Meyer may refer to:

People[link]

• Meyer (surname)
• John Meyer (disambiguation)

Companies[link]

• Meyer Corporation
• Fred Meyer, Inc., American hypermarket chain; currently a subsidiary of Kroger
• Meyer Sound Laboratories

Places[link]

• Meyer Township, Michigan
• Meyer, Illinois, unincorporated community in Adams County, Illinois, USA
• Meyer, Iowa, in Mitchell County
• Myers, Montana (also spelled Meyer), unincorporated community in Treasure County, USA

Other[link]

• USS Meyer (DD-279), Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy
• Meyer locomotive
• Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, major German encyclopedia that existed from 1839 until 1984

See also[link]

• Von Meyer (disambiguation), Myer (disambiguation), Meyr, Meier, Meijer (disambiguation), Meir (disambiguation), Mayer (disambiguation), Maier, Mayr, Mair
• Meyers, Myers

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Joyce Meyer
Meyer teaching at the Hillsong Conference in Kiev on October 4, 2007
Born	Pauline Joyce Hutchison (1943-06-04) June 4, 1943 (age 69) St. Louis, Missouri U.S.
Occupation	Bible teacher, author, speaker
Nationality	American Citizen
Spouse(s)	Dave Meyer
Influences Tommy Barnett John C. Maxwell
www.joycemeyer.org

Joyce Meyer (born Pauline Joyce Hutchison; June 4, 1943) is a Charismatic Christian author and speaker. Meyer and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.

Early life[link]

Meyer was born Pauline Joyce Hutchison in south St. Louis in 1943. Her father went into the army to fight in World War II soon after she was born. She has said in interviews that he began sexually abusing her upon his return, and discusses this experience in her meetings.^[1]

A graduate of O'Fallon Technical High School in St. Louis, she married a part-time car salesman shortly after her senior year of high school. The marriage lasted for five years. She maintains that her husband frequently cheated on her and persuaded her to steal payroll checks from her employer. They used the money to go on a vacation to California. She states that she returned the money years later.^[1] After her divorce, Meyer frequented local bars before meeting Dave Meyer, an engineering draftsman. They were married on January 7, 1967.

Meyer also reports that she was praying intensely while driving to work one morning in 1976 when she said she heard God call her name. She had been born-again at age nine, but her unhappiness drove her deeper into her faith. She says that she came home later that day from a beauty appointment "full of liquid love" and was "drunk with the Spirit of God" that night while at the local bowling alley.^[1]

I didn't have any knowledge. I didn't go to church. And I had a lot of problems, and I needed somebody to kind of help me along. And I think sometimes even people who want to serve God, if they have got so many problems that they don't think right and they don't act right and they don't behave right, they almost need somebody to take them by the hand and help lead them through the early years.^[2]

Meyer was briefly a member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in St. Louis, a congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.^[1][3] She began leading an early-morning Bible class at a local cafeteria and became active in Life Christian Center, a charismatic church in Fenton. Within a few years, Meyer was the church's associate pastor. The church became one of the leading charismatic churches in the area, largely because of her popularity as a Bible teacher.^[1] She also began airing a daily 15-minute radio broadcast on a St. Louis radio station.

In 1985, Meyer resigned as associate pastor and founded her own ministry, initially called "Life in the Word". She began airing her radio show on six other stations from Chicago to Kansas City.

In 1993, her husband Dave suggested that they start a television ministry.^[1] Initially airing on superstation WGN-TV in Chicago and BET, her program, now called Enjoying Everyday Life, is still on the air today.

In 2004 St. Louis Christian television station KNLC, operated by the Rev. Larry Rice of New Life Evangelistic Center, dropped Meyer's programming. According to Rice, a longstanding Meyer supporter, Meyer's "excessive lifestyle" and her teachings often going "beyond Scripture" were the impetus for canceling the program.^[4]

In 2005, Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" ranked Meyer as 17th.^[5]

Ministry[link]

Meyer speaks humorously, sharing with her audience her own shortcomings and taking playful jabs at stereotypical church behavior. A particular crowd favorite is the "robot" routine, in which she goes into a stiff-armed imitation of a robot chanting "What about me? What about me?"^[6]

According to Joyce Meyer Ministries, Meyer earned her doctoral degree from Life Christian University, an unaccredited institution in Tampa, Florida.^[7] Meyer has been given an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity by Oral Roberts University, an accredited institution in Tulsa, Oklahoma.^[7]

Salary and finances[link]

Joyce Meyer used to travel in this Canadair Challenger 600S; seen here in Sydney, Australia, when she was a 'special guest' at the Hillsong Conference in July 2005. It has since been replaced by a Gulfstream IV

Meyer, who owns several homes and travels in a private jet (currently a Gulfstream IV),^[8][9] has been criticized by some of her peers for living an excessive lifestyle. She responded that she doesn't have to defend her spending habits because "there’s no need for us to apologize for being blessed."^[8] Meyer commented, "You can be a businessman here in St. Louis, and people think the more you have, the more wonderful it is...but if you’re a preacher, then all of a sudden it becomes a problem."^[8]

On November 11, 2003, the St. Louis Post Dispatch published a four part series."^[8] exposing Meyer’s "$10 million corporate jet, her husband’s $107,000 silver-gray Mercedes sedan, her then $2 million home and houses worth another $2 million for her four children", her $20 million headquarters, furnished with "$5.7 million worth of furniture, artwork, glassware, and the latest equipment and machinery, including a malachite round table, a marble-topped antique commode, a custom office bookcase, a $7,000 Stations of the Cross in Dresden porcelain, an eagle sculpture on a pedestal, another eagle made of silver, and numerous paintings", among many other expensive items — all paid for by "her ministry". The article prompted Wall Watchers^[10] (a Christian nonprofit watchdog group) to call on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Meyer and her family.

Following the adverse publicity about her lifestyle and Ministry Watch's request for an IRS probe, Meyer announced in 2004 plans to take a salary reduction from the $900,000 per year she had been receiving from Joyce Meyer Ministries (in addition to the $450,000 her husband received) ^[11] and instead personally keep more of the royalties from her outside book sales which Meyer had previously donated back to Joyce Meyer Ministries. She now retains royalties on books sold outside the ministry through retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and bookstores, while continuing to donate to her ministry royalties from books sold through her conferences, catalogues, website, and television program.^[12] "The net effect of all of this," notes Ministry Watch,^[10] "was most likely a sizable increase in the personal compensation of Joyce Meyer and reduced revenues for JMM." In an article in the St. Louis Business Journal, Meyer's public relations director, Mark Sutherland, confirmed that her new income would be "way above" her previous levels.^[13] Joyce Meyer Ministries says it has made a commitment to maintain transparency in financial dealings,^[14] publish their annual reports,^[15] have a Board majority who are not Meyer relatives^[16] and submit to a voluntary annual audit.^[14][17] Currently this ministry is receiving a "C" rating (81-90) in financial transparency from Ministry Watch.^[18]

Senate investigation[link]

On November 6, 2007, United States senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa announced an investigation of Meyer’s ministry by the United States Senate Committee on Finance.^[19] Grassley asked for the ministry to divulge financial information^[20][21] to the committee to determine if Meyer made any personal profit from financial donations, asking for a detailed accounting for such things as cosmetic surgery and foreign bank accounts and citing such expenses as the $23,000 commode mentioned earlier. He also requested that Meyer's ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. In her November 29 response to Grassley, Meyer notes that the commode is a chest of drawers. Meyer writes that it was part of a large lot of items totaling $262,000 that were needed to furnish the ministry's 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m²) headquarters purchased in 2001. She said the commode's price tag was an "errant value" assigned by the selling agent and apologized for "not paying close attention to specific 'assigned values' placed on the pieces."^[20] The investigation also aimed to scrutinize five other televangelists: Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Eddie L. Long, Paula White, and Creflo Dollar.^[19]

Joyce Meyer Ministries responded with a newsletter to its e-mail list subscribers on November 9, 2007. The organization referred to its annual financial reports, asserting that, in 2006, the ministry spent 82 percent of its total expenses "for outreach and program services toward reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as attested by independent accounting firm Stanfield & O'Dell, LLP." The message also quoted an October 10, 2007, letter from the Internal Revenue Service which stated, "We determined that you [Joyce Meyer Ministries] continue to qualify as an organization exempt from federal income tax under IRC section 501(c)(3)." The same information was also posted to the ministry website.

Meyer and Hinn were the only two ministries to comply with the Senate's requests for financial records, and both of them made commitments to future financial transparency. Neither party were found to have done any wrongdoing.^[22]

ECFA accreditation[link]

In 2009, Joyce Meyer Ministries received accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). In an announcement on March 12, 2009, the ECFA said that Joyce Meyer Ministries and Oral Roberts University had met their requirements of "'responsible stewardship', which involves ministries' financial accountability, transparency, board governance and fund-raising practices."^[23]

Works[link]

• Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind. 1993. ISBN 0-446-69109-7. 
• Me and My Big Mouth: Your Answer is Right Under Your Nose. 2002. ISBN 0-446-69107-0. 
• How to Hear from God: Learn to Know His Voice and Make Right Decisions. 2003. ISBN ISBN 0-446-53256-8. 
• The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word. 2004. ISBN 0-446-57736-7. 
• In Pursuit of Peace: 21 Ways to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment. 2004. ISBN 0-446-53195-2. 
• Straight Talk: Overcoming Emotional Battles with the Power of God's Word. 2005. ISBN 0-446-57800-2. 
• Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone. 2005. ISBN 0-446-57772-3. 
• Look Great Feel Great: Joyce shares twelve practical keys that will help you look and feel great. 2006. ISBN 0-446-57946-7. 
• The Everyday Life Bible: The Power of God's Word for Everyday Living. 2006. ISBN 0-446-57827-4. 
• The Confident Woman: Start Today Living Boldly and Without Fear. 2007. ISBN 0-446-53198-7. 
• Woman to Woman: Candid Conversations from Me to You. 2007. ISBN 0-446-58180-1. 
• I Dare You: Embrace Life With Passion. 2007. ISBN 0-446-53197-9. 
• The Power of Simple Prayer: How to Talk with God about Everything. 2007. ISBN 0-446-53196-0. 
• Top 10 Qualities of a Great Leader. 2007. ISBN 1-57794-913-7.  (by Joyce Meyer and Phil Pringle)
• Conflict Free Living. 2008. ISBN 1-59979-062-9. 
• Start Your New Life Today: An Exciting New Beginning with God. 2008. ISBN 0-446-50965-5. 
• The Secret To True Happiness: Enjoy Today, Embrace Tomorrow. 2008. ISBN 0-446-53199-5. 
• Never Give Up!: Relentless Determination to Overcome Life's Challenges. 2009. ISBN 0-446-58035-X. 
• Eat the Cookie--Buy the Shoes: Giving Yourself Permission to Lighten Up. 2010. ISBN 0-446-53864-7. 
• Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle. 2010. ISBN 0-446-58036-8. 
• Beauty for Ashes. 
• The Penny. 

See also[link]

• Prosperity Gospel
• Word of Faith

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Official site
• Joyce Meyer at the Internet Movie Database
• Everyday Life Broadcast with Joyce Meyer online

Russ Meyer
Meyer in 1996 (photo by Roger Ebert)
Born	Russell Albion Meyer (1922-03-21)March 21, 1922 San Leandro, California United States
Died	September 18, 2004(2004-09-18) (aged 82) Hollywood Hills, California, United States
Cause of death	Pneumonia
Nationality	American
Spouse	Betty Valdovinos (1949-1950) Eve Meyer (1952–1966) Edy Williams (1970–1973)

Russell Albion "Russ" Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was a U.S. motion picture director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, actor and photographer.

Meyer is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful low-budget sexploitation films that featured campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women.

Early years[link]

Russ Meyer was born in San Leandro, California to William Arthur Meyer, a German-American Oakland police officer, and his wife Lydia Lucinda Hauck.^[1] His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and Meyer was to have virtually no contact with his father during his life. When he was fourteen years old, his mother pawned her wedding ring in order to buy him an 8mm film camera. He made a number of amateur films at the age of 15, and served during World War II as a U.S. Army combat cameraman for the 166th Signal Photo Company. In the Army Meyer forged his strongest friendships, and he would later ask many of his fellow combat cameramen to work on his films. Much of Meyer's work during World War II can be seen in newsreels and in the film Patton (1971).^[2] On his return to civilian life, he was unable to secure cinematography work in Hollywood due to a dearth of industry connections. He made industrial films, freelanced as a still photographer for mainstream films (he did the still photography for Giant), and became a well known glamour photographer whose work included some of the initial shoots for Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine. Meyer would go on to shoot three Playboy centerfolds during the magazine's early years, one of his wife Eve Meyer in 1955. He also shot a pictorial of then-wife Edy Williams in March 1973.^[3]

Film career[link]

His first feature, the nudist comedy The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959), cost $24,000 to produce and eventually grossed more than $1,000,000 on the independent/exploitation circuit, ensconcing Meyer as "King of the Nudies." Over the next decade, he made nearly 20 movies with a trademark blend of odd humor, huge-breasted starlets and All-American sleaze, including such notable films as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and Vixen! (1968). Russ Meyer was a true auteur who wrote, directed, edited, photographed and distributed all his own films. He was able to finance each new film from the proceeds of the earlier ones, and became very wealthy in the process.^[4] Unlike many independent directors of his era, he chose to cast actresses like Shari Eubank or Cynthia Myers who were considered extremely beautiful and wholesome.^[5]

Meyer's output can be divided into several eras. Earlier works like The Immoral Mr. Teas, Eve and the Handyman, and the Western-themed Wild Gals of the Naked West were stylistically similar to the nudie cutie fare of the era, though separated from the pack by their superior color cinematography. 1964's Lorna saw the ever-economical director revert to black-and-white; with this change came a greater emphasis on storyline, almost theatrical violence, domineeringly psychosexual women, and their insipid male counterparts. The "Gothic" period (as it was termed by Meyer) reached its apex with the commercially underwhelming Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, which would eventually be reclaimed as a cult classic. It has a following all over the world and has inspired countless imitations, music videos and tributes.

After producing the popular mockumentary Mondo Topless (1966) with the remnants of his production company's assets and two mildly successful color melodramas, Meyer made headlines once again in 1968 with the controversial, Vixen!. Although its lesbian overtones are tame by today's standards, the film — designed by Meyer and long-time cohort Jim Ryan as a reaction to provocative European art films — grossed millions on a five-figure budget and captured the zeitgeist just as, The Immoral Mr. Teas, had a decade earlier. He followed it with Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1970), which utilized long montages of the California landscape (replete with anti-marijuana voiceovers) and Uschi Digard dancing in the desert as the film's "lost soul." These plot devices were necessitated after lead actress Linda Ashton left the shoot early, leaving Meyer missing 20 minutes of footage.^[6]

Russ Meyer (left) and Roger Ebert in 1970 (photo from Roger Ebert)

After the unexpected success of, Easy Rider, and impressed by Meyer's frugality and profitability, 20th Century Fox signed him to produce and direct a long-proposed sequel to, Valley of the Dolls, in 1969, fulfilling his longstanding ambition to direct for a major Hollywood studio. What eventually appeared was Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), scripted by film critic (and Meyer devotee) Roger Ebert and bearing no relation to the novel or film's continuity (necessitated after Jacqueline Susann sued the studio). Many critics perceive the film as perhaps the greatest expression of his intentionally vapid surrealism — Meyer went so far as to refer to it as his definitive work in several interviews. Others, such as Variety, saw "B.V.D.," "as funny as a burning orphanage and a treat for the emotionally retarded."^[7] Contractually stipulated to produce an R-rated film, the brutally violent climax (depicting a decapitation) ensured an X-rating (Later reclassified to NC-17). Though disowned by the studio for years to come and amid gripes from the director after he attempted to recut the film to include more titillating scenes after the ratings debacle, it still earned over $6 million domestically in the United States on a budget of less than $1 million.

After making his most subdued film, a commercially unsuccessful adaptation of the popular Irving Wallace novel The Seven Minutes (1971) for Fox, Meyer returned to grindhouse-style independent cinema in 1973 with the Blaxploitation period piece Black Snake, which was dismissed by critics and audiences as incoherent. In 1975, he released Supervixens, a return to the world of big bosoms, square jaws, and the Mojave desert that earned $17 million (American) on a shoestring budget. Meyer's theatrical career ended with the release of the surreal Up! (1976) and 1979's Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens, his most sexually graphic films. Film historians and fans have called these last three films "Bustoons" because Russ Meyer's use of color and mise en scène recalled larger than life pop art settings and cartoonish characters.^[8]

In 1977, Malcolm McLaren hired Meyer to direct a film starring The Sex Pistols. Meyer handed the scriptwriting duties over to Ebert, who, in collaboration with McLaren, produced a screenplay entitled Who Killed Bambi? According to Ebert, filming ended after a day and a half when the electricians walked off the set after McLaren proved unable to pay them. (McLaren has claimed that the project actually died at the behest of main financier 20th Century-Fox, under the pretext that "We are in the business of making family entertainment.") The project ultimately evolved into The Great Rock & Roll Swindle.

Despite the fact that hardcore pornographic films would overtake Meyer's softcore market share, he retired in the late 1970s a very wealthy man.^[8]

Use of satire[link]

Russ Meyer was also adept at mocking moral stereotypes and flagrantly lampooning conservative American values. Many of his films feature a narrator who attempts to give the audience a "moral roadmap" of what they are watching. Like contemporary Terry Southern, Meyer realized that sex — as one of the few common interests among most humans — was a natural vehicle for satirizing values and conventions held by the Greatest Generation. According to Roger Ebert in a commentary recorded for the DVD release of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Meyer continually reiterated that this irreverence was the true secret to his artistic success.

Meyer was also known for his quick wit. While participating with Ebert in a panel discussion at Yale University, he was confronted by an angry woman who accused him of being "nothing but a breast man." His immediate reply: "That's only the half of it."^[9]

Big breast fixation, or the Meyer physical archetype[link]

Russ Meyer's lifelong unabashed fixation on large breasts featured prominently in all his films and is his best known character trait both as an artist and as a person. His discoveries include Kitten Natividad, Erica Gavin, Lorna Maitland, Tura Satana, and Uschi Digard among many others. The majority of them were naturally large breasted and he occasionally cast women in their first trimesters of pregnancy as it enhanced their breast size even further.^[10]

Rarely were there cosmetically enhanced breasts in any of his films until Up! (1976) and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979). However, by the early 1980s, when surgical advancements had made the gargantuan breasts of Meyer's fantasies a reality, many felt he had started viewing the female body as simply a "tit transportation device"^[11] and that his aesthetic vision was no longer attractive or vibrant. Darlene Gray, a natural 36H-22-33 from Great Britain, who appeared in Mondo Topless (1966) is said to be Russ Meyer's most busty discovery.^[12]

The Russ Meyer female physical archetype is fairly complex to decipher. Firstly, it's not to be confused with today's surgically enhanced Hollywood porn starlets or even slim, naturally endowed actresses. Russ Meyer was almost as much about a shapely 1950s hip-to-waist ratio or "wasp waist" as he was about very large breasts. The six-pack abdominal muscles and built-up squarish appearance of modern Hollywood figures do not mesh with his pin-up aesthetic.^[9][10][11] Secondly, he required that even his most busty actresses looked good braless; "gravity-defying" and "cantilevered" became two of his favorite expressions.^[10]

In his films such as Vixen! and Cherry, Harry & Raquel! some of the actresses do not have large (by Russ Meyer standards) breasts yet their chests are always accentuated with very clever camera angles and well constructed bras. Reportedly, Gavin was cast as the lead in Vixen! because her "smaller" bust would make the character "more relatable to women."^[13]

He went on record numerous times to say that Anita Ekberg was the most beautiful woman he ever photographed and that her 39DD breasts were the biggest in A-list Hollywood history, dwarfing both Jayne Mansfield and Sabrina.^[14][15] Dolly Parton was the only modern Hollywood actress Meyer ever expressed interest in working with.^[16]

While he often referred to his actresses as "Junoesque" and "Amazonian"^[11] this was probably more in their spirit than their actual physiques"^[17] as Meyer rarely cast very tall or symmetrically built actresses with strong legs and large posteriors. So while the general public could easily perceive Jane Russell or Sophia Loren as "Russ Meyer material", their balanced bodies did not mesh with Meyer's precise aesthetic preferences."^[18] And indeed Meyer said many times that it was Gina Lollobrigida's smaller breasted figure that he preferred visually over her larger breasted, taller and bigger hipped rival, Sophia Loren.^[9] Thus Meyer's complete oeuvre shows the viewer that while his actresses could easily be described as voluptuous, buxom and curvaceous, it's debatable to some if they were strapping, stately or even statuesque as Meyer readily proclaimed."^[9][19]

The tallest actress Meyer ever cast in a lead was the 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in), slim hipped, huge breasted Lorna Maitland^[20] (working with whom he admitted he found intimidating).^[21][22] Nearly all the other women he featured were no taller than 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in).^[23] Tura Satana's performance as Varla in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was Meyer's only true portrayal of the large, strong and aggressive Amazonian archetype in the classic visual sense.^[23][24]

Female empowerment[link]

Film historian Jimmy McDonough posits that Russ Meyer's usage of physically and sexually overwhelming female characters places him in his own separate genre.^[11] He argues that despite portraying women as sex objects, Meyer nonetheless depicts them as more powerful than men and is therefore an inadvertent feminist filmmaker.

In many of Meyer's films women eventually defeat men, winning sexual fulfillment as their reward, e.g., Super Vixen (Supervixens), Margo Winchester (Up!) and Lavonia Shed (Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens).^[9] And even in the 1950s and '60s his films were sometimes centered on a woman's need and struggle for sexual satisfaction (Lorna, Good Morning and... Goodbye! and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens).^[9] Additionally, Russ Meyer's female characters were often allowed to express anger and violence towards men (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Supervixens).^[11]

Yet in his research, McDonough also notes that Meyer's female characters were limited in how powerful they could appear;^[25] often the female lead is raped (Up! and Lorna) or brutally murdered (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Supervixens, Lorna and Blacksnake). While Russ Meyer may have championed powerful woman characters, he also forced them into violent and terrifying situations, making them prove their physical and mental strength against tremendous odds.^[25] He also ensured that women's breasts were at least semi-exposed during these ordeals for comic or erotic effect.^[26] Furthermore, according to frequent collaborator and longtime lover Kitten Natividad, Meyer's love of dominant women extended to his personal life, and he was almost always in a tumultuous relationship.^[27][28]

Personal and family life[link]

It was in World War II that, according to Meyer, he found himself at a French brothel with Ernest Hemingway who, upon finding out that Meyer was a virgin, offered him the prostitute of his choice. Meyer picked the one with the largest breasts.^[10]

Despite his reputation as a Rabelaisian man, Russ Meyer never employed the casting couch and rarely slept with any of his actresses.^[10] He had no children though there were rumored unsuccessful pregnancies with his second wife Edy Williams and last serious girlfriend, Melissa Mounds, who was also found guilty of assaulting him in 1999. There is a long standing rumor among his closest friends and at least one biographer that he had a son in 1964 with a secret lover who he would refer to only as "Miss Mattress" or "Janet Buxton".^[29]

Meyer was very upfront throughout his life about being too selfish to be a father or even a caring partner, or husband. Yet he is also said to have been very generous with all his friends and acquaintances, and never isolated friends from one another. Biographers have attributed most of his brutish and eccentric nature to the fact that he was abandoned by his father, an Oakland police officer and overly coddled by his mother, Lydia, who was married six times. Meyer had a half sister, Lucinda, who was diagnosed in her twenties with paranoid schizophrenia and was committed to California State mental institutions until her death in 1999. Mental illness ran in his family and it was something he secretly feared. During his entire life Russ Meyer spoke with only the highest reverence for his mother and sister.^[10]

Meyer was married to:

• Betty Valdovinos (born 1922, divorced)
• Edy Williams (born July 9, 1942, divorced)
• Eve Meyer (December 13, 1928 - March 27, 1977, died)

Contrary to some accounts, Meyer was never married to Kitten Natividad, the star of his final two films.

Final years[link]

Meyer owned the rights to nearly all of his films and spent the majority of the 1980s and 1990s making millions reselling his films on the home video and DVD market. He worked out of the very same Los Angeles, California home he lived in and usually answered the phone to take orders himself. A major retrospective of his work was given at The British Film Institute (1983), the Chicago Film Festival honored him in 1985, and many revival movie houses booked his films for midnight movie marathons.

He also worked obsessively for over a decade on a massive three volume autobiography entitled A Clean Breast. Finally printed in 2000, it features numerous excerpts of reviews, clever details of each of his films and countless photos and erotic musings.

Starting in the mid-1990s Meyer had frequent fits and bouts of memory loss. By 2000 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and his health and well-being were thereafter looked after by Janice Cowart, his secretary and estate executor. That same year, with no wife or children to claim his wealth, Meyer willed that the majority of his money and estate would be sent to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in honor of his late mother.

Russ Meyer died at his home in the Hollywood Hills, of complications of pneumonia, on September 18, 2004.^[30] He was 82 years old. Meyer's grave is located at Stockton Rural Cemetery in San Joaquin County,^[31] Stockton. His headstone reads:

Fox Searchlight Pictures is currently negotiating the rights to create a biopic covering the early years of Meyer's career.^[32]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Frasier, David K. (1998). Russ Meyer: The Life and Films :A Biography and A Comprehensive, Illustrated, and Annotated Filmography and Bibliography. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0472-8. 
• Greene, Doyle (2004). Lips Hips Tits Power: The Films Of Russ Meyer. Persistence of Vision, Volume 4. New York, NY: Creation Books. ISBN 1-84068-095-4. 
• McDonough, Jimmy (2005). Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-07250-1. http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=226570. 
• Meyer, Russ (2000). A Clean Breast: The Life and Loves of Russ Meyer (3 volume set). (Under the pseudonym "Adolph Albion Schwartz"). El Rio, TX: Hauck Pub Co. ISBN 0-9621797-2-8. 
• Woods, Paul A. (2004). The Very Breast of Russ Meyer. London: Plexus Publishing. ISBN 0-85965-309-9. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Russ Meyer

• Russ Meyer at the Internet Movie Database
• Russ Meyer at Find a Grave
• Nathaniel Rich on Russ Meyer in the San Francisco Chronicle

v t e Films directed by Russ Meyer 1950s The French Peep Show (1950, short) The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959) 1960s The Naked Camera (1961, short) Erotica (1961, short) Eve & The Handyman (1961) Wild Gals of the Naked West (1962) Europe In The Raw (1963, short) Heavenly Bodies! (1963, short) Skyscapers & Brassieres (1963, short) Fanny Hill (1964) Lorna (1964) Mudhoney (1965) Motorpsycho (1965) Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) Mondo Topless (1966, mockumentary) Common Law Cabin (1967) Good Morning and... Goodbye! (1967) Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers! (1968) Vixen! (1968) Cherry, Harry & Raquel! (1969) 1970s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) The Seven Minutes (1971) Blacksnake (1972) Supervixens (1975) Up! (1976) Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979) 2000s Pandora Peaks (2001, mockumentary) other Who Killed Bambi? (1978, unfinished)

Breckin Meyer
Meyer at the 2011 Comic Con in San Diego
Born	Breckin Erin Meyer (1974-05-07) May 7, 1974 (age 38) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, writer, producer, drummer
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Deborah Kaplan (m. 2001–present; 1 child)

Breckin Erin Meyer^[1] (born May 7, 1974) is an American actor, writer, producer, and drummer.

Early life[link]

Meyer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Dorothy Ann (née Vial), a travel agent and former microbiologist, and Christopher William Meyer, a management consultant.^[2] He has lived in California, Texas, West Virginia, and New Jersey. He has an older brother, Frank, and a younger brother, Adam. Meyer attended elementary school with Drew Barrymore (and was apparently his first kiss)^[3] and also attended Beverly Hills High School.^[4] Through his elementary school, he came into contact with Barrymore's agent, who signed Meyer. As a child, he was mostly seen in television advertisements.

Career[link]

Meyer lent his presence to several roles as a druggie, starting with his debut in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), in which he was dispatched in a video game. His breakthrough screen role was in the teen hit Clueless (1995) as the skateboarding stoner. Meyer offered similar characterizations in The Craft and John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (both 1996). He played the best friend of an Olympic hopeful in the biopic Prefontaine (1997) and as a high-school student yearning to leave his hometown in Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998).

In 54 (also 1998), a look at life in the famous '70s nightspot Studio 54, the actor was cast as a busboy married to the coat check girl (Salma Hayek) and pursued by a bartender (Ryan Phillippe). Meyer is close friends with Phillippe, with whom he and Seth Green share a production company.

Meyer would subsequently appear in films including Go (1999) and The Insider (1999) before graduating to full-fledged leading roles in the DreamWorks hit Road Trip (2000), in which he again travels across country as a college student hoping desperately to retrieve a videotape of himself having sex with another girl, which was inadvertently mailed to his long-distance girlfriend. Road Trip marked the first indication that Meyer's well-developed slacker sidekick persona had matured and could be tweaked to make him a full-fledged star.

Meyer in February 2007

He was re-teamed with Amy Smart in yet-another racing cross country film, this time as part of the multi-plot ensemble of Rat Race (2001), a sort-of homage to the all-star screwball chase films of the 1960s, such as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Meyer put in a winning supporting turn as Meg Ryan's brother in the whimsical fantasy-comedy Kate & Leopold (2001). Meyer also took on the role of Jon, the hapless owner of the famed comic book cat in the film adaptation of Garfield (2004).

He also starred in Blue State with Anna Paquin in which he plays a passionately liberal guy on the campaign trail for John Kerry in the 2004 elections. He drunkenly pledges to move to Canada if Bush wins the election, and on his journey meets a mysterious young woman, played by Paquin. Meyer costars with Matthew McConaughey in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009). He also plays the rich antagonist in the music video "100 Little Curses" by Street Sweeper Social Club (2009).

Meyer was nominated for an Emmy for his writing on "Robot Chicken: Star Wars", and regularly does voice work on Robot Chicken. He also supplies the voice for the adolescent Joseph Gribble on the animated series King of the Hill. Meyer currently stars on the Adult Swim series Titan Maximum.

He's also a musician, playing drums in the punk band The Street Walkin' Cheetahs and with Tom Morello's The Nightwatchman, as well as Ben Harper, Cypress Hill, Slash and Perry Farrell at L.A.'s Hotel Café.

Meyer is the drummer for Tom Morello's alter ego The Nightwatchman's back-up band The Freedom Fighter Orchestra. Meyer toured with Morello on The Nightwatchman's 2008 Justice Tour. He also recently completed the thriller Stag Night.^[5] He also appears in Street Sweeper Social Club's video for "100 Little Curses" and "Promenade".

Personal life[link]

Meyer married screenwriter and film director Deborah Kaplan on October 14, 2001 and has one child with her, a daughter named Caitlin Willow, who was born December 31, 2003.^[6] His brother, Frank Meyer, is a staffer and producer of Fresh Ink Online at G4.com.^[7]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Breckin Meyer

• Breckin Meyer at the Internet Movie Database

Malcolm McDowell
McDowell at the 2007 Jules Verne Adventure Film Special Awards Presentation
Born	Malcolm John Taylor (1943-06-13) 13 June 1943 (age 69) Horsforth, Yorkshire, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1968–present
Spouse	Margot Bennett (1975–1980) Mary Steenburgen (1980–1990) Kelley Kuhr (1991–present)

Malcolm McDowell (born 13 June 1943) is an English actor, whose career spans more than four decades.

McDowell is known for his early roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange, and Caligula. Since then, his versatility as an actor has led to varied roles in films and television series of different genres, including Tank Girl, Star Trek Generations, the TV serial Our Friends in the North, Entourage, Heroes, Metalocalypse, the animated movie Bolt, the 2007 remake of Halloween and its sequel, and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness.^[1] He is also well known for his narration of the seminal 1982 documentary The Compleat Beatles.

Early life[link]

McDowell was born Malcolm John Taylor in Horsforth, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, now a part of the City of Leeds, the son of Edna (née McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican.^[2][3][4] His family later moved to Bridlington, since his father was in the Royal Air Force. McDowell trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).^[5]

Career[link]

McDowell began his professional life serving drinks in his parents' pub and then as a coffee salesman (the latter job providing inspiration for the movie O Lucky Man!). While enrolled in Cannock House School, he began taking acting classes, and eventually secured work as an extra with the Royal Shakespeare Company. McDowell made his screen debut as school rebel Mick Travis in If.... (1968) by British director Lindsay Anderson. This was followed by Figures in a Landscape (1970) and The Raging Moon (1971). His performance in If.... caught the attention of Stanley Kubrick, who cast McDowell as the lead in A Clockwork Orange, adapted from the novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess. He won great acclaim (nominated for a Golden Globe and an award by the New York Film Critics Circle in the category of Best Actor) as Alex, a young hoodlum brainwashed by a dystopian British government of the near future.

McDowell worked with Anderson again for O Lucky Man! (1973), which was based on his own idea, and Britannia Hospital (1982). McDowell regularly turned up on British television productions in the 1970s in adaptations of theatre classics, one example being with Laurence Olivier in The Collection (1976), as part of the series Laurence Olivier Presents. He starred in Aces High (1975) and co-starred in Voyage of the Damned (1976), and as Dornford Yates' gentleman hero Richard Chandos in She Fell Among Thieves (1977). He made his Hollywood debut as H. G. Wells in Time After Time (1979). He often portrayed antagonists in the late 1970s and 1980s, including the title character in Caligula (1979). He later remarked upon his career playing film villains: "I suppose I'm primarily known for that but in fact, that would only be half of my career if I was to tot it all up."^[6]

In his biography Anthony Burgess: A Life, author Roger Lewis commented on McDowell's later career; "his pretty-boy looks faded and he was condemned to playing villains in straight-to-video movies that turn up on Channel 5."^[7]

McDowell appeared in the 1983 action film Blue Thunder as F.E. Cochrane, and the 1982 remake of Cat People. In 1983, he starred in Get Crazy as Reggie Wanker, a parody of Mick Jagger. Also in 1983, McDowell starred as The Wolf (Reginald von Lupen) in Faerie Tale Theatre's rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood" (his wife at that time, Mary Steenburgen, played Little Red Riding Hood). In 1984, he narrated the documentary The Compleat Beatles. He is known in Star Trek circles as "the man who killed Captain Kirk"^{[citation needed]} in the 1994 film Star Trek Generations, in which he played the mad scientist Dr. Tolian Soran. McDowell appeared in several computer games, most notably as Admiral Tolwyn in the Wing Commander series of computer games. His appearance in Wing Commander III marked the series transition from 2D pre-rendered cutscenes to live-action cutscenes. His appearance in Wing Commander IV was during the final days of video game live action cutscenes.

In 1995, he co-starred with actress and artist Lori Petty in the action/science fiction/comedy film Tank Girl. Here, he played the villain Dr. Kesslee, the evil director of the global Water and Power Company, whose main goal in the story was to control the planet's entire water supply on a future desert-like, post-apocalyptic Earth.

McDowell appeared in a unique episode of the animated series South Park, which provided a comedic retelling of the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations. In the episode, McDowell played the real-life narrator of the story in live action, introducing himself simply as "a British person", in a parody of Masterpiece Theatre, and its ex-host, Alistair Cooke.^[8]

McDowell played himself in Robert Altman's The Player, in which he chastises protagonist Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) for badmouthing him behind his back. He worked with Altman once again in 2003 for The Company as "Mr. A.", the fictional director of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. His character was based on real-life director Gerald Arpino. In the 2003 film, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, he played a straight married man who rapes a young drug dealer to "teach him a lesson". The film also starred Clive Owen as the victim's older brother.

McDowell at "The Genius of Stanley Kubrick" at the 2006 Traverse City Film Festival.

In 2006, McDowell portrayed radio mogul Jonas Slaughter on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The following year he portrayed the villainous Mr. Linderman on the first season of the NBC series Heroes, a role he reprised in the third season premiere. He starred in Jerry Was a Man, which appeared as an episode of Masters of Science Fiction on Sky.^[9] He portrayed Terrence McQuewick on Entourage and Julian Hodge on Monk.

McDowell appeared as Dr. Sam Loomis in Rob Zombie's remakes of Halloween and Halloween II (in 2007 and 2009, respectively).^[10] He also played Desmond LaRochette in Robert Whitlow's The List, and Irish patriarch Enda Doyle in Red Roses and Petrol (2008).^[11] His next film is the Canadian vampire comedy rock and roll movie Suck with actor/director Rob Stefaniuk and the upcoming Alex Wright film Two Wolves.^[12] In December 2009, he made an appearance in the music video "Snuff" by the band Slipknot.^[13] He appears, uncredited, as Lombardi, the curator, in the 2010 film, The Book of Eli. McDowell portrayed Satan in the upcoming Christian comedy thriller film Suing the Devil.^[14]

McDowell is set to appear in the upcoming films Vamps and Silent Hill: Revelation 3D as Leonard Wolf, an insane cult leader.

In 2011 McwDowell was cast in the role of Stanton Infeld on the TNT original series Franklin & Bash.

Voice acting[link]

McDowell was the featured narrator in the documentary, The Compleat Beatles released in 1982.

Malcolm McDowell at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

McDowell has lent his voice to Lord Maliss in Happily Ever After, the Superman villain Metallo in Superman: The Animated Series, Mad Mod in Teen Titans, Merlyn in DC Showcase: Green Arrow, Arkady Duvall (son of Ra's Al Ghul) in Batman: The Animated Series and as the voice of a Death Star commander in a Robot Chicken episode parodying Star Wars. He is also a regular on the second season of the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse as Vater Orlaag and other characters. McDowell also voiced Dr. Calico in Disney's Bolt. McDowell also lent his voice to the henchman Reeses II in the animated series Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys, a show laced with references to many movies including his own break-out role in A Clockwork Orange. He also has a similar voice style to the voice of Zippy in the Children's Programme 'Rainbow'. Some may Disagree.

In 2006–07, he contributed spoken word to two Pink Floyd tribute albums produced by Billy Sherwood: Back Against the Wall, and Return to the Dark Side of the Moon. In 2008, McDowell began a recurring role as Grandpa Fletcher on Phineas and Ferb. He also narrated the award-winning documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars.

McDowell reprised his role of Metallo in the video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips and an episode of Justice League Unlimited. He also provided his voice for the character President John Henry Eden in the video game Fallout 3, Rupert Pelham in the game WET, King Solomon in the Word of Promise Audio Bible, and the CEO of Stahl Arms in Killzone 3, Jorhan Stahl.^[15] He also voiced Daedalus in God of War III.

McDowell portrays the role of "Caiaphas" in "The Truth & Life Dramatized audio New Testament Bible," a 22-hour, celebrity-voiced, fully dramatized audio New Testament which uses the RSV-CE translation.

McDowell is the host of "Fangoria's Dreadtime Stories", a monthly series of fully dramatised radio dramas with a mystery, horror, science fiction and dark humor theme. Written by top writers of today, including Dennis Etchison and Max Allan Collins, these stories are creepy, cutting edge and not for the faint of heart. The series is produced by Carl Amari, who also produces The Twilight Zone radio dramas. The executive producer is Thomas DeFeo (CEO of Fangoria magazine) with Chris Roe as the associate producer. Original music for each episode is by Chris Alexander, an established composer and Fangoria editor-in-chief. Each month, a new episode is available for free streaming worldwide at Fangoria's website www.fangoria.com. All episodes, current and past, are available for digital download. The radio drama scripts, which are used by McDowell and the supporting actors, are also available to print in PDF at the Fangoria website for free.

Personal life[link]

McDowell's first wife (1975–80) was extra Margot Bennett. His second wife (1980-90) was actress Mary Steenburgen, whom he met and fell in love with while filming Time After Time, with whom he has two children: Lily Amanda (b. 21 January 1981) and Charles Malcolm (b. 10 July 1983). They divorced in 1990. His third wife (1991-present) is Kelley Kuhr, 24 years his junior, with whom he has three children: Beckett Taylor (b. 29 January 2004), Finnian Anderson (b. 23 December 2006), and Seamus Hudson (born 7 January 2009). He is the maternal uncle of actor Alexander Siddig, who has appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Kingdom of Heaven, Syriana, 24, and the fourth season of the BBC series Primeval. He and his nephew both appeared in the movie Doomsday by director Neil Marshall. The McDowells currently reside in Ojai, California.

He became a grandfather in January 2012 when daughter Lilly McDowell Walton gave birth to a girl, Clementine Mae.

Filmography, Voice-overs and TV work[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Malcolm McDowell

References[link]

External links[link]

• Malcolm McDowell at the Internet Movie Database
• Malcolm McDowell at AllRovi
• Malcolm McDowell at TV Tropes
• Malcolm McDowell at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Malcolm McDowell at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• N.P. Thompson's interview with Malcolm McDowell for Slant/The House Next Door
• An in-depth interview with Malcolm McDowell covering his entire career from HoboTrashcan.com
• Interactive video talk by McDowell on the British "Free Cinema" movement of the 50s, made for the British Film Institute
• "What if..." – The Guardian, 24 April 2004. In-depth profile and interview.
• "O Lucky Man! Malcolm McDowell's journey from coffee salesman to movie star" – The Times, 17 May 2008
• "Audiobook read by Malcolm McDowell" – The Bobbything, 2010