“I liked the pumps he wore. I think the Pope really dresses!”
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John Waters
John Samuel Waters Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, 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. His other films include Desperate…
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culture · American filmmaker (born 1946) · television actor · film actor · film director · screenwriter · film producer · actor · film editor · journalist · visual artist · voice actor · also John Waters, John Samuel Waters, John Samuel, Jr. Waters, the Pope of Trash, Pope of Trash, the Duke of Dirty
Born 22 April 1946 · Q314926
64 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 12 entries
“But who thinks it’s you on the side of the street?”
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“Every young person I know said, ‘Can we come?”
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“He’s the first Republican I’d ever vote for.”
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“It isn’t. It is a despairing experience to figure: No one’s ever going to stop. I’m here forever.”
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“Everyone my age that I know was so horrified by this idea,”
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“I never had a scary person, really,”
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“When you’re young, people come on to you a lot more.”
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“Pot smokers, cops, I got everybody. And everybody was lovely.”
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Yahoo: John Waters’s Liarmouth Update Seals Highly Anticipated Aubrey Plaza Movie’s Fate
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The Guardian: ‘The minute I had success, I stopped taking drugs’: John Waters on 60 years of screen carnage
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brooklynvegan: John Waters announces 2026 Christmas tour
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2025· 4 entries
Paste: Have yourself a very John Waters Christmas
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Los Angeles Times: John Waters’ one-man show comes to the Wallis in Beverly Hills: ‘I’m so respectable, I could puke’
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The Guardian: Cry-Baby, the Musical review – John Waters’ teen rebels will have you in tears of joy
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Waters narrated several different projects including an audiobook collection where he voiced every character from his early movies and screenplays which included Hairspray and Pink Flamingos
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2024· 4 entries
LGBTQ Nation: John Waters holds a hilariously revealing “group therapy” session with fans
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IndieWire: John Waters Says Gen Z Only Wants to Watch ‘Comic-Book Movies in a Mall’
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collider: John Waters Offers a Gloomy Update on the State of ‘Liarmouth’
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The Guardian: John Waters is cinema’s finest purveyor of trash – and A Dirty Shame is a pure, filthy spectacle
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2023· 8 entries
Collider: Why John Waters Believes He'll Never Be "Cancelled"
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Forbes: John Waters Gets His Due With Museum Retrospective Entitled ‘Pope Of Trash’
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Waters was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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Entertainment Weekly: John Waters says intimate piece of Divine memorabilia being held hostage: 'They asked for a ludicrous amount of money'
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The Guardian: ‘I’m so respectable I could puke’: John Waters has his Hollywood moment
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The Guardian: Hairspray review – subversive spirit shines through John Waters’ high-camp 80s musical
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Waters said he would not speak further about her, in deference to her privacy
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Waters received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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2022· 4 entries
The Guardian: John Waters: False Negative review – the 'sultan of sleaze' at the Barbican
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The Guardian: John Waters: ‘Trump ruined bad taste – he was the nail in the coffin’
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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
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It's the only thing the government ever told me that was true: It does kill you!" 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."
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2020· 1 entry
The Guardian: How John Waters and Mink Stole made notorious cult film Pink Flamingos
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2019· 1 entry
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
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2018· 4 entries
The Guardian: John Waters: why the auteur of outrage won't joke about the Manson murders
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The Guardian: John Waters: 'I never wanted to be a cult film-maker'
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Awarded Officer of Arts and Letters (2018).
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Waters was named an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a cultural award from the French government
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2017· 4 entries
“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.”
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Stated that "they all want you to make a movie for under a million dollars, which I don’t want to
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Waters began hosting an annual "Camp John Waters" event in Kent, Connecticut
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Waters received Timeless Star honors from the Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (now GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics)
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2016· 1 entry
Waters received an honorary degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore during the college's undergraduate commencement ceremony
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2014· 1 entry
Waters was nominated for a Grammy for the spoken word version of his book, Carsick
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2012· 1 entry
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
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2011· 1 entry
During a visit to the Waters house in Baltimore, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson observed:
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2010· 1 entry
Waters told the Chicago Tribune that "Independent films that cost $5 million are very hard to get made
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2009· 1 entry
“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.”
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2008· 1 entry
Planned to make a children's Christmas film, Fruitcake starring Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey
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2007· 2 entries
To positive reviews and commercial success
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Waters became the host ("The Groom Reaper") of 'Til Death Do Us Part, a program on America's Court TV network
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2004· 5 entries
Awarded GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Award (2004).
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The Other Hollywood – Commentary and opinions about pornography throughout the book
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The New Museum in New York City presented a retrospective of his artwork curated by Marvin Heiferman and Lisa Phillips
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Waters was a smoker before quitting around 2004, saying "the only thing I've ever regretted in my whole life [was] smoking cigarettes.
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The NC-17-rated A Dirty Shame marked a return to Waters's earlier, more controversial work of the 1970s
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1999· 1 entry
Waters was honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival
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1996· 1 entry
At the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, and in 2018 toured 17 cities over 23 days
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1987· 1 entry
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
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1985· 1 entry
Made a film with his students called Reckless Eyeballs, but it was not intended for release and was never publicly screened
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1966· 1 entry
“To understand bad taste one must have very good taste.”
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1957· 1 entry
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
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1946· 2 entries
Born 1946-04-22.
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In Baltimore, Maryland, one of four children born to Patricia Ann (née Whitaker) and John Samuel Waters, a manufacturer of fire-protection equipment
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