Russ Meyer - Personal and Family Life

Personal and Family Life

It was in World War II that, according to Meyer, he found himself at a French brothel with Ernest Hemingway who, upon finding out that Meyer was a virgin, offered him the prostitute of his choice. Meyer picked the one with the largest breasts.

Despite his reputation as a Rabelaisian man, Russ Meyer never employed the casting couch and rarely slept with any of his actresses. He had no children though there were rumored unsuccessful pregnancies with his second wife Edy Williams and last serious girlfriend, Melissa Mounds, who was also found guilty of assaulting him in 1999. There is a long standing rumor among his closest friends and at least one biographer that he had a son in 1964 with a secret lover who he would refer to only as "Miss Mattress" or "Janet Buxton".

Meyer was very upfront throughout his life about being too selfish to be a father or even a caring partner, or husband. Yet he is also said to have been very generous with all his friends and acquaintances, and never isolated friends from one another. Biographers have attributed most of his brutish and eccentric nature to the fact that he was abandoned by his father, an Oakland police officer and overly coddled by his mother, Lydia, who was married six times. Meyer had a half sister, Lucinda, who was diagnosed in her twenties with paranoid schizophrenia and was committed to California State mental institutions until her death in 1999. Mental illness ran in his family and it was something he secretly feared. During his entire life Russ Meyer spoke with only the highest reverence for his mother and sister.

Meyer was married to:

  • Betty Valdovinos (born 1922, divorced)
  • Edy Williams (born July 9, 1942, divorced)
  • Eve Meyer (December 13, 1928 - March 27, 1977, died)

Contrary to some accounts, Meyer was never married to Kitten Natividad, his longtime companion and the star of his final two films.

Read more about this topic:  Russ Meyer

Famous quotes containing the words personal and, personal, family and/or life:

    Women’s childhood relationships with their fathers are important to them all their lives. Regardless of age or status, women who seem clearest about their goals and most satisfied with their lives and personal and family relationships usually remember that their fathers enjoyed them and were actively interested in their development.
    Stella Chess (20th century)

    ... it is a rather curious thing to have to divide one’s life into personal and official compartments and temporarily put the personal side into its hidden compartment to be taken out again when one’s official duties are at an end.
    Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)

    The family is constantly changing, as each member changes. Some changes we recognize as developments, and the pleasure they bring usually makes us more adaptable. Some changes threaten, or disappoint other members, who may try to resist the change, or punish someone for changing.
    Terri Apter (20th century)

    The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable; of a bad one, to make it less valuable.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)