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John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive , including Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Waters wrote and directed the comedy film Hairspray (1988), which was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a 2007 musical film. His other films include Desperate Living (1977), Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), and Cecil B. Demented (2000). His films contain elements of Postmodern art and surrealism.
As an actor, Waters has appeared in the films Sweet and Lowdown (1999), Mangus! (2011), Excision (2012), and Suburban Gothic (2014), as well as the Child's Play franchise with the film Seed of Chucky (2004) and the third season of the television series Chucky (2024). He hosted and produced the television series John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You (2006).
Waters also works as a visual artist and across different media, such as Installation art, photography, and sculpture. The audiobooks he narrated for his books Carsick and Mr. Know-It-All were nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2015 and 2020, respectively. In 2018, Waters was named an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023." Baltimore filmmaker John Waters receives star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame | VIDEO" The Baltimore Sun. Published September 18, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023.
The film 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 Robrt 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 theater, which the young Waters watched from a distance through binoculars, had a greater effect).
Cry-Baby was also a product of Waters's boyhood, because of his fascination as a seven-year-old with the "drapes" then receiving intense news coverage because of the murder of Carolyn Wasilewski, a young "drapette", and his admiration for a young man living across the street who had a hot rod. Waters was privately educated at the Calvert School in Baltimore. After attending Towson Jr. High School in nearby Towson,Towsontown Jr. High Yearbook, "The Key". Towson, Maryland 1959–1960, p. 33 and Calvert Hall College High School, he graduated from Boys' Latin School of Maryland. While still a teen, he made frequent trips into downtown Baltimore to visit Martick's, a beatnik bar, where he and Milstead met many of their later film collaborators.John Waters (1981). 044057871X, Dell Publishing. 044057871X He was underage and could not enter the bar proper, but loitered in the adjacent alley, where he relied on older patrons to slip him drinks.
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, John. Interview by Robert K. Elder. The Film That Changed My Life by Robert K. Elder. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011. N. p. 281. Print.
Waters has stated that he takes an equal amount of joy and influence from highbrow "art" films and sleazy exploitation films. Waters once said, “To understand bad taste one must have very good taste.” In January 1966, Waters and some friends were caught smoking marijuana on the grounds of New York University, and he was soon kicked out of his dormitory. He returned to Baltimore, where he completed his next two short films, Roman Candles and Eat Your Makeup. They were followed by the feature-length films Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs.
Water's became known as an underground filmmaker in the 1970s.
Waters's films became 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—which, in addition to Divine, included Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Susan Walsh, and others. Waters met Edith Massey while she was a bartender at Pete's Hotel. 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 censorship.
In 2004, the NC-17-rated A Dirty Shame marked a return to Waters' earlier, more controversial work of the 1970s. Having received mixed reviews and bombing at the box-office, it is his last film so far. In 2007, Waters became the host ("The Groom Reaper") of 'Til Death Do Us Part, a program on America's TruTV network. In 2008, he planned to make a children's Christmas film, Fruitcake starring Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey. Filming was set for November 2008, but the project was shelved in January 2009.
Waters has been open about financing problems for his movies. In 2010, Waters told the Chicago Tribune that " 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." In 2017, he stated that "they all want you to make a movie for under a million dollars, which I don’t want to. I don’t want to be a faux radical film-maker at 70. I did that. I don’t need to do it again."
In October 2022, it was announced that Waters will adapt his novel, Liarmouth, into a film. Village Roadshow Pictures was set to produce, with Waters writing and directing. However, in November 2024, it was reported that the film was "no longer happening".
Waters has often created characters with alliterated names for his films, such as 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.
On September 18, 2023, Waters was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Dreamlanders Ricki Lake and Mink Stole were among the guest speakers.
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 magazine 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.
Waters 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. The spot was directed by Douglas Brian Martin and produced by Douglas Brian Martin and Steven M. Martin. They also created two other short films, for the Nuart Theatre (a Landmark Theater) in West Los Angeles, California, in appreciation for their showing Pink Flamingos for many years. It is shown immediately before any of Waters' films, and before the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Waters played a minister in , directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.
In the 1980s, Waters taught inmates at the Patuxent Institution, a Maryland prison. He was hired to teach literature, but his classes also encompassed discussions of film. In 1985, he made a film with his students called Reckless Eyeballs, but it was not intended for release and was never publicly screened.
Waters is a board member of the Maryland Film Festival, and has selected and hosted a favorite film there each year since its launch in 1999. He is also on the advisory board of the Provincetown International Film Festival, and has hosted events and presented awards there every year since it was founded in 1999. He is a contributor to Artforum magazine and author of its year-end Top Ten Films list. Waters hosts an annual performance, "A John Waters Christmas", which was launched in 1996 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, and in 2018 toured 17 cities over 23 days.
In 2017, Waters began hosting an annual "Camp John Waters" event in Kent, Connecticut. Adult fans from as far away as Australia and Chile "relive their Summer camp days" with an "extra-campy theme weekend". Notable guests have included Debbie Harry, Patricia Hearst, Kathleen Turner, Mink Stole and Randy Harrison. In 2019, the Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrated its 50th anniversary at a gala where John Waters spoke in tribute to the Center along with Martin Scorsese, Dee Rees, Pedro Almodóvar, Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Moore, Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan.
In November 2020, Waters promised to donate 372 artworks from his personal collection, including some of his own work as well as pieces by 125 artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, Cindy Sherman and more, to the Baltimore Museum of Art. In recognition of the donation, the museum named its rotunda after Waters, but Waters also insisted the museum name an all-gender bathroom after him. Both the rotunda and the bathroom were renamed for Waters in time for the opening of the first exhibition of his bequeathed collection, Coming Attractions: The John Waters Collection on November 20, 2022. "Coming Attractions: The John Waters Collection November 20, 2022 - April 16 2023". artbma.com Accessed March 13, 2023. Waters, who serves on the museum's board of directors, has stated the museum will acquire all of his art after his death. "John Waters, art connoisseur". CBS Sunday Morning. Published March 12, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
The next day, indie rock band Here We Go Magic Twitter that they had picked John Waters up hitchhiking in Ohio. He was wearing a hat with the text "Scum of the Earth". In Denver, Colorado, Waters reconnected with Bidle (who had made an effort to catch up with him); Bidle then 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 ... 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."
As a Gay men, Waters is an avid supporter of gay rights and gay pride. In a 2019 interview, he said that he dislikes publicly discussing his personal life, adding that he had a partner but that they both preferred to keep the relationship private.
Waters was a great fan of the music of Little Richard when growing up. He has said that, ever since he shoplifted a copy of the Little Richard song "Lucille" in 1957, at the age of 11, "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, then aged 41, to interview his idol, but the interview did not go well, with Waters later remarking: "It turned into kind of a disaster." Waters' signature pencil moustache is an homage to him.
Waters advocated for the parole of former Manson family member Leslie Van Houten, writing in his 2010 book Role Models, "Her crime was a long, long time ago and she has paid her dues to society". After Van Houten was paroled in 2023, Waters said he would not speak further about her, in deference to her privacy.
Throughout his life, Waters has been open about his recreational drug use, including marijuana and LSD, particularly with regard to his creative process. Waters began using LSD as a teenager, "taking LSD and seeing...movies all the time". "John Waters' Closet Picks". The Criterion Collection. Published September 19, 2019. Retrieved February 24, 2023. Waters was often on LSD while making his early films, claiming in a 2016 interview "I was on LSD during, I don't remember how!"Sargent, Antwaun. "John Waters Remembers 'Multiple Maniacs', His LSD-Fueled Cavalcade of Perversion". Vice. Published August 5, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2023. He tried LSD again in his 70s, and documented the experience in his 2019 book Mr. Know-It-All.Hallock, Jeremy. "John Waters talks tripping LSD in his 70s, showing up in Nike ads, saying no to 'Dancing with the Stars'". Dallas Morning News. Published December 13, 2019. Published February 24, 2023.
Waters was a smoker before quitting around 2004, saying "the only thing I've ever regretted in my whole life was smoking cigarettes. Because it was a nightmare giving up. It's the only thing the government ever told me that was true: It does kill you!"Clark, Cath and Wrigley, Tish. "John Waters' Youth Manifesto". AnOther. Published February 13, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2023. In 2022, Waters said that if he were to write his younger self a letter, he would say, "Quit smoking cigarettes and do everything else exactly the way you did.""Dear John, quit smoking and do everything else #JohnWaters #LettertoMyself". Logo. Published to TikTok June 29, 2022. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
Documentary appearances
In 2014, Waters was nominated for a Grammy for the spoken word version of his book, Carsick. His follow-up record, Make Trouble, was produced by Grammy-winning producer, Ian Brennan, and released on Jack White's Third Man Records in the fall of 2017. Waters received his second Grammy-nomination in 2020 for Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder.
In 2015, he received the Ted M. Larson Award at the Fargo Film Festival for his contribution to filmmaking.
In 2016, Waters received an honorary degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore during the college's undergraduate commencement ceremony. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Baltimore in 2023.
In 2017, Waters received Timeless Star honors from the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (now GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics). The group's career achievement award goes to an entertainment figure "whose exemplary career is marked by character, wisdom and wit."
In 2018, Waters was named an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a cultural award from the French government.
In 2023, Waters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His friends and collaborators Mink Stole, Greg Gorman, and Ricki Lake spoke at the induction. Waters brought a photo of his parents to the unveiling, dedicating the honor to them.Gardner, Chris. "John Waters Salutes 'Desperate Showbiz Rejects' at Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony: 'Here I Am, Closer to the Gutter Than Ever'". The Hollywood Reporter. Published September 18, 2023. Retrieved September 18, 2023. Waters' star was placed in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard, a store Waters frequents.KCAL-News Staff. "Filmmaker John Waters receives star on Hollywood Walk of Fame" CBS Los Angeles. September 18, 2023. September 18, 2023.
Fine art
Since the early 1990s, Waters has been making photo-based artwork and installations that have been internationally exhibited in galleries and museums. Water's was offered his first art show by Colin de Land with American Fine Art gallery in 1992. In 2004, the New Museum in New York City presented a retrospective of his artwork curated by Marvin Heiferman and Lisa Phillips. His most recent exhibition John Waters: Indecent Exposure was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art from October 2018 to January 2019 and later traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts. Prior to that, Waters exhibited 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 and by Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York since 2006.
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: "The craft is not the issue here. The idea is. And the presentation."Levi, Lawrence (2009-09). "Inside Man". Modern Painters, September 2009. Retrieved from http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/32381/inside-man/.
Carsick
With the motif "My life is so over-scheduled, what will happen if I give up control?", Waters completed a hitchhiking journey across the United States from Baltimore to San Francisco, turning his adventures into a book titled Carsick. On May 15, 2012, while on the hitchhiking trip, 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.
Personal life
Although he has maintained apartments in New York City and San Francisco's Nob Hill, as well as a summer home in Provincetown, Waters mainly resides in Baltimore. All his films are set and shot there.
Other projects
Waters continues to be involved in various creative ventures. In 2025, Waters narrated several different projects including an audio book collection where he voiced every character from his early movies and screenplays which included Hairspray and Pink Flamingos.
Filmography
1964 Hag in a Black Leather Jacket Short film 1966 Roman Candles 1968 Eat Your Makeup Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head Abandoned after two days of filming 1969 Mondo Trasho 1970 The Diane Linkletter Story Short film Multiple Maniacs 1972 Pink Flamingos 1974 Female Trouble 1977 Desperate Living 1981 Polyester 1988 Hairspray 1990 Cry-Baby 1994 Serial Mom 1998 Pecker 2000 Cecil B. Demented 2004 A Dirty Shame
As actor
1969 Mondo Trasho Reporter Voice cameo; uncredited 1972 Pink Flamingos Mr. J Voice; uncredited 1986 Something Wild Used car salesman Cameo 1988 Hairspray Dr. Fredrickson 1989 Homer and Eddie Robber No. 1 Cameo 1994 Serial Mom Ted Bundy Voice cameo; uncredited 1998 Pecker Pervert on phone 1999 Sweet and Lowdown Mr. Haynes 2000 Cecil B. Demented Reporter Cameo; uncredited 2002 The Reverend Cameo 2004 Seed of Chucky Pete Peters 2006 Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea Narrator Voice; documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated Himself Documentary Jackass Number Two Himself 2007 Hairspray Flasher Cameo The Junior Defenders Narrator Voice; direct-to-DVD In the Land of Merry Misfits Narrator Voice 2011 Mangus! Jesus Christ Of Dolls and Murder Narrator Voice; documentary 2012 Excision William 2014 Suburban Gothic Cornelius 2015 Himself Cameo 2017 Mansfield 66/67 Himself Documentary TBA Mugworth Sir Butler Voice
Television
1990 21 Jump Street Mr. Bean Episode: "Awomp-Bomp-Aloobomb, Aloop Bamboom" 1993, 1995 Bartender;
R. Vincent Smith2 episodes 1997 The Simpsons John Voice; episode: "Homer's Phobia" 1998 Frasier Roger Voice; episode: "The Maris Counselor" 2006 John Waters Presents
Movies That Will Corrupt YouHimself (host) 13 episodes 2006–2007 'Til Death Do Us Part Groom Reaper Main; 14 episodes 2007 My Name Is Earl Funeral director Episode: "Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck" 2011 Superjail! Quetzalpocetlan Voice; episode "Ghosts" 2012 Fish Hooks The Yeti Lobster Voice; episode: "Rock Yeti Lobster" 2013, 2018 Mickey Mouse Wadsworth Thorndyke III Voices; 2 episodes 2014 Mr. Pickles Dr. Kelton Voice; episode: "Coma" 2015 RuPaul's Drag Race Himself Guest judge; episode: "Divine Inspiration" 2016 Clarence Captain Tom Voice; episode: "Plane Excited" Hairspray Live! Associate producer 2017 William Castle Episode: "Hagsploitation" 2018 The Blacklist Himself Episode: "Sutton Ross (No. 17)" Liverspots and Astronots O-Dor Voice; episode: "The Exorcism of O-Dor" 2019 Tigtone Fertile Centaur Voice; episode: "...and the Freaks of Love" 2020–2021 Floyd Cougat
(also credited as "Pornmonger man")2 episodes 2021 Finding Your Roots Himself (guest) Episode: "To the Manor Born" 2022 Search Party Sheffield 2 episodes The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Lazarus Episode: "Interesting People on Christopher Street" Bubble Guppies Baron Von Bland Voice; episode: "Taste Buddies!" 2023 King Star King God Star God Voice; episode: "King Star King!/!/!/" 2024 Chucky Wendell Wilkins Episode: "Final Destination" The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy Chtonk Voice; episode: "That's Science, Baby!" Monster High Scarecrow Von Twolegs / Treat Voice; 2 episodes Helluva Boss Rolando Voice; episode: "Ghostf**ckers" 2025 Digman! Magnus Knight Voice; episode: “The Arky Trials”
Other credits
Published works
John Waters (1981). 044057871X, Dell Pub. Co.. 044057871X
(2026). 9780500284353, Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500284353
Discography
Awards and nominations
In 1999, Waters was honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival. In September 2015, the British Film Institute ran a programme to celebrate 50 years of Waters films which included all of his early films, some previously unscreened in the UK.
Nominations
1998 Gijón International Film Festival Grand Prix Asturias Pecker
See also
General bibliography
(2026). 9781617031823, University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781617031823
(2022). 9780199791286, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199791286
External links
Categories: 1946 Births, 20th-century American Artists, 20th-century American Lgbtq People, 20th-century American Male Actors, 20th-century American Male Writers, 20th-century American Non-fiction Writers, 21st-century American Artists, 21st-century American Lgbtq People, 21st-century American Male Actors, 21st-century American Male Writers, 21st-century American Non-fiction Writers, 21st-century American Novelists, American Bibliophiles, American Gay Actors, American Gay Artists, American Gay Writers, American Lgbtq Film Directors, American Lgbtq Novelists, American Lgbtq Rights Activists, American Lgbtq Screenwriters, American Male Film Actors, American Male Screenwriters, American Male Television Actors, American Male Voice Actors, American People Of Canadian Descent, American People Of English Descent, Artists From Baltimore, Calvert Hall College High School Alumni, Counterculture Of The 1970s, Film Directors From Maryland, Glaad Media Awards Winners, Lgbtq People From Maryland, Living People, Male Actors From Baltimore, New York University Alumni, Novelists From Maryland, Officiers Of The Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres, People From Lutherville, Maryland, Postmodernist Filmmakers, Whitaker Family, Writers From Baltimore
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