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 | My Life with the Waters | Self | 2025 |
Movie | L’estate di Joe, Liz e Richard | 2025 | |
Movie | Scala!!! | Self | 2024-01-05 |
Movie | The Rooster | Norris | 2024-02-22 |
Movie | TURA! | Self (archive footage) | 2024-11-09 |
Movie | Little Richard: I Am Everything | Self | 2023-04-11 |
Movie | Lynch/Oz | Host (Chapter 3: 'Kindred') (voice) | 2023-05-15 |
Series | The Andy Warhol Diaries | Self | 2022-03-09 |
Movie | Tell Me Iggy | Self | 2022-05-23 |
Movie | Living with Chucky | Self | 2022-08-13 |
Movie | Fragments of Paradise | Self | 2022-08-31 |
Movie | Don't Fall in Love with Yourself | Self (Archival) | 2022-11-13 |
Movie | Bad Romance | Muscular Man | 2022-11-30 |
Movie | Blaze | Magistrate | 2022-08-25 |
Movie | Overall Planning | Christopher | 2021-03-19 |
Series | Pride | Self | 2021-05-14 |
Movie | Blood, Guts and Sunshine: The History of Horror Made in Florida | Self [archival] | 2021-11-08 |
Movie | The Velvet Underground | Self | 2021-10-15 |
Movie | Joel Calls Indie Film Type Dudes | 2020-03-23 | |
Movie | Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears | Professor Linnaeus | 2020-02-27 |
Movie | Time Warp Vol. 1: Midnight Madness | Host | 2020-04-21 |
Movie | Time Warp Vol. 3: Comedy and Camp | Host | 2020-06-23 |
Movie | Time Warp Vol. 2: Horror and Sci-Fi | Host | 2020-05-19 |
Movie | The Mystery of the Pink Flamingo | Himself | 2020-11-20 |
Movie | Sniffing Out ‘Polyester’ | Self | 2019-09-17 |
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 |
Movie | At the Video Store | Self | 2019-10-11 |
Series | Liverspots and Astronots | O-Dor | 2018-10-18 |
Movie | Mugworth | Sir Butler | 2018-11-02 |
Movie | Mansfield 66/67 | Self | 2017-01-29 |
Movie | 2:22 | Bill | 2017-06-29 |
Movie | Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution | Self | 2017-06-12 |
Movie | Three Summers | Eamon | 2017-11-02 |
Movie | Whatever Happened to Gelitin | Self | 2016-03-10 |
Movie | Weiner | Self (archive footage) | 2016-05-20 |
Movie | In Conversation With Director John Waters, Actress Kathleen Turner and Actress Mink Stole | Self | 2016-05-09 |
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 | Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story | Self | 2015-05-30 |
Movie | Sympathy For The Devil: The True Story of The Process Church of the Final Judgment | Self | 2015-10-30 |
Movie | Suburban Gothic | Cornelius | 2014-07-19 |
Movie | I Am Divine | Self | 2013-03-09 |
Movie | Jingle Bell Rocks! | Self | 2013-12-06 |
Movie | The Sarnos: A Life in Dirty Movies | Self | 2013-03-27 |
Movie | Return to Nim's Island | Booker | 2013-03-15 |
Movie | Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open | Self | 2013-04-04 |
Movie | Mansome | Self | 2012-05-18 |
Movie | The Mystery of a Hansom Cab | Mark Frettlby | 2012-10-28 |
Movie | Excision | William | 2012-09-12 |
Movie | These Amazing Shadows | Self | 2011-01-22 |
Movie | Kapyong | Narrator | 2011-04-28 |
Movie | The Advocate for Fagdom | Self | 2011-11-04 |
Movie | Blank City | Self | 2011-04-06 |
Movie | Mangus! | 2011-04-01 | |
Movie | Beautiful Darling | Self | 2010-04-02 |
Movie | William S. Burroughs: A Man Within | Self | 2010-11-05 |
Movie | Centre Place | Jack Houghton | 2010-07-27 |
Movie | Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore | 2010-06-01 | |
Movie | Uncle Bob | Self (archiveFootage) | 2010-06-26 |
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 | New Line Cinema: The First Generation and the Next Generation | Self | 2008-03-05 |
Movie | Not Quite Hollywood | Self | 2008-08-28 |
Movie | Starz Inside: In the Gutter | Self | 2008-07-29 |
Movie | Obscene | Self | 2008-09-26 |
Movie | The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels | Narrator | 2008-10-31 |
Movie | Each Time I Kill | Movie Watcher | 2007-03-30 |
Movie | Here’s Looking at You, Boy | Self | 2007-02-16 |
Movie | Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis | Self | 2007-04-11 |
Series | 'Til Death Do Us Part | 2007-03-19 | |
Movie | Hairspray | Flasher | 2007-07-19 |
Movie | Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story | Self | 2007-11-08 |
Movie | Jackass 2.5 | Himself | 2007-12-18 |
Movie | The Junior Defenders | Narrator | 2007-10-23 |
Movie | There's a Hippo in my House | Narrator (Voice) | 2007-10-21 |
Movie | Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema | Self | 2006-02-12 |
Movie | Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea | Self - Narrator (voice) | 2006-02-24 |
Movie | This Film Is Not Yet Rated | Self - Director of 'A Dirty Shame' | 2006-01-26 |
Movie | Meet The Kuchar Brothers | 2006-01-01 | |
Movie | Telling Schoolgirl Tales: The Making of 'The Getting of Wisdom’ | Self | 2006-03-06 |
Movie | Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades | 2006-03-21 | |
Movie | Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes | 2006-03-21 | |
Movie | The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway | Self | 2006-08-01 |
Movie | Jackass Number Two | Self | 2006-09-22 |
Series | I Love the '70s: Volume 2 | Self | 2006-07-10 |
Movie | (buz'be bur'kle) n. A Study in Style | Self | 2006-03-21 |
Movie | Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream | Himself | 2006-06-20 |
Movie | Inside Deep Throat | Self | 2005-02-11 |
Movie | Stealth | Black Ops Doctor | 2005-07-27 |
Movie | It Came from... Baltimore!! | Self | 2005-07-12 |
Movie | All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame' | Self | 2005-06-14 |
Movie | Thinking XXX | Self | 2004-10-27 |
Series | Fireflies | Perry Luscombe | 2004-02-01 |
Movie | Seed of Chucky | Pete Peters | 2004-11-12 |
Movie | Abby Singer | John Waters (uncredited) | 2003-10-28 |
Movie | Evil Never Dies | Professor Arkin | 2003-06-01 |
Movie | Totally Gay! | Self | 2003-08-29 |
Movie | A History of Sex | Self | 2003-01-14 |
Movie | Sylvester: Mighty Real | Self | 2002-08-27 |
Movie | Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat | The Reverend | 2002-03-31 |
Movie | The Cockettes | Self | 2002-01-16 |
Movie | Cecil B. Demented | Reporter | 2000-08-02 |
Movie | Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story | Self | 2000-09-08 |
Movie | Divine Trash | Self | 2000-03-31 |
Movie | Forever Hollywood | Self | 1999-01-01 |
Movie | Chameleon II: Death Match | Henry Kubica | 1999-01-01 |
Movie | The Sugar Factory | Sam Lejeune | 1999-03-04 |
Movie | In Bad Taste | Self | 1999-09-03 |
Movie | Yesterday's Tomorrows | Self | 1999-08-09 |
Movie | Sweet and Lowdown | Mr. Haynes | 1999-12-03 |
Movie | Anarchy TV | 1998-01-31 | |
Movie | Welcome to Hollywood | John Waters | 1998-10-01 |
Movie | The Real Macaw | Dr. Lance Hagen | 1998-09-24 |
Movie | Pecker | Pervert on Phone (voice) (uncredited) | 1998-09-25 |
Movie | Anthem | Self | 1997-07-25 |
Movie | Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow! | 1996-08-13 | |
Movie | God Save the Queens | 1995-06-23 | |
Movie | Ebbtide | Michael Suresch | 1994-01-01 |
Series | Family Album | Vincent | 1994-10-23 |
Movie | Serial Mom | Ted Bundy (voice) (uncredited) | 1994-04-13 |
Movie | Singapore Sling | John Stamford | 1994-03-09 |
Movie | Jesus Christ Superstar | Pontius Pilate | 1992-06-06 |
Movie | Which Way Home | Steve Hannah | 1991-01-28 |
Series | All The Rivers Run II | Brenton Edwards | 1990-03-18 |
Movie | Heaven Tonight | Johnny Dysart | 1990-11-12 |
Movie | Homer and Eddie | Robber #1 | 1989-08-17 |
Movie | Way USA! | 1988-01-01 | |
Movie | Captain Johnno | Frank | 1988-04-17 |
Movie | Boulevard of Broken Dreams | Tom Garfield | 1988-10-13 |
Movie | Hairspray | Dr. Fredrickson | 1988-02-26 |
Movie | Grievous Bodily Harm | Morris Martin | 1988-10-26 |
Movie | Passion Flower | Leslie Gaitland | 1987-03-04 |
Movie | The Last of the Mohicans | Hawkeye Bumppo (voice) | 1987-07-31 |
Movie | Bushfire Moon | Patrick O'Day | 1987-12-10 |
Series | Nancy Wake | Henri Fiocca | 1987-11-04 |
Movie | Going Sane | Martin Brown | 1987-07-30 |
Movie | Something Wild | Used Car Guy | 1986-11-07 |
Movie | The Ballad of Sexual Dependency | 1985-01-01 | |
Movie | The Perfectionist | Stuart Gunn | 1985-12-01 |
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 | Weekend of Shadows | Rabbit | 1978-06-28 |
Movie | Cass | Mike | 1978-10-30 |
Movie | The Scalp Merchant | 1978-01-01 | |
Movie | Summerfield | David Abbott | 1977-09-30 |
Movie | The Getting of Wisdom | Rev. Shepherd | 1977-08-25 |
Movie | Edith's Shopping Bag | Self | 1976-01-01 |
Movie | The Haunting of Hewie Dowker | Hewie Dowker | 1976-11-06 |
Movie | The Adventures of Eliza Fraser | David Bracefell | 1976-12-16 |
Movie | End Play | Mark Gifford | 1976-01-01 |
Movie | Love Letter to Edie | Self | 1975-01-01 |
Series | Rush | Sergeant Robert McKellar | 1974-08-20 |
Movie | Pink Flamingos | Mr. J (voice) (uncredited) | 1972-03-17 |
Movie | Mondo Trasho | Reporter (voice) (uncredited) | 1969-03-14 |