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IMDbPro

John Sayles(I)

  • Writer
  • Actor
  • Director
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
John Sayles at an event for Casa de los babys (2003)
Trailer for The Howling
Play trailer1:29
The Howling (1981)
5 Videos
18 Photos
A bright child, John Sayles began reading novels before age 9. A Williams grad in 1972, he shunned a corporate career to work various blue-collar jobs, moving to east Boston to take a factory job. He wrote stories and submitted them to various magazines, and the Atlantic Monthly gave him the idea of publishing them in a novel--thus "Pride of the Bimbos" (1975) was born.

In the late 1970s he worked for renowned low-budget producer Roger Corman as a screenwriter. He saved much of the money he earned from that job, got some friends together and made Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) in 25 days. Altough it was a hit, he had trouble obtaining financing for the films he wanted to make because he would not give up his right of final cut. Baby It's You (1983) was Sayles' only film made under studio control.

In 1983 the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship granted him a tax-free income of $32,000 a year for 5 years. That stipend and money he earned for writing such films as The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983) and Breaking In (1989) enabled him to make the kinds of films he wanted to make. Lone Star (1996) placed Sayles in the ranks of top American filmmakers. In it and his other films, a broadly appealing social consciousness emerges, showing Sayles to be concerned with what's going on with regional cultures, national values and what living in the US is like today.

Sayles and Maggie Renzi, whom he met during college, have lived together since the 1970s, splitting their time between a Hoboken, NJ, house and a farm in upstate New York. They have no plans to marry.
BornSeptember 28, 1950
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornSeptember 28, 1950
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Nominated for 2 Oscars

Photos18

John Sayles in Eight Men Out (1988)
John Sayles in Amigo (2010)
John Sayles, John Mahoney, and Studs Terkel in Eight Men Out (1988)
John Goodman, John Sayles, Simon Fenton, and Dick Miller in Matinee (1993)
John Goodman, John Sayles, and Dick Miller in Matinee (1993)
John Sayles in Honeydripper (2007)
John Sayles in Men with Guns (1997)
John Sayles
John Sayles in The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
John Sayles in Silver City (2004)
John Sayles and Haskell Wexler in Silver City (2004)
Director John Sayles & crew

Known for

Lone Star (1996)
Lone Star
7.4
  • Writer
  • 1996
Eight Men Out (1988)
Eight Men Out
7.2
  • Writer
  • 1988
Joe Morton in The Brother from Another Planet (1984)
The Brother from Another Planet
6.8
  • Writer
  • 1984
Men with Guns (1997)
Men with Guns
7.6
  • Writer
  • 1997

Credits

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IMDbPro

Writer

  • The Gray House
    • Pre-production
  • Django Lives!
    • In Production
  • Sonora, the Devil's Highway (2018)
    Sonora, the Devil's Highway
  • Daniel Brühl, Dakota Fanning, and Luke Evans in The Alienist (2018)
    The Alienist
  • Dr. Del
  • Go for Sisters (2013)
    Go for Sisters
  • Amigo (2010)
    Amigo
  • Freddie Highmore in The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
    The Spiderwick Chronicles
  • Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, and LisaGay Hamilton in Honeydripper (2007)
    Honeydripper
  • Chris Cooper in Silver City (2004)
    Silver City
  • Casa de los babys (2003)
    Casa de los babys
  • Sunshine State (2002)
    Sunshine State
  • Limbo (1999)
    Limbo
  • Men with Guns (1997)
    Men with Guns
  • Lone Star (1996)
    Lone Star
  • Piranha (1995)
    Piranha
  • Dolph Lundgren, Tom Lister Jr., Catherine Bell, Tony Denison, Tim Guinee, Don Harvey, and Tom Wright in Men of War (1994)
    Men of War

Actor

  • Cedric Burnside in Texas Red (2021)
    Texas Red
    • (voice)
  • The Normals (2012)
    The Normals
  • Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman in In the Electric Mist (2009)
    In the Electric Mist
  • Lily Rabe in The Toe Tactic (2008)
    The Toe Tactic
  • Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, and LisaGay Hamilton in Honeydripper (2007)
    Honeydripper
  • Scene by Scene (1996)
    Scene by Scene
  • Sunshine State (2002)
    Sunshine State
    • (uncredited)
  • Girlfight (2000)
    Girlfight
  • Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur in Gridlock'd (1997)
    Gridlock'd
  • My Life's in Turnaround (1993)
    My Life's in Turnaround
  • John Goodman in Matinee (1993)
    Matinee
  • Denzel Washington in Malcolm X (1992)
    Malcolm X
  • Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard in Passion Fish (1992)
    Passion Fish
    • (uncredited)
  • Dolly Parton in Straight Talk (1992)
    Straight Talk
  • Joe Howard and Beverly Leech in Mathnet (1987)
    Mathnet

Director

  • Go for Sisters (2013)
    Go for Sisters
  • Amigo (2010)
    Amigo
  • Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, and LisaGay Hamilton in Honeydripper (2007)
    Honeydripper
  • Chris Cooper in Silver City (2004)
    Silver City
  • Casa de los babys (2003)
    Casa de los babys
  • Sunshine State (2002)
    Sunshine State
  • Bruce Springsteen in Bruce Springsteen: Murder Incorporated (1995)
    Bruce Springsteen: The Complete Video Anthology 1978-2000
    • (videos Born in the U.S.A., I'm on Fire, Glory Days)
  • Limbo (1999)
    Limbo
  • Men with Guns (1997)
    Men with Guns
    • (directed by)
  • Lone Star (1996)
    Lone Star
    • (directed by)
  • The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
    The Secret of Roan Inish
    • (directed by)
  • Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard in Passion Fish (1992)
    Passion Fish
    • (directed by)
  • City of Hope (1991)
    City of Hope
    • (directed by)
  • Shannon's Deal (1990)
    Shannon's Deal
  • Bruce Springsteen: Video Anthology 1978-1988 (1989)
    Bruce Springsteen: Video Anthology 1978-1988
    • (videos Born in the USA, Glory Days, I'm on Fire)
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos5

Baby Feet
Clip 2:09
Baby Feet
Long Night
Clip 1:13
Long Night
The Howling
Clip 3:21
The Howling
Piranha: Roger Corman's Cult Classics
Trailer 0:17
Piranha: Roger Corman's Cult Classics
The Howling
Trailer 1:29
The Howling

Personal details

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  • Official sites
    • Official Site
    • ThFacebook
    • September 28, 1950
    • Schenectady, New York, USA
  • Other works
    Novel: "Pride of the Bimbos"
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Print Biographies
    • 9 Interviews
    • 16 Articles
    • 1 Pictorial
    • 2 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Did uncredited rewrites for Apollo 13 (1995) and Mimic (1997).
  • Quotes
    [on making Baby It's You (1983)] I got the cut I wanted, but I was thrown out of the editing room.
    • Frequently casts Mary McDonnell, Chris Cooper, Angela Bassett, Tom Wright, Gordon Clapp, Joe Morton, Vincent Spano and David Strathairn.
    • Piranha
      (1978)
      $10,000

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