William S. BurroughsFilmography

Born:: February 5, 1914 in St. Louis, MO
Occupation:: Actor
Birth name:: William Seward Burroughs
Biography:: Next to Jack Kerouac, poet Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William S. Burroughs was among the primary voices of the Beat Generation and his books have earned him an enduring cult following. His most famous book, Naked Lunch, became the basis of a disturbing David Cronenberg film in...Read More

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Chelsea on the Rocks

Synopsis: The Chelsea Hotel has long been considered the creative epicenter of New York City, a sort of unofficial gathering point for the most renowned artists and entertainers that the city has to offer. But while the Chelsea Hotel was once considered an impenetrable, untouchable monument to the creative Read More

10/2/09
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg

Actors: Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Ken Kesey, Norman Mailer, Dr. Timothy Leary

Synopsis: In 1955, poet Allen Ginsberg summed up the greatest fears of his generation in a landmark poem appropriately titled "Howl." As a result of that defining piece of prose, Ginsberg would become an icon of the Beat Generation. Inspired by Ginsberg's powerful personality and captivating charisma as a Read More

8/20/04
Sleep in a Nest of Flames

Actors: James Dowell, Charles Henry Ford, Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Mary Lynn Broe

Synopsis: This is a documentary chronicling the life of Charles Henri Ford (now in his nineties and still as alert as ever), a pivotal figure in the European and American avant-garde scene from the late '20s through the present. Born to a Southern family that owned a hotel and included sister Ruth Ford, an Read More

2001
Condo Painting

Actors: George Condo, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg

Synopsis: In this documentary, director John McNaughton, famous (or infamous) for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990), draws an intimate portrait of the painter George Condo, a friend of William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Born in 1957, Condo has been called the high priest of "artificial realism," Read More

3/10/00
Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles

Synopsis: Expatriate American writer Paul Bowles came to the limelight with an adaptation to screen by Bernardo Bertolucci of his first novel The Sheltering Sky. Subsequently, ambitious documentarists from several countries went down to Tangiers, Morocco where Bowles has been living for more than 50 years Read More

4/28/99
Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles

Actors: Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs

Synopsis: More commonly known as the expatriate author of The Sheltering Sky, Paul Bowles actually first made his mark on the world as a composer. This documentary sets out to rediscover this forgotten master of 1930s American music. Shot in New York, Paris, and Tangiers, the film details his studies with Aaron Copland Read More

1999
September Songs: The Music of Kurt Weill

Actors: Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Betty Carter

Synopsis: This Canadian documentary profiles the work of German music-theater icon Kurt Weill, who created such enduring shows as Threepenny Opera. Most of the film offers various performers singing or reciting his songs. Among those appearing are jazz diva Betty Carter, the Brodsky String Quartet, Elvis Costello Read More

1995
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Actors: Uma Thurman, John Hurt, Rain Phoenix, Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, Lorraine Bracco

Synopsis: Writer/director Gus Van Sant's early bid for big-time commercial success -- a success he didn't manage to achieve until Good Will Hunting -- is based on Tom Robbins' 1976 feminist bestseller. Uma Thurman plays Sissy Hankshaw, a woman born with very large thumbs. After her parents (Grace Zabriskie Read More

1994
On the Road with Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats

Synopsis: Jack Kerouac penned such books as On the Road and The Dharma Bums, which captured the essence of the bohemian life that he came to personify. This documentary follows him on the road from the life of a beatnik in New York City, and across the country to California, as he set out to find America Read More

1994
Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees

Actors: William S. Burroughs

Synopsis: David Blair's Wax: Or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees is the first independent feature film to have been edited on a digital non-linear system. It is also the first film (independent or otherwise) to have been re-formatted as hypertext and posted on the Internet. The New Read More

1992
Naked Lunch

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider

Synopsis: This cinematic/literary hybrid fuses motifs from Beat writer William S. Burroughs's novel of the same name with elements of the author's biography and plenty of the cerebral alienation and biomorphic special effects fans of creepy cult director David Cronenberg have come to expect. Bill Lee (Peter Read More

12/27/91
Bloodhounds of Broadway

Actors: Julie Hagerty, Randy Quaid, Madonna, Jennifer Grey, Esai Morales, Ethan Phillips, Rutger Hauer, Matt Dillon, Anita Morris

Synopsis: Produced for theatrical released by PBS' American Playhouse, Bloodhounds of Broadway is not exactly a remake of the 1952 film of the same name, though both pictures use the same Damon Runyon stories as inspiration. The scene is Broadway: the time is New Year's Eve, 1928. Madonna plays small town Read More

11/3/89
Drugstore Cowboy

Actors: Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James LeGros, Heather Graham, James Remar

Synopsis: The operative word in Drugstore Cowboy is "drug". Matt Dillon plays the leader of a group of dopeheads who wander around the country robbing pharmacies to feed their habits. Dillon's chums include doltish James Le Gros and teen-age junkie Heather Graham; also along for the ride is Dillon's wife Kelly Lynch Read More

10/6/89
Heavy Petting

Actors: David Byrne, Sandra Bernhard, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs

Synopsis: Those of us who had to suffer such "instructional" films as Dating Do's and Don'ts in high school will be especially entertained by Heavy Petting. In the visually sarcastic manner of the nuclear-age documentary The Atomic Cafe, the film assembles masses of information and misinformation about Read More

9/22/89
Twister

Actors: Harry Dean Stanton, Suzy Amis, Crispin Glover, Dylan McDermott, Jenny Wright

Synopsis: Don't mistake this movie for the stormy special-effects blockbuster of the same name; the two films are light years apart. Based on Mary Robison's novel Oh!, this Twister was the quirky first feature from screenwriter/director Michael Almereyda (Nadja, The Eternal) about an eccentric Read More

6/30/89
Gang of Souls

Actors: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell

Synopsis: This documentary by filmmaker Maria Beatty explores the lives, careers, and creative inspirations of the beat poets, forging insight into the minds of such artists as Gregory Corso, Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell, Allen Ginsberg, Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Read More

1989
The Beat Generation: An American Dream

Actors: David Amram, Amiri Baraka, William S. Burroughs

Synopsis: In the U.S., in the 1950s, contemporary jazz was becoming more and more esoteric, and a small group of writers, poets and musicians who were hip to that beat were exploring the cracks in the American dream. Meanwhile, the Cold War and insistently cheerful and upbeat attitudes were being promoted Read More

1987
What Happened to Kerouac?

Actors: Steve Allen, William S. Burroughs

Synopsis: This biographical documentary tackles the legend of Jack Kerouac, one of the foremost writers of the Beat Generation. Kerouac started a beat that goes on; he's still a major influence in contemporary literature and poetry. The author first broke into prominence with his famous Read More

5/23/86
Home of the Brave

Actors: Laurie Anderson, Joy Askew, Adrian Belew, Richard Landry, Dolette McDonald

Synopsis: Famed performance artist Laurie Anderson both directed and starred in the 90-minute concert film Home of the Brave. While the film refuses to "explain" Anderson to those unfamiliar with her work, it serves as a valuable primer, encouraging the uninitiated to do their own further research. Read More

4/25/86
William S. Burroughs: Commissioner of Sewers

Synopsis: This film looks at the life and works of counter culture literary icon William S. Burroughs. Burroughs became a hero to the Beat Generation and its spiritual descendants down to the present day. He is best known for his book, The Naked Lunch, which chronicles his life as an addict. His style of Read More

1986
It Don't Pay to Be an Honest Citizen

Actors: Reed Bye, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Mary Tepper

Synopsis: The comedy and thrills are a little anemic in this movie based on a real-life experience of director Jacob Burckhardt. Warren (Reed Bye) is accosted in Brooklyn one evening by rather unusual muggers -- they steal his can of film (this movie's first version?). Warren is alone in his anxiety over Read More

1985
Decoder

Synopsis: German sci-fi film about a futuristic society influenced by "muzak." Featuring William S. Burroughs and music by Dave Ball, John Caffery and Alexander van Borsig, Matt Johnson, Bill Rice and many others. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1984
Kerouac

Actors: Jack Coulter

Synopsis: In this romantic, sentimental homage to America's well-known Beat writer Jack Kerouac, director John Antonelli combines readings from Kerouac's works, footage of the writer with figures such as Steve Allen and William Buckley, views of his home and favorite locales, commentary by fellow writers Read More

1984
Burroughs

Actors: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg

Synopsis: This biographical documentary on author and eccentric William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), founder of the Beat Generation literary movement along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, is roughly divided into two segments. The first part has some witty scenes as the camera follows the author around Read More

1983
Taking Tiger Mountain

Crew: Short Story Author

Synopsis: This speculative sci-fi drama is set in a post WW III world. The story centers on a militant band of women who brainwash and change the gender of a young man and send "it" to Wales to kill the leader of a gang of white slavers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1983
Poetry in Motion

Actors: Jim Carroll, Charles Bukowski, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman

Synopsis: Director Ron Mann has put together readings by 24 different poets (after filming a total of 60 writers reciting their works), and then has poet and author Charles Bukowski verbalize "everyman's" criticisms of poetry: it is boring, irrelevant, self-indulgent, and does not make much sense. Then he Read More

1982
Fried Shoes, Cooked Diamonds

Synopsis: After World War II there was a group of young men -- writers primarily -- who were disillusioned by the pursuit of the American dream. These men and other artists, associated through mutual friendships, were looking for new ways and means to express themselves and their ideals. Soon their writings Read More

1982
It's Clean, It Just Looks Dirty

Synopsis: This delightful performance video features works by conductor/composer Philip Glass, musician David Byrne, and filmmaker John Waters. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1980
William S. Burroughs

Actors: William S. Burroughs

1977
The Discipline of D.E.

Crew: Short Story Author

1977
Underground and Emigrants

Actors: William S. Burroughs, Charles Ludlam

Synopsis: In this film, outspokenly homosexual filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim has documented his encounters with friends in the New York "underground" arts movement, the better-known of whom are William Burroughs (who says nothing for the camera), Andy Warhol (seen in the distance) and Fernando Arrabal (who Read More

1976
Towers Open Fire and Other Films

1972
Prologue

Actors: John Robb, Elaine Malus, Gary Rader, Christopher Cordeaux

Synopsis: Produced on behalf of the National Film Board of Canada, Prologue is a story of the youth-rebellion movement of 1968. The film concentrates on Jesse (John Robb), who wanders the streets of Montreal selling underground newspapers. Despite the influence of his passive, drug-using roomie David (Gary Rader Read More

1969
Chappaqua

Actors: Conrad Rooks, Jean-Louis Barrault, William S. Burroughs, Paula Pritchett, Allen Ginsberg

Synopsis: The bizarre hallucinations of a heroin addict in withdrawal provide the basis for this unstructured, autobiographical film by director Conrad Rooks. It begins as he arrives strung-out in Paris for a sleep-cure. As the strange visions begin, the story jumps haphazardly between reality and his Read More

1966
Häxan

Actors: Benjamin Christensen, Clara Pontoppidan, Oscar Stribolt, Astrid Holm, Maren Pedersen

Synopsis: Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen's obsession with bizarre lighting effects reached its apotheosis with his 1922 masterpiece Häxan. Beginning in a deceptively sedate fashion with a series of woodcuts and engravings (a technique later adopted by RKO producer Val Lewton), the film then shifts Read More

1922