![Image of John Waters](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/o5Kgv9eVS5vyM01RJFGBIiZSEBp.jpg)
Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore church halls to underground audiences drawn by word of mouth and street leafleting campaigns. As his filmmaking grew more polished and his subject matter more shocking, his audiences grew bigger, and his write-ups in the Baltimore papers more outraged. By the early 1970s he was making features, which he managed to get shown in midnight screenings in art cinemas by sheer perseverance. Success came when Pink Flamingos (1972) - a deliberate exercise in ultra-bad taste - took off in 1973, helped no doubt by lead actor Divine's infamous dog-crap eating scene. Waters continued to make low-budget shocking movies with his Dreamland repertory company until Hollywood crossover success came with Hairspray (1988), and although his movies nowadays might now appear cleaned up and professional, they retain Waters' playfulness, and reflect his lifelong obsessions.
Movie | TURA! | Self (archive footage) | 2025 |
Movie | My Life with the Waters | Self | 2025 |
Movie | Mary Woronov: Cult Queen | 2025 | |
Movie | Scala!!! | Self | 2024-01-05 |
Movie | The Rooster | Norris | 2024-02-22 |
Series | The Andy Warhol Diaries | Self | 2022-03-09 |
Movie | Blaze | Magistrate | 2022-08-25 |
Movie | Bad Romance | Muscular Man | 2022-11-30 |
Movie | Living with Chucky | Self | 2022-08-13 |
Movie | Overall Planning | Christopher | 2021-03-19 |
Series | Pride | Self | 2021-05-14 |
Movie | The Velvet Underground | Self | 2021-10-15 |
Movie | Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness | Host | 2020-04-21 |
Movie | Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes | 2020-03-23 | |
Movie | Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi | Host | 2020-05-19 |
Movie | Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears | Professor Linnaeus | 2020-02-27 |
Movie | Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’ | Self | 2019-09-17 |
Movie | At the Video Store | Self | 2019-10-11 |
Movie | Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn | Self | 2019-09-29 |
Movie | 30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing | Self | 2019-12-14 |
Series | Liverspots and Astronots | O-Dor | 2018-10-18 |
Movie | Three Summers | Eamon | 2017-11-02 |
Movie | Mansfield 66/67 | Self | 2017-01-29 |
Movie | 2:22 | Bill | 2017-06-29 |
Movie | Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution | Himself | 2017-06-12 |
Movie | Weiner | Self (archive footage) | 2016-05-20 |
Movie | Whatever Happened to Gelitin | Self | 2016-03-10 |
Movie | Tab Hunter Confidential | Self | 2015-03-15 |
Movie | The 1000 Eyes of Dr Maddin | 2015-09-08 | |
Movie | Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip | First Class Passenger | 2015-12-17 |
Movie | Sympathy For The Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment | Self | 2015-10-30 |
Movie | Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story | Self | 2015-05-30 |
Movie | Suburban Gothic | Cornelius | 2014-07-19 |
Movie | Jingle Bell Rocks! | Self | 2013-12-06 |
Movie | Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open | Self | 2013-04-04 |
Movie | The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies | Self | 2013-03-27 |
Movie | I Am Divine | Self | 2013-03-09 |
Movie | Return to Nim's Island | Booker | 2013-03-15 |
Movie | The Mystery of a Hansom Cab | Mark Frettlby | 2012-10-28 |
Movie | Excision | William | 2012-09-12 |
Movie | Charles Manson, The Church of Satan, The Universal Order & The Process Church of Final Judgment | 2012-06-06 | |
Movie | Mansome | Self | 2012-05-18 |
Movie | The Advocate for Fagdom | Self | 2011-11-04 |
Movie | Mangus! | 2011-04-01 | |
Movie | Kapyong | Narrator | 2011-04-28 |
Movie | Blank City | Self | 2011-04-06 |
Movie | These Amazing Shadows | Self | 2011-01-22 |
Movie | Centre Place | Jack Houghton | 2010-07-27 |
Movie | William S. Burroughs: A Man Within | Self | 2010-11-05 |
Movie | Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore | 2010-06-01 | |
Movie | Beautiful Darling | Self | 2010-04-02 |
Movie | For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism | Self | 2009-03-01 |
Movie | It Came from Kuchar | Self | 2009-09-22 |
Movie | Coven of the Heathenites | Self | 2008-01-01 |
Movie | Starz Inside: In the Gutter | Self | 2008-07-29 |
Movie | Not Quite Hollywood | Self | 2008-08-28 |
Movie | Obscene | Self | 2008-09-26 |
Movie | The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels | Narrator | 2008-10-31 |
Movie | Here’s Looking at You, Boy | Self | 2007-02-16 |
Movie | Each Time I Kill | Movie Watcher | 2007-03-30 |
Series | 'Til Death Do Us Part | 2007-03-19 | |
Movie | Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis | Self | 2007-04-11 |
Movie | Jackass 2.5 | Himself | 2007-12-18 |
Movie | The Junior Defenders | Narrator | 2007-10-23 |
Movie | Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story | Self | 2007-11-08 |
Movie | There's a Hippo in my House | Narrator (Voice) | 2007-10-21 |
Movie | Hairspray | Flasher | 2007-07-19 |
Movie | Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea | Self - Narrator (voice) | 2006-02-24 |
Movie | Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema | Self | 2006-02-12 |
Movie | Meet The Kuchar Brothers | 2006-01-01 | |
Movie | This Film Is Not Yet Rated | Self - Director of 'A Dirty Shame' | 2006-01-26 |
Movie | Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes | 2006-03-21 | |
Movie | 42nd Street: From Book to Screen to Stage | Self | 2006-03-21 |
Movie | Jackass Number Two | Self | 2006-09-22 |
Movie | The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway | Self | 2006-08-01 |
Movie | Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream | Himself | 2006-06-20 |
Movie | (buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style | Self | 2006-03-21 |
Movie | Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades | 2006-03-21 | |
Series | I Love the '70s: Volume 2 | Self | 2006-07-10 |
Movie | Stealth | Black Ops Doctor | 2005-07-27 |
Movie | It Came from... Baltimore!! | Self | 2005-07-12 |
Movie | Inside Deep Throat | Self | 2005-02-11 |
Series | Fireflies | Perry Luscombe | 2004-02-01 |
Movie | Seed of Chucky | Pete Peters | 2004-11-12 |
Movie | Thinking XXX | Self | 2004-10-27 |
Movie | Abby Singer | John Waters (uncredited) | 2003-10-28 |
Movie | A History of Sex | Self | 2003-01-14 |
Movie | Evil Never Dies | Professor Arkin | 2003-06-01 |
Movie | Totally Gay! | Self | 2003-08-29 |
Movie | Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat | The Reverend | 2002-03-31 |
Movie | The Cockettes | Self | 2002-01-16 |
Movie | Divine Trash | Self | 2000-03-31 |
Movie | Cecil B. Demented | Reporter | 2000-08-02 |
Movie | Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story | 2000-09-08 | |
Movie | Sweet and Lowdown | Mr. Haynes | 1999-12-03 |
Movie | Forever Hollywood | Self | 1999-01-01 |
Movie | The Sugar Factory | Sam Lejeune | 1999-03-04 |
Movie | Chameleon II: Death Match | Henry Kubica | 1999-01-01 |
Movie | In Bad Taste | Self | 1999-09-03 |
Movie | Pecker | Pervert on Phone (voice) (uncredited) | 1998-09-25 |
Movie | Welcome to Hollywood | John Waters | 1998-10-01 |
Movie | The Real Macaw | Dr. Lance Hagen | 1998-09-24 |
Movie | Anarchy TV | 1998-01-31 | |
Movie | Anthem | Self | 1997-07-25 |
Movie | Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow! | 1996-08-13 | |
Movie | God Save the Queens | 1995-06-23 | |
Movie | Serial Mom | Ted Bundy (voice) (uncredited) | 1994-04-13 |
Movie | Ebbtide | Michael Suresch | 1994-01-01 |
Movie | Singapore Sling | John Stamford | 1994-03-09 |
Movie | Jesus Christ Superstar | Pontius Pilate | 1992-06-06 |
Movie | Heaven Tonight | Johnny Dysart | 1990-11-12 |
Series | All The Rivers Run II | Brenton Edwards | 1990-03-18 |
Movie | Homer and Eddie | Robber #1 | 1989-08-17 |
Movie | Grievous Bodily Harm | Morris Martin | 1988-10-26 |
Movie | Hairspray | Dr. Fredrickson | 1988-02-26 |
Movie | Boulevard of Broken Dreams | Tom Garfield | 1988-10-13 |
Movie | Captain Johnno | Frank | 1988-04-17 |
Movie | Going Sane | Martin Brown | 1987-07-30 |
Movie | Bushfire Moon | Patrick O'Day | 1987-12-10 |
Movie | Passion Flower | Leslie Gaitland | 1987-03-04 |
Movie | Something Wild | Used Car Guy | 1986-11-07 |
Movie | The Perfectionist | Stuart Gunn | 1985-12-01 |
Movie | The Ballad of Sexual Dependency | 1985-01-01 | |
Movie | Divine Waters | Self | 1985-01-01 |
Movie | High Country | Ben Lomax | 1984-08-29 |
Series | All the Rivers Run | Brenton Edwards | 1983-10-04 |
Movie | Attack Force Z | Ted King | 1982-06-01 |
Movie | Breaker Morant | Cpt. Alfred Taylor | 1980-06-11 |
Movie | Demolition | 1979-06-21 | |
Movie | Cass | Mike | 1978-10-30 |
Movie | The Scalp Merchant | 1978-01-01 | |
Movie | Weekend of Shadows | Rabbit | 1978-06-28 |
Movie | The Getting of Wisdom | Rev. Shepherd | 1977-08-25 |
Movie | Summerfield | David Abbott | 1977-09-30 |
Movie | End Play | Mark Gifford | 1976-01-01 |
Movie | The Adventures of Eliza Fraser | David Bracefell | 1976-12-16 |
Movie | Edith's Shopping Bag | Self | 1976-01-01 |
Movie | Love Letter to Edie | Self | 1975-01-01 |
Series | Rush | 1974-08-20 | |
Movie | Pink Flamingos | Mr. J (voice) (uncredited) | 1972-03-17 |
Movie | Mondo Trasho | Reporter (voice) (uncredited) | 1969-03-14 |