Known for Directing
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.
Born
April 22, 1946 (age 80)
Birthplace
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Filmography
214 films, 51 shows


30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019 · 1h 3m
country: United States
Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones.


Kiddie Flamingos
2015 · 1h 14m
country: United States
Child actors perform a 'kid-friendly' table read version of John Water's notorious 1972 X-rated cult classic film, Pink Flamingos.


A Dirty Shame
2004 · 1h 29m
country: United States
Sylvia Stickles runs a convenience store with her husband and mother-in-law. One day, Sylvia is hit on the head and transforms from an uptight prude to a sex-crazed lunatic. As she goes on a rampage through town, Sylvia attracts the attention of Ray Ray, a sexual healer and tow truck driver in search of the world's greatest orgasm. Their sexual revolution, however, causes a class war in their tiny Baltimore community.


Cecil B. Demented
2000 · 1h 28m
country: United States
A young lunatic director and his devoted cult of cinema terrorists kidnap a Hollywood movie goddess and force her to star in their radical underground movie.


Pecker
1998 · 1h 26m
country: United States
A Baltimore teenager who picks up a second-hand camera starts snapping his way to stardom, soon turning into a nationwide sensation, with a fateful choice between his life and his art.


Serial Mom
1994 · 1h 34m
country: United States
Beverly is the perfect happy homemaker, along with her doting husband and two children, but this nuclear family just might explode when her fascination with serial killers collides with her ever-so-proper code of ethics.


Cry-Baby
1990 · 1h 25m
country: United States
A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her society grandmother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.


Hairspray
1988 · 1h 32m
country: United States
'Pleasantly plump' teenager Tracy Turnblad achieves her dream of becoming a regular on the Corny Collins Dance Show. Now a teen hero, she starts using her fame to speak out for the causes she believes in, most of all integration. In doing so, she earns the wrath of the show's former star, Amber Von Tussle, as well as Amber's manipulative, pro-segregation parents. The rivalry comes to a head as Amber and Tracy vie for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963.


Nuart Theatre No Smoking PSA
1982 · 1m
country: Unknown
John Waters delivers a "no smoking" public service announcement, whilst enjoying a cigarette himself


Polyester
1981 · 1h 26m
country: United Kingdom
Blessed with a keen sense of smell and cursed with a philandering pornographer husband, a parasitic mother, and a pair of delinquent children, the long-suffering Francine Fishpaw turns to the bottle as her life falls apart -- until deliverance appears in the form of a hunk named Todd Tomorrow. Originally screened with "Odorama" scratch and sniff cards so the audience could (at their own risk) smell along with the film.


Desperate Living
1977 · 1h 31m
country: United States
After killing her husband, Peggy Gravel and her murderous maid Grizelda wind up in the crazy town of Mortville, where Queen Carlotta presides over a sleazy collection of misfits.


Female Trouble
1976 · 1h 38m
country: United States
Teenage delinquent Dawn Davenport, incensed after her parents do not give her the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas, runs away from home. After an illegitimate child and hairstylist husband bring her more misery, she's enticed into a life of crime when the owners of her husband's salon promise her fame and fortune.


Pink Flamingos
1972 · 1h 33m
country: United States
Notorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against Connie & Raymond Marble, a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".


Multiple Maniacs
1970 · 1h 37m
country: United States
The Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling freak show, acts as a front for Divine, who is out for blood after discovering her lover's affair.


The Diane Linkletter Story
1970 · 10m
country: United States
This improvised film is based on the true-life suicide of TV personality Art Linkletter's daughter, Diane. Mr. and Mrs. Linkletter fret about their daughter's recent behaviour, which includes taking drugs and dating a lowlife named Jim. Eventually, the parents confront Diane… with tragic consequences.


Mondo Trasho
1969 · 1h 35m
country: United States
A day in the lives of a hit-and-run driver and her victim, and the bizarre things that happen to them before and after they collide (sexual assault by a crazed foot-fetishist, visions of the Virgin Mary, strange chicken-foot grafting operations).


Eat Your Makeup
1968 · 41m
country: United States
John Waters' first sixteen-millimetre film, about a deranged nanny who kidnaps young girls and forces them to 'model themselves to death' in front of her boyfriend and their crazed friends. It was never shown commercially.


Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head
1968 · 2m
country: United States
An incomplete project, Dorothy the Kansas City Pothead stars John Waters' long-time casting agent Pat Moran in the role of Dorothy.
Roman Candles
Roman Candles
1967 · 28m
country: United States
Shot on 8mm, and featuring the introduction of Divine, John Waters' sophomore film is a plotless collage of random incidents involving sex, drugs, religion and The Wizard of Oz, it was shown with an equally random soundtrack mixing “obnoxious radio advertisements, rock 'n' roll and press conferences with Lee Harvey Oswald's mother”. It was shown three times publicly, but never released commercially.


Hag in a Black Leather Jacket
1964 · 17m
country: United States
The lurid wedding of a black man and white girl, with a Ku Klux Klansman performing the wedding ceremony. John Waters' first film, made on 8mm, given one showing (making back its budget of thirty dollars) before being retired to his closet.