Biography for
Valerie Solanas More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

9 April 1936, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Date of Death

25 April 1988, San Francisco, California, USA (pneumonia)

Birth Name

Valerie Jean Solanas

Mini Biography

Valerie Solanas, born in 1936, had a childhood of abuse. While taking Biology at the University of Maryland in 1957, she studied human chromosomes (there are 23 pairs). She noticed the male sex chromosomes are XY, and the female are XX. Since the Y chromosome is like the X, but with a part missing, males are more susceptible to deficiencies like baldness, hemophilia, and colorblindness. Solanas determined males are just plain genetically inferior. She would write her SCUM Manifesto, in which she blamed men for everything that is wrong in the world, including war. Since the Vietnam war was raging in the 1960s, she got some followers. She panhandled in New York City around 1966-1968, living in a $25 a week room. A voracious writer, she felt she had been ripped off by publisher named Maurice, when she sold him the rights to her work "Scum Manifesto." She also felt Andy Warhol ripped her off, because he took her script for a play she'd written, but he never produced it. On June 3, 1968, Solanas shot Andy Warhol, earning herself a place in history. Andy recovered; Solanas spent 3 years in an Institute for the Criminally Insane. After being released in 1971, Solanas would never achieve such fame again. The rest of her life, she had some followers, but lived comparatively low profile. She died in relative obscurity in San Francisco in 1988.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Trivia

Founder of "SCUM" (Society for Cutting Up Men)

Sentenced to New York's Matteawan State Hospital for shooting Andy Warhol. After being released, she was often homeless.

Died of pneumonia in a welfare hotel.

Valerie, released on bail after shooting Andy Warhol, called the Factory (Warhol's studio) on Christmas Day in 1968. Andy answered the phone. She wished him a Merry Christmas and threatened to shoot him again if he didn't meet her demands which include her appearance on the Johnny Carson show, publication of the SCUM Manifesto in the Daily News and $25,000 in cash. She was locked away again, with her bail raised to $50,000 and then to $100,000. She was declared incompetent to stand trial and later pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and was sentenced to three years, one of which she had already served while awaiting trial.

She was released on September 1971 from the New York State Prison for Women at Bedford Hills; but was arrested again November 1971 for threatening letters and calls to various people, including Andy Warhol. In 1973 she was in and out of mental institutions; and spent eight months in South Florida State Hospital in 1975.

She was buried in Virginia, near the home of her mother.

She was interviewed on Alan Burke's TV talk show; when she refused to censor herself, he walked off the set. The interview was never aired.

She stated that she had shot Andy Warhol and in way of explanation offered, "He had too much control of my life."

Is portrayed by Lili Taylor in I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)

Personal Quotes

"War: The male... proves to the entire world that he's a 'Man'. Since he has no compassion or ability to empathize or identify, proving his manhood is worth an endless amount of... suffering and an endless number of lives, including his own." -- from the "SCUM Manifesto," an 8-1/2 x 11, stapled, mimeographed pamphlet she sold for 50 cents in 1966.

I just wanted him to pay attention to me. Talking to him was like talking to a chair. [on why she shot Andy Warhol]

{On the men who were interested in SCUM manifesto] "Creeps. Masochists. Probably would love me to spit on them. I wouldn't give them the pleasure.... The men want to kiss my feet and all that crap."

Salary

I, a Man (1967)	$25
Bike Boy (1967)	$25