There are two artists named John Waters. 1. John Russell Waters (born 8 December 1948 in London), the son of Scottish actor Russell Waters. As a teenager he was singer and bass-player with blues band 'The Riots', before travelling to Australia, where he landed the lead role of Claude in the 1969 Sydney production of Hair. He moved into work as a film and television actor in Australia, and became known for his varied performances both as character actor and leading man in TV series such as "Rush" for the ABC network, and "All the Rivers Run" for HBO. John featured in the "New Wave" of Australian cinema of the seventies in movies that included "Summerfield", "The Getting of Wisdom", "End Play" and "Breaker Morant". John remained in music through his theatre work; in Godspell, Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Little Night Music, Jacques Brel, They're Playing Our Song with Jacki Weaver, as well as the classic leading roles of Henry Higgins, Captain Von Trapp and Fagin. He also starred in a highly successful tour of The Woman in Black. John currently appears on Australia's TEN Network as Darcy, the patriarch of an eccentric family of big personalities in the hugely successful comedy/drama "Offspring". He was most recently seen as psychopathic criminal Edgar Thompson in ABC TV's hit dramedy, "Rake". In 1992 John and Stewart D'Arrietta devised and first performed Looking Through a Glass Onion, later named Lennon: Through a Glass Onion, as a theatrical interpretation of John Lennon's life and music. It has continued to be reprised for extensive and successful tours, including a season in London's West End, and most recently in an award-nominated run at the Union Square Theatre in New York City. Further seasons in Edinburgh, Tokyo and Liverpool have established this show on the International calendar of must-see music/theatre. Glass Onion recently celebrated its 25 year anniversary as one of Australia’s longest running stage shows. 2. John Waters (born April 22, 1946, Baltimore, Maryland) is an American filmmaker, who became well known in the early 1970s for his intentionally transgressive comedies. Waters grew up in Towson, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. His boyhood friend and muse Glen Milstead, later known as Divine, also lived in Baltimore County, Maryland, a short distance away. Waters' films would become Divine's primary star vehicle. Waters' early films were all shot in the Baltimore area with his company of local actors, the Dreamlanders. In addition to Divine, the group included Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and others. These early films were among the first picked up for distribution by New Line Cinema. Waters Premiers his films at the Baltimore Senator Theatre and sometimes at the Charles Theatre. Waters' early campy movies present filthily loveable characters in outrageous situations with hyperbolic dialogue. His early films, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living, which he labeled the Trash Trilogy, pushed hard at the boundaries of conventional propriety and movie censorship. A particularly notorious final segment of Pink Flamingos, simply added in as a non sequitur to the end of the film, featured, in one take without special effects, a small dog defecating and Divine eating the dog feces. His 1981 film Polyester starred Divine opposite once-teen-idol Tab Hunter. His films have become less controversial and more mainstream, although works such as Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Serial Mom still retain his trademark inventiveness. The film Hairspray was turned into a hit Broadway musical, which swept the 2003 Tony Awards, and a remake is currently being filmed. Waters' most recent film, the NC-17 rated A Dirty Shame, is a move back toward his earlier, more controversial work. He also had a cameo in Jackass Number Two, which starred Dirty Shame co-star Johnny Knoxville. He is currently a professor of Cinema and Subcultural Studies at the European Graduate School.