Biography for
John Sayles More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Height

Mini Biography

A bright child, he began reading novels before age 9. A Williams grad, in 1972, he shunned a corporate career to work various blue-collar jobs. Goes to East Boston to take a factory job. Wrotes stories submitted to magazines for publication. "Atlantic Monthly" replies with idea of making one into a novel -- "Pride of the Bimbos" is published 1975.

In the late 70s, worked for Roger Corman as screenwriter. Took part of writing wages, hired friends, and shot Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) in 25 days. Then he had trouble financing films because he wouldn't trade right of final cut for funding. _Baby, It's You (1983)_ was Sayles's only film made under studio control. Tax-free income of $32,000/year for 5 years started 1983 from MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Stipend and money that came from writing scripts such as The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983), and Breaking In (1989), were put into the films he wrote, directed, and edited. Sayles still backs his own work with script rewrite fees.

Lone Star (1996), places Sayles with top American filmmakers. In it and his other films, a broadly appealing social consciousness emerges, proving Sayles to be one concerned with what's going on with regional cultures, national values, and with what living in USA is like today. Sayles and Maggie Renzi, whom he met during college, have lived together since 1970s, splitting their time between a Hoboken, NJ, house and a farm in upstate New York. They have no plans to marry.

Trade Mark

Frequently casts Chris Cooper, Joe Morton, Vincent Spano, and David Strathairn.

Trivia

Drafted in 1968, but rejected by US Army because of missing vertebra.

His films are often more based on character than plot.

Speaks fluent Spanish

Was classmates at Williams College with actor David Strathairn, whom Sayles regularly casts in his films.

Did uncredited rewrites for Apollo 13 and Mimic

While staying in Greenville, Alabama, during the Honeydripper (2007) shoot, Maggie Renzi and Sayles called in a contribution during the fund drive for the National Public Radio affiliate WUAL-FM in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

His hometown of Schenectady, New York, named the John Sayles School of Fine Arts, a house in the high school, after him.

In the 2008 Empire Magazine movie poll, Sayles listed his ten favorite films as: Yojimbo (1961), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), Two Women (1960), The Organizer (1963), The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), Seven Samurai (1954), Sawdust and Tinsel (1953), Raging Bull (1980), The Wages of Fear (1953), Port of Shadows (1938).

Personal Quotes

[on making Baby It's You (1983)] I got the cut I wanted, but I was thrown out of the editing room.

Oh, I've always felt like I was on the margins. Once upon a time that's what independent used to mean.

I always feel that there are no final victories and no final defeats. But it's true that America is in a hole right now. There are a lot of dead fish in the water.

I want to direct films that no one else is going to make. I know if I don't make them, I'm never going to see them. Of course, I hope some people will want to see my movies as well, but I won't pander to the public. I won't try to second guess what a Hollywood studio would like to see in a low-budget film, so that they will hire me the next time around. I know I will always do better work if I do projects in which I really believe. And if I never get to direct again, I will have made some movies I can feel proud of.

Being a screenwriter is a good job. I can make a good amount of money to put back into my own films.

Salary

Where Are They Now

(September 2006) In Greenville, Alabama, with partner Maggie Renzi, filming Honeydripper (starring Danny Glover)

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