Edith Massey

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2011) Edith Massey , Archival footage of Edith Massey in Steve Yeager's 1998 documentary Divine Trash Born (1918-05-28)May 28, 1918, San Francisco, California Died October 24, 1984(1984-10-24) (aged 66), Los Angeles, California Years active 1970-1984 Edith Massey (May 28, 1918 - October 24, 1984) was an American actress and singer. Massey was best known for her appearances in a series of movies by director John Waters. Due to her work with Waters, she is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ensemble of regular cast and crew members. Early lifeedit: Massey was raised in an orphanage until she was sent out to be a maid at the age of fifteen. She was placed in a reformatory for running away. In 1946 Massey married a soldier Silvio Gigante in Reno, leaving him about five years later because she got "restless". She worked in several odd jobs through the years, and she eventually relocated to Baltimore, Maryland where she worked as a barmaid at Pete's Hotel. John Waters met Massey while she was working at Pete's Hotel and offered her a role as herself in the film Multiple Maniacs. In the early 1970s, she quit her job at Pete's and opened a thrift store called Edith's Shopping Bag, which was originally located on Preston Street in the Mount Vernon neighborhood, but soon relocated to 726 South Broadway in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. Collaboration with John Watersedit: Massey gained a cult following from her appearances in five films directed by John Waters: Multiple Maniacs (1970), in which she appeared as herself and, in a dream sequence, as the Virgin Mary; Pink Flamingos (1972), playing Divine's egg-loving mother, Edie; Female Trouble (1974), as Aunt Ida; Desperate Living (1977), as the evil Queen Carlotta of Mortville; and in her final role in a Waters film, Polyester (1981), as Cuddles Kovinsky. Later career and deathedit: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Massey capitalized on the infamy of Waters' films by touring as the lead singer of a punk band, Edie and the Eggs. She also posed for a series of greeting cards. Later, when the Baltimore winters became too much for her to endure, she moved to Venice, California, where she opened another thrift store with the money she earned from acting in Waters' films. In 1981, she was featured in John Mellencamp's music video for "This Time". The year she died, Edith starred in the film Mutants in Paradise. She read for a role in Paul Bartel's Western parody Lust in the Dust opposite longtime co-star Divine, but the producers were looking for an actress with a different nuance and Edith was also in poor health so actress Nedra Volz was cast instead. Massey died in 1984 due to cancer and complications from diabetes. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, where other culturally prominent individuals such as Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin have also been buried. Other media about Edith Masseyedit: Director Robert Maier made a documentary short about her in 1975 titled Love Letter to Edie. There is a director's authorized version re-mastered from his original 16mm color film footage., Edith appeared in John Cougar Mellencamp's music video "This Time", as his true love after a string of beautiful floozies. She was on the album cover of his 1980 album Nothin' Matters and What If It Did., A sample of Edith Massey's voice as "Aunt Ida" from the film Female Trouble appears in the track "The Days of Swine and Roses", on the album Confessions of a Knife by the band, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult., Dialogue from Female Trouble between Edith Massey's "Aunt Ida" character and Micheal Potter's "Gator", in which Aunt Ida tries to convince Gator to become a homosexual, was used as the intro to the 1989 song "I Don't Wanna Be a Homosexual" by the band Sloppy Seconds., Filmographyedit: Multiple Maniacs (1970) as Bar Proprietor, Pink Flamingos (1972) as Edie, "The Egg Lady", Female Trouble (1974) as Aunt Ida, Desperate Living (1977) as Queen Carlotta, Polyester (1981) as Cuddles Kovinsky, Love Letter to Edie (1975) (as herself), Edith's Shopping Bag (1976) (as herself), Mutants in Paradise (1984) as Dr. Durchfall, Divine Waters (1985) (Documentary) (as herself), In Bad Taste (2000) (Documentary) (as herself) Archive Footage

Source: Wikipedia

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