John Waters facts for kids

Quick facts for kids John Waters
Waters in May 2014
Born	John Samuel Waters Jr. (1946-04-22) April 22, 1946 (age 78) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Education	Calvert Hall College High School Maryland Institute College of Art
Occupation	Filmmaker writer actor artist
Years active	1964–present
Organization	Dreamland Productions
Relatives	George P. Whitaker (third-great-grandfather)
Signature

John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including 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. Other films he has written and directed include Desperate Living (1977), Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), and Cecil B. Demented (2000). His films contain elements of post-modern comedy and surrealism. He often collaborated with late actor and drag queen Divine (1966–1988) and his regular cast of the Dreamlanders.

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 installations, 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.

Early life and education

Waters was born on April 22, 1946, in Baltimore, Maryland, one of four children born to Patricia Ann (née Whitaker) and John Samuel Waters, a manufacturer of fire-protection equipment. He was raised Catholic by his mother, though his father was not Catholic. Through his mother, who immigrated to the United States from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada as a child, he is the great-great-great-grandson of George P. Whitaker of the Whitaker iron family. 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. Waters lived at 313 Morris Avenue in Lutherville from his early teenage years until he moved out in his early twenties. Waters and Milstead shot many of their early films at the house, dubbing the front lawn the "Dreamland Lot".

The film Lili inspired an interest in puppets in the seven-year-old Waters, who proceeded to stage 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, which the young Waters watched from a distance through binoculars, had a greater effect).

Waters was privately educated at the Calvert School in Baltimore. After attending Towson Jr. High School in Towson, Maryland, and Calvert Hall College High School in nearby Towson, 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. He was underage and couldn't enter the bar proper, but loitered in the adjacent alley, where he relied on the kindness of patrons to slip him drinks.

Career

Early career

Waters's first short film was Hag in a Black Leather Jacket.

MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939) had a profound effect on Waters' creative mind.

Waters has stated that he takes an equal amount of joy and influence from high-brow "art" films and sleazy exploitation films.

He returned to Baltimore, where he completed his next short film, Roman Candles.

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.

Move toward the mainstream

John Waters signing a fan's jean jacket sleeve at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, 1990.

Waters's 1981 film Polyester starred Divine opposite former teen idol Tab Hunter. It was the first time that Waters was not the primary camera operator for his own work, as he had started collaborating with local film student David Insley. Since then, his films have become more mainstream, although works such as Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker and Cecil B. Demented still retain his trademark inventiveness. Hairspray became a hit Broadway musical that 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, also became a Broadway musical.

In 2007, Waters became the host ("The Groom Reaper") of 'Til Death Do Us Part, a program on America's Court TV 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 "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." 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".

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.

Other ventures

Waters with historian Jon Wiener in 2010

Waters is a bibliophile, with a collection of over 8,000 books.

Waters has had his fan mail delivered to Atomic Books, an independent bookstore in Baltimore, for over 20 years. Waters played a minister in Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, 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.

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 sleepaway camping 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.

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 New York City presented a retrospective of his artwork curated by Marvin Heiferman and Lisa Phillips. His most recent exhibition 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 in 2007

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. The first exhibition of his bequeathed collection, Coming Attractions: The John Waters Collection, was opened on November 20, 2022. Waters, who serves on the museum's board of directors, has stated the museum will acquire all of his art after his death.

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.

The next day, indie rock band Here We Go Magic tweeted that they had picked John Waters up hitchhiking in Ohio. In Denver, Colorado, Waters reconnected with Bidle (who had made an effort to catch up with him); Bidle then drove him another 1,000 miles (1,600 km) 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."

Personal life

Waters in New York City, 2007

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. He is recognizable by his trademark pencil moustache.

As a gay man, Waters is an avid supporter of gay rights. In a 2019 interview, he said that he dislikes publicly discussing his personal life.

Waters was a great fan of the music of Little Richard when growing up.

Selected filmography

As actor

Television

Documentary appearances

Other credits

• This Filthy World – Waters's touring one-man show, made into a feature film directed by Jeff Garlin
• 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
• Breaking Up with John Waters – Waters's third CD compilation rumored as "currently in the works" in 2004
• "The Creep" (featuring Nicki Minaj) – Appeared on a television set in The Lonely Island's music video "The Creep", which made its debut on Saturday Night Live. Waters gives the introduction to the song and he is credited as a featured artist on the album.
• Art:21 – Introducing Host for Season Two, "Stories" episode – PBS DVD series

Published works

• Waters, John (2019). Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 978-0-374-21496-8.

• Waters, John (2022). Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 978-0-374-18572-5.

Discography

• A John Waters Christmas – A CD of Christmas songs compiled by Waters (2004)
• A Date With John Waters  – A CD of love songs for Valentine's Day compiled by Waters. New Line Records (2007)
• Role Models  – Audiobook narrated by Mr. Waters. Tantor Media (2010)
• Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America  – Audiobook narrated by Mr. Waters. Macmillan Audio (2014)
• Make Trouble  – Spoken word speech. Jack White's Third Man Records (2017). Produced by Grammy-winner Ian Brennan
• Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder  – Audiobook narrated by Mr. Waters. Macmillan Audio (2019)
• Prayer to Pasolini  – Spoken word speech recorded at the murder site of filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini on the outskirts of Rome. Sub Pop Records (2021). Produced by Grammy-winner, Ian Brennan.
• Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance (A Novel)  – Audiobook narrated by Mr. Waters. Macmillan Audio (2022)
• It's in the Book  – Spoken word tribute to comedian Johnny Standley. Sub Pop Records (2022). Produced by Grammy-winner, Ian Brennan.
• John Waters Covers The Singing Dogs' "Jingle Bells" b/w "It's a Punk Rock Christmas"  – Comedy Christmas music. Sub Pop Records (2024).

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.

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. Waters' star was placed in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard, a store Waters frequents.

Nominations

See also

• LGBT culture in New York City
• List of LGBT people from New York City