John Waters (b. 1946)

Alias:
John S. Waters
جان واترز

Birthplace:
Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Born:
April 22, 1946

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 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. 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.  As an actor, Waters has appeared in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), 'Til Death Do Us Part (2007), Mangus! (2011), Excision (2012), Suburban Gothic (2014), and has appeared in the Child's Play franchise with Seed of Chucky (2004) and third season of the television series Chucky (2024). He hosted and produced the television series John Waters Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You (2006). Throughout his career, Waters has often collaborated with actor and drag queen Divine and his regular cast of the Dreamlanders. More recently, he performs in his touring one-man show This Filthy World.  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.  Description above from the Wikipedia article John Waters, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Additional information:

The Search Form


Additional Photography:
1977  Desperate Living

Associate Producer:
1977  Desperate Living
2016  Hairspray Live!

Co-Producer:
1977  Desperate Living
1988  Hairspray
2016  Hairspray Live!

Director:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Director of Photography:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Editor:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Novel:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Original Film Writer:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2007  Hairspray
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Original Music Composer:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2007  Hairspray
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Original Story:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2007  Hairspray
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Producer:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2007  Hairspray
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Screenplay:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
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
2006  This Filthy World
2007  Hairspray
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
????  Liarmouth

Thanks:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
1972  Pink Flamingos
1974  Female Trouble
1977  Desperate Living
1981  Polyester
1988  Hairspray
1990  Cry-Baby
1991  Poison
1994  Serial Mom
1998  Pecker
2000  Cecil B. Demented
2004  A Dirty Shame
2006  This Filthy World
2007  An American Crime
2007  Hairspray
2010  Putty Hill
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019  Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’
2025  Marisa y Gomoso
????  Liarmouth

Writer:
1964  Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1967  Roman Candles
1968  Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968  Eat Your Makeup
1969  Mondo Trasho
1970  Multiple Maniacs
1970  The Diane Linkletter Story
1972  Pink Flamingos
1974  Female Trouble
1977  Desperate Living
1981  Polyester
1988  Hairspray
1990  Cry-Baby
1991  Poison
1994  Serial Mom
1998  Pecker
2000  Cecil B. Demented
2004  A Dirty Shame
2006  This Filthy World
2007  An American Crime
2007  Hairspray
2010  Putty Hill
2015  Kiddie Flamingos
2016  Hairspray Live!
2019  30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019  Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’
2025  Marisa y Gomoso
????  Liarmouth

About the Movie Section

Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).

Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).

At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.

Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)

While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

  • I added "runners up" to Top 10 lists, treating them as ties where applicable and numbering them accordingly at the bottom of each list.
  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).

Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.

Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.