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John Waters

Actor

John Waters

  • Born: 22 April 1946, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  • Estimated net worth: $50 million

John Waters is a filmmaker, writer, and actor known for his cult films and distinctive style. He gained fame with films like 'Pink Flamingos' and 'Hairspray,' showcasing his unique blend of camp and social commentary. Waters is recognized for his eccentric…

About John Waters

John Waters is a filmmaker, writer, and actor known for his cult films and distinctive style. He gained fame with films like 'Pink Flamingos' and 'Hairspray,' showcasing his unique blend of camp and social commentary. Waters is recognized for his eccentric characters and bold narratives, often exploring themes of counterculture and sexuality.

Born
22 April 1946, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Known for
Directing
Height
5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Parents
John Waters Sr., Patricia Waters
Estimated net worth
$50 million

Fun facts about John Waters

  • John Waters is often referred to as the 'Pope of Trash' due to his provocative filmmaking style.
  • He made a cameo appearance in the 2007 film 'The Simpsons Movie' as himself.

Famous John Waters quotes

“I like to be the one who makes people uncomfortable.”
N/A, 2007
“You can never be too rich or too thin.”
N/A, 1985
“If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em.”
N/A, 1990

John Waters filmography

Cast (196)

YearTitleCharacterRating
2026Vincent Price: What Keeps Us Alive MovieUnknown character
2026Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World MovieSelf7.0
2026Return to Mortville MovieSelf1.0
2026Kevin TVArmando (voice)5.4
2026Eddie Cochran: Don't Forget Me MovieSelf7.0
2026Gays Against Guns MovieUnknown character
2025Sarah Squirm: Live + in the Flesh MovieStage Manager5.1
2025TURA! MovieSelf7.0
2025Velvet Vision: The Story of James Bidgood and the Making of Pink Narcissus MovieSelf
2025It's Dorothy! MovieSelf4.0
Show 186 more credits
YearTitleCharacterRating
2025A Summer with Joe, Liz and Richard MovieSelf6.0
2025Everybody's Live with John Mulaney TVSelf - Writer and Film Director6.7
2024As Time Goes By MovieUnknown character7.0
2024Doc of Chucky MovieSelf7.8
2024Scala!!! MovieSelf7.8
2023Lynch/Oz MovieHost (Chapter 3: 'Kindred') (voice)6.9
2023Little Richard: I Am Everything MovieSelf6.6
2023Digman! TVMagnus (voice)6.1
2022Don't Fall in Love with Yourself MovieSelf (Archival)5.0
2022Fragments of Paradise MovieSelf6.5
2022Living with Chucky MovieSelf6.6
2022The Book of Harth MovieSelf8.5
2022Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow TVUnknown character7.0
2022Tell Me Iggy MovieSelf6.0
2022The Andy Warhol Diaries TVSelf6.7
2021Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida MovieSelf [archival]7.0
2021The Velvet Underground MovieSelf6.8
2021Chucky TVWendell Wilkins7.8
2021Pride TVSelf6.7
2021My Life with the Waters MovieSelf
2020The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo MovieHimself5.6
2020Helluva Boss TVRolando (voice)7.5
2020Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp MovieHost6.8
2020Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi MovieHost5.7
2020Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time TVSelf - Host7.2
2020Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness MovieHost6.0
2020Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes MovieUnknown character
201930/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing MovieSelf5.3
2019At the Video Store MovieSelf10.0
2019Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn MovieSelf6.1
2019Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’ MovieSelf
2018Mugworth MovieSir Butler
2018Liverspots and Astronots TVO-Dor6.5
2018Crime and Beauty: Making ‘Female Trouble’ MovieUnknown character
2018Female Trouble: On-Set Footage MovieUnknown character
2018Explained TVNarrator (voice)7.4
2018Sickies Making Films MovieSelf5.0
2017Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution MovieSelf7.0
2017FEUD TVWilliam Castle7.6
2017Mansfield 66/67 MovieSelf5.2
2016Search Party TVSheffield6.9
2016Wall Writers MovieNarrator (voice)6.4
2016In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole MovieSelf
2016Whatever Happened to Gelitin MovieSelf2.0
2016The New Yorker Presents TVSelf6.8
2015Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip MovieFirst Class Passenger6.0
2015Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment MovieSelf5.7
2015The Late Show with Stephen Colbert TVSelf - Guest6.1
2015The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin MovieUnknown character6.0
2015Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story MovieSelf5.7
2015Tab Hunter Confidential MovieSelf7.2
2014Suburban Gothic MovieCornelius5.5
2014The Last Impresario MovieSelf5.5
2014Clarence TVCaptain Tom (voice)8.0
2014I Am Divine MovieSelf7.3
2014Late Night with Seth Meyers TVSelf - Guest5.1
2014HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt TVSelf6.5
2013Jingle Bell Rocks! MovieSelf
2013The Blacklist TVJohn Waters7.6
2013RuPaul Drives... TVSelf - Guest5.0
2013Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open MovieSelf5.0
2013The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies MovieSelf5.9
2012Frankenstein: A Modern Myth MovieSelf - Director7.0
2012Excision MovieWilliam6.2
2012Mansome MovieSelf4.9
2012Finding Your Roots TVSelf6.5
2011The Advocate for Fagdom MovieSelf6.0
2011American Horror Story TVMr. Phibes8.1
2011Blank City MovieSelf6.9
2011Mangus! MovieJesus Christ1.0
2011These Amazing Shadows MovieSelf7.4
2010William S. Burroughs: A Man Within MovieSelf6.6
2010Fish Hooks TVEzekiel Freshwater / Hair Man (voice)6.5
2010Fish Hooks TVThe Yeti Lobster (voice)6.5
2010Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore MovieUnknown character6.1
2010Beautiful Darling MovieSelf6.3
2010The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice! MovieSelf6.9
2009It Came from Kuchar MovieSelf7.2
2009Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen TVSelf - Guest4.9
2009For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism MovieSelf5.8
2009RuPaul's Drag Race TVSelf - Guest Judge7.5
2009RuPaul's Drag Race TVSelf - Special Guest7.5
2008The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels MovieNarrator6.0
2008Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press MovieSelf5.0
2008Starz Inside: In the Gutter MovieSelf4.5
2008New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation MovieSelf10.0
2008Coven of the Heathenites MovieSelf
2007365 Day Project MovieSelf10.0
2007You Can’t Stop the Beat: The Long Journey of "Hairspray" MovieSelf6.0
2007The Roots of 'Hairspray' MovieSelf
2007Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story MovieSelf7.8
2007The Junior Defenders MovieNarrator5.0
2007Jessica the Hippo MovieNarrator (Voice)
2007Indie Sex TVSelf5.4
2007Hairspray MovieFlasher6.7
2007Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis MovieSelf6.7
2007Each Time I Kill MovieMovie Watcher6.0
2007'Til Death Do Us Part TVUnknown character7.7
2007The Graham Norton Show TVSelf - Guest7.2
2007Here’s Looking at You, Boy MovieSelf5.2
2006This Filthy World MovieSelf7.6
2006Treasures Untold: The Making of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid' MovieSelf8.0
2006Jackass Number Two MovieSelf6.6
2006This Film Is Not Yet Rated MovieSelf - Director of 'A Dirty Shame'7.1
2006The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway MovieSelf
2006I Love the '70s: Volume 2 TVSelf
2006Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream MovieSelf6.3
2006Mommie Dearest: Joan Lives On MovieUnknown character10.0
2006The Henry Rollins Show TVUnknown character6.2
2006(buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style MovieSelf7.5
2006Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades MovieUnknown character
200642nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage MovieSelf6.0
2006Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes MovieUnknown character
2006Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea MovieSelf - Narrator (voice)6.9
2006Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema MovieSelf5.4
2006That Man: Peter Berlin MovieSelf6.6
2006I, of the Cyclops MovieUnknown character
2006Meet The Kuchar Brothers MovieUnknown character
2005The Colbert Report TVSelf - Guest7.0
2005My Name Is Earl TVWalter Hamerick7.6
2005It Came from... Baltimore!! MovieSelf7.6
2005All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame' MovieSelf7.7
2005Inside Deep Throat MovieSelf6.4
2004Seed of Chucky MoviePete Peters5.5
2004Thinking XXX MovieSelf5.5
2004Closer Than That: A Documentary on Low MovieHimself
2003Abby Singer MovieJohn Waters (uncredited)6.8
2003Real Time with Bill Maher TVSelf - Guest6.0
2003A History of Sex MovieSelf5.5
2002Sylvester: Mighty Real MovieSelf10.0
2002Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat MovieThe Reverend4.8
2002The Cockettes MovieSelf6.9
2001Memories of Oz MovieSelf6.8
2000Welcome to Hollywood MovieJohn Waters4.2
2000Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story MovieSelf6.8
2000Cecil B. Demented MovieReporter6.4
2000Divine Trash MovieSelf7.3
1999Sweet and Lowdown MovieMr. Haynes6.8
1999Law & Order: Special Victims Unit TVPornmonger Man8.0
1999In Bad Taste MovieSelf8.0
1999Yesterday's Tomorrows MovieSelf8.5
1999Forever Hollywood MovieSelf8.3
1998Pecker MoviePervert on Phone (voice) (uncredited)6.1
1998The Roseanne Show TVSelf - Guest6.0
1998So Graham Norton TVSelf - Guest7.4
1998Anarchy TV MovieUnknown character5.1
1997The View TVSelf4.3
1997Anthem MovieSelf5.4
1996E! True Hollywood Story TVUnknown character8.1
1996Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow! MovieUnknown character
1996The Daily Show TVSelf - Guest6.4
1996The Daily Show TVSelf6.4
1995God Save the Queens MovieUnknown character
1994Family Album TVVincent4.3
1994Serial Mom MovieTed Bundy (voice) (uncredited)6.7
1993The Big Wet MovieNarrator
1993Eurotrash TVUnknown character6.5
1993Frasier TVRoger (voice)7.7
1993Late Show with David Letterman TVSelf - Guest6.5
1993Homicide: Life on the Street TVR. Vincent Smith8.1
1993Growing Up with John Waters MovieSelf
1992HBO First Look TVUnknown character5.5
1991Gastronomic Getaway MovieUnknown character8.5
1990The Word TVUnknown character6.0
1989The Simpsons TVJohn (voice)8.0
1989Homer and Eddie MovieRobber #15.6
1988The Incredibly Strange Film Show TVSelf8.3
1988Hairspray MovieDr. Fredrickson6.8
1988Way USA! MovieUnknown character
198721 Jump Street TVMr. Bean7.3
1986Something Wild MovieUsed Car Guy6.6
1985The Ballad of Sexual Dependency MovieUnknown character
1985Divine Waters MovieSelf7.6
1982Nuart Theatre No Smoking PSA MovieSelf
1982Late Night with David Letterman TVSelf - Guest6.2
1976Edith's Shopping Bag MovieSelf6.8
1975Saturday Night Live TVSelf (uncredited)6.9
1975Love Letter to Edie MovieSelf6.5
1972Pink Flamingos MovieMr. J (narration) (uncredited)6.1
1969Mondo Trasho MovieReporter (voice) (uncredited)5.3
1956Tony Awards TVSelf - Presenter
TBABaltigore MovieThe Broker
TBAMary Woronov: Cult Queen MovieSelf
TBAMamie Exposed! The Life and Loves of the Last Blonde Bombshell MovieUnknown character
TBAThe Brandon Novak Story MovieSelf
TBANew Line: Independent Legacies MovieSelf

Crew (81)

YearTitleRoleRating
2025Room Temperature MovieThanks · Crew5.8
2025Marisa y Gomoso MovieThanks · Crew7.8
201930/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing MovieDirector · Directing5.3
2019Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’ MovieThanks · Crew
2019Permanent Green Light MovieThanks · Crew6.3
Show 76 more credits
YearTitleRoleRating
2016Hairspray Live! MovieOriginal Story · Writing7.3
2016Hairspray Live! MovieAssociate Producer · Production7.3
2015Kiddie Flamingos MovieWriter · Writing8.0
2015Kiddie Flamingos MovieDirector · Directing8.0
2010Putty Hill MovieThanks · Crew5.6
2007An American Crime MovieThanks · Crew7.3
2007Hairspray MovieOriginal Film Writer · Writing6.7
2006This Filthy World MovieScreenplay · Writing7.6
2004A Dirty Shame MovieWriter · Writing5.4
2004A Dirty Shame MovieDirector · Directing5.4
2000Cecil B. Demented MovieDirector · Directing6.4
2000Cecil B. Demented MovieWriter · Writing6.4
1998Pecker MovieScreenplay · Writing6.1
1998Pecker MovieDirector · Directing6.1
1998Whipped MovieThanks · Crew7.0
1994Serial Mom MovieDirector · Directing6.7
1994Serial Mom MovieWriter · Writing6.7
1991Poison MovieThanks · Crew6.0
1990Cry-Baby MovieWriter · Writing6.5
1990Cry-Baby MovieDirector · Directing6.5
1988Hairspray MovieCo-Producer · Production6.8
1988Hairspray MovieDirector · Directing6.8
1988Hairspray MovieWriter · Writing6.8
1982Nuart Theatre No Smoking PSA MovieDirector · Directing
1981Polyester MovieWriter · Writing7.0
1981Polyester MovieProducer · Production7.0
1981Polyester MovieDirector · Directing7.0
1977Desperate Living MovieWriter · Writing6.3
1977Desperate Living MovieAdditional Photography · Camera6.3
1977Desperate Living MovieDirector · Directing6.3
1977Desperate Living MovieProducer · Production6.3
1976Female Trouble MovieProducer · Production6.9
1976Female Trouble MovieWriter · Writing6.9
1976Female Trouble MovieDirector · Directing6.9
1976Female Trouble MovieEditor · Editing6.9
1976Female Trouble MovieDirector of Photography · Camera6.9
1972Pink Flamingos MovieWriter · Writing6.1
1972Pink Flamingos MovieProducer · Production6.1
1972Pink Flamingos MovieDirector of Photography · Camera6.1
1972Pink Flamingos MovieEditor · Editing6.1
1972Pink Flamingos MovieDirector · Directing6.1
1970Multiple Maniacs MovieOriginal Music Composer · Sound6.3
1970Multiple Maniacs MovieWriter · Writing6.3
1970Multiple Maniacs MovieDirector · Directing6.3
1970Multiple Maniacs MovieProducer · Production6.3
1970Multiple Maniacs MovieEditor · Editing6.3
1970Multiple Maniacs MovieDirector of Photography · Camera6.3
1970The Diane Linkletter Story MovieWriter · Writing5.0
1970The Diane Linkletter Story MovieDirector · Directing5.0
1970The Diane Linkletter Story MovieEditor · Editing5.0
1970The Diane Linkletter Story MovieDirector of Photography · Camera5.0
1970The Diane Linkletter Story MovieProducer · Production5.0
1969Mondo Trasho MovieDirector · Directing5.3
1969Mondo Trasho MovieDirector of Photography · Camera5.3
1969Mondo Trasho MovieEditor · Editing5.3
1969Mondo Trasho MovieWriter · Writing5.3
1969Mondo Trasho MovieProducer · Production5.3
1969Mondo Trasho MovieOriginal Music Composer · Sound5.3
1968Eat Your Makeup MovieEditor · Editing7.4
1968Eat Your Makeup MovieDirector of Photography · Camera7.4
1968Eat Your Makeup MovieProducer · Production7.4
1968Eat Your Makeup MovieWriter · Writing7.4
1968Eat Your Makeup MovieDirector · Directing7.4
1968Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head MovieDirector · Directing4.0
1968Dorothy, the Kansas City Pot Head MovieWriter · Writing4.0
1967Roman Candles MovieWriter · Writing6.8
1967Roman Candles MovieDirector · Directing6.8
1967Roman Candles MovieProducer · Production6.8
1967Roman Candles MovieDirector of Photography · Camera6.8
1967Roman Candles MovieEditor · Editing6.8
1964Hag in a Black Leather Jacket MovieEditor · Editing6.9
1964Hag in a Black Leather Jacket MovieProducer · Production6.9
1964Hag in a Black Leather Jacket MovieDirector of Photography · Camera6.9
1964Hag in a Black Leather Jacket MovieDirector · Directing6.9
1964Hag in a Black Leather Jacket MovieWriter · Writing6.9
TBALiarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance MovieDirector · Directing

Latest releases

John Waters in the news

Questions about John Waters

What are John Waters' most famous films?

John Waters is best known for films such as 'Pink Flamingos,' 'Hairspray,' and 'Cry-Baby,' which have gained cult status and showcase his unique storytelling style.

Has John Waters won any awards?

While John Waters has not won an Academy Award, he has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious Cannes Film Festival award for 'Pink Flamingos' and a GLAAD Media Award.

What was John Waters' first film?

John Waters' first film was 'Hag in a Black Leather Jacket,' made in 1964, which set the stage for his future works known for their edginess and subversive themes.

What is John Waters' estimated net worth?

John Waters has an estimated net worth of around $50 million, largely due to his successful career in film, writing, and public speaking.

Is John Waters involved in any other projects?

In addition to filmmaking, John Waters is a published author and frequently participates in speaking engagements, sharing his views on art, culture, and cinema.

What themes are prevalent in John Waters' films?

John Waters' films often explore themes of counterculture, sexuality, and the absurdities of societal norms, frequently featuring unconventional characters and situations.

How did John Waters influence modern cinema?

John Waters' bold approach to filmmaking and willingness to tackle taboo subjects have inspired many contemporary filmmakers and contributed to the acceptance of diverse narratives in cinema.

What is a defining characteristic of John Waters' work?

A defining characteristic of John Waters' work is his use of camp aesthetics and dark humor, which challenge societal conventions and provoke thought about cultural norms.