dawn Davenport, Fat Fuck Frank, Francine Fishpaw, Link Larkin, Motormouth Maybelle, Mole McHenry, Penny and Prudy Pingleton, Ramona Ricketts, Sandy Sandstone, Sylvia Stickles, Todd Tomorrow, Tracy Turnblad, Ursula Udders, Wade Walker, and Wanda Woodward.

Fine art

Since the early 1990s, Waters has been making photo-based artwork and installations that have been internationally exhibited in galleries and museums. In 2004, the New Museum in NYC presented a retrospective of his artwork curated by Marvin Heiferman and Lisa Phillips. His most recent exhibition was Rear Projection in April, 2009, at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York and the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles. Waters has been represented by C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland since 2002.

Waters's pieces are often comical, such as Rush (2009), a super-sized, tipped-over bottle of poppers (nitrite inhalants) and Hardy Har (2006), a photograph of flowers that squirts water at anyone who traverses a taped line on the floor. Waters has characterized his art as conceptual, saying that "the craft is not the issue here. The idea is. And the presentation."

Other interests

Waters is something of a bibliophile, with a collection of over 8,000 books. When Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson visited Waters in his home in 2011 he commented,

Bookshelves line the walls but they are not enough. The coffee table, desk and side tables are heaped with books, as is the replica electric chair in the hall. They range from Taschen art tomes such as The Big Butt Book to Jean Genet paperbacks and a Hungarian translation of Tennessee Williams with a pulp fiction cover. In one corner sits a doll from the horror spoof Seed of Chucky, in which Waters appeared. It feels like an eccentric professor's study, or a carefully curated exhibition based on the life of a fictional character.

He has had his fan mail delivered to Atomic Books, an independent bookstore in Baltimore, for over 20 years.

Puffing constantly on a cigarette, Waters appeared in a short film shown in film art houses announcing that "no smoking" is permitted in the theaters. This short spot was filmed by Waters for the Nuart Theatre (a Landmark Theater) in West Los Angeles, California, in appreciation to the theater for showing Pink Flamingos for many years. It is shown immediately before any of his films, and before the midnight movie showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Waters has since quit smoking himself.

He played a minister in Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, which was directed by one of his idols, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and is a sequel to one of his favorite exploitation films.

Waters is also a board member of Maryland Film Festival, and has selected and hosted one favorite feature film within each Maryland Film Festival since its launch in 1999. Waters' picks have ranged from Joseph Losey's Boom! to Gaspar Noé's I Stand Alone.

Work in progress

Saying, "My life is so over-scheduled, what will happen if I give up control?", Waters recently completed a hitchhiking journey across the United States from Baltimore to San Francisco and plans to turn his adventures into a book, tentatively entitled Carsick. On May 15, 2012, Waters was picked up by 20-year-old Myersville, Maryland councilman Brett Bidle, who thought Waters was a homeless hitchhiker standing in the pouring rain. Feeling bad for Waters, he agreed to drive him four hours to Ohio.

The next day, indie rock band Here We Go Magic tweeted that they had picked John Waters up hitchhiking in Ohio. He was wearing a hat that says, "Scum of the Earth". In Denver, Colorado, Waters reconnected with Bidle, who drove him another to Reno, Nevada. Before parting ways, Waters arranged for Bidle to stay at his San Francisco apartment. "I thought, you know what, he wanted an adventure, too," said Waters. "He's the first Republican I'd ever vote for."

Bidle later said, "We are polar opposites when it comes to our politics, religious beliefs. But that's what I loved about the whole trip. It was two people able to agree to disagree and still move on and have a great time. I think that's what America's all about."

Awards

In 1999, Waters was honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.

Personal life

In 2009, he advocated the parole of former Manson family member Leslie Van Houten. He devotes a chapter to Van Houten in his book Role Models published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in May 2010.

In 2011, John Waters visited Lake Forest College to give a speech, and was interviewed by the professor Davis Schneiderman.

An openly gay man, Waters is also an avid supporter of gay rights and gay pride.

Waters was a great fan of the music of Little Richard when growing up, claiming that ever since shoplifting a copy of his song "Lucille" in 1957, "I've wished I could somehow climb into Little Richard's body, hook up his heart and vocal cords to my own, and switch identities." In 1987, Playboy magazine employed Waters to interview his idol, but the interview did not go well, with Waters later remarking that "it turned into kind of a disaster."

Recurring cast members

Waters often casts certain actors/actresses more than once in his films.

Actor	Mondo Trasho (1969)	Multiple Maniacs (1970)	Pink Flamingos (1972)	Female Trouble (1974)	Desperate Living (1977)	Polyester (1981)	Hairspray (1988)	Cry-Baby (1990)	Serial Mom (1994)	Pecker (1998)	Cecil B. Demented (2000)	A Dirty Shame (2004)
Divine
Patricia Hearst
Ricki Lake
David Lochary
Traci Lords
Susan Lowe
Edith Massey
Cookie Mueller
Mary Vivian Pearce
Mink Stole
Susan Walsh
Alan J. Wendl
Channing Wilroy

Filmography

Writer/director

• Hag in a Black Leather Jacket (1964, 8mm)
• Roman Candles (1966)
• Eat Your Makeup (1968, 16mm)
• Mondo Trasho (1969, 16mm)
• The Diane Linkletter Story (1970, 16mm)
• Multiple Maniacs (1970, 16mm)
• Pink Flamingos (1972, 16 & 35 mm)
• Female Trouble (1974, 16 & 35 mm)
• Desperate Living (1977, 16 & 35 mm)
• Polyester (1981)
• Reckless Eyeballs (1985, unreleased B&W short)

(This film featured the Poet Shaun Shane as the lead)

• Hairspray (1988)
• Cry-Baby (1990)
• Serial Mom (1994)
• Pecker (1998)
• Cecil B. Demented (2000)
• A Dirty Shame (2004)

Writer

• This Filthy World (2006)
• Hairspray (2007, original screenplay)

As voice actor

• Pink Flamingos (1972) " Mr. Jay
• Serial Mom (1994) " Ted Bundy (uncredited)
• Pecker (1998) " Pervert on phone
• Hairspray (2002) " Voice on Maybelle's TV
• Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2007) " Narrator
• The Junior Defenders (2007) " Narrator
• Animal Planet: Jessica the Hippo (2007) " Narrator
• The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels (2010) " Narration
• Of Dolls & Murder (2011) " Narration
• Mugworth (2014) - Sir Butler

Acting

• Something Wild (1986) " Used Car Salesman
• Hairspray (1988) " Dr. Fredrikson
• Divine Trash (1998) " Himself
• Sweet and Lowdown (1999) " Mr. Haynes
• Cecil B. Demented (2000) " Reporter
• Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002) " The Reverend
• Seed of Chucky (2004) " Pete Peters
• Jackass: Number Two (2006) " Himself
• This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) " Himself
• Each Time I Kill (2006/2007)
• The Junior Defenders (2007) " Narrator
• Hairspray (2007) " Flasher
• In the Land of Merry Misfits (2007) " Narrator
• Mangus! (2011) " Jesus
• Excision (2012) " William
• Mugworth (2014) " Sir Butler

Television

Acting

• My Name Is Earl, episode "Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck" " Funeral Director
• 'Til Death Do Us Part " Groom Reaper
• Homicide: Life on the Street " Bartender, R. Vincent Smith
• 21 Jump Street, episode "Awomp-Bomp-Aloobomb, Aloop Bamboom" " Mr. Bean
• The DrexelInterview, episode / interview "? directed by Steve Acito

Voice

• Frasier, episode "The Maris Counselor" " Roger
• The Simpsons, episode "Homer's Phobia" " John
• Superjail!, episode "Ghosts" - Quetzalpocetlan

Other appearances

• Saturday Night Live
• The Daily Show
• Dinner for Five
• The Colbert Report
• The Graham Norton Show
• Graham Norton's Bigger Picture
• The Graham Norton Effect
• The Henry Rollins Show
• Last Call with Carson Daly
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien
• Late Show with David Letterman
• Politically Incorrect
• Real Time with Bill Maher
• Ricki Lake
• The Roseanne Show
• Shootout
• So Graham Norton
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• V Graham Norton
• I Love the '70s (U.S. TV series)
• "The Creep", a song and music video by The Lonely Island
• Q&A (Australian talk show)

Documentary appearances

• American Cinema
• Beautiful Darling
• Biography
• The Cockettes
• Divine Waters
• Divine Trash
• I Am Divine
• Love Letter to Edie
• E! True Hollywood Story
• [[Le Grand Journal (Canal+)]]
• Little Castles
• HBO's First Look
• Here's Looking At You, Boy "? The Coming Out of Queer Cinema
• The Incredibly Strange Film Show
• Inside Deep Throat
• Intimate Portrait
• This Film Is Not Yet Rated
• It Came From Kuchar
• John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You
• How Porn Conquered the World
• Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story
• SexTV
• That Man: Peter Berlin
• Tracks
• VH1 Behind the Music (Blondie)
• William S. Burroughs: A Man Within
• Guest of Cindy Sherman
• Of Dolls and Murder
• The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special " In 3-D! On Ice!
• Celebrity Ghost Stories
• Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
• Queens of Disco [BBC 4]

Other works

• This Filthy World " Waters's touring one-man show, made into a feature film directed by Jeff Garlin
• A John Waters Christmas " A CD of Christmas songs compiled by Waters
• John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You " TV show for the here! network
• Mommie Dearest (1981) " Audio commentary on film's "Hollywood Royalty Edition" DVD release (2006)
• The Little Mermaid Special Edition DVD (2006) " Interview on 'making of' documentary about Howard Ashman, the theatre (i.e. Little Shop of Horrors), and the inspiration behind the character Ursula: Divine
• A Date with John Waters (2007), a CD collection of songs Waters finds romantic
• Christmas Evil DVD release (2006) " Audio commentary
• Narrated the award-winning 2006 documentary film Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
• Featured in the documentary film This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)
• Breaking Up with John Waters " Waters's third CD compilation is currently in the works
• The Other Hollywood " Commentary and opinions about pornography throughout the book
• 'Til Death Do Us Part " A Court TV series hosted by Waters surrounding stories of marriage murder
• "The Creep" (featuring Nicki Minaj) " Appeared on a television set in The Lonely Island's music video "The Creep"
• Art:21 " Introducing Host for Season Two, "Stories" episode " PBS DVD series

Bibliography

• Shock Value (1981)
• Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters (1987, Revised Edition 2003)
• Trash Trio: Three Screenplays: Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living, Flamingos Forever (1988)
• Art: A Sex Book (2003) (with Bruce Hainley)
• Hairspray, Female Trouble and Multiple Maniacs: Three More Screenplays (2005)
• Role Models (2010)

Photo collections

• Director's Cut (1997)
• John Waters: Change of Life (2004)
• Unwatchable (2006)

Books about Waters

• Ives, John G. John Waters (American Originals) (1992)
• Pela, Robrt L. Filthy: The Weird World of John Waters (2002)
• Stevenson, Jack. Desperate Visions 1: Camp America: The Films of John Waters & the Kuchar Brothers: Interviews & Essays (1996)