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{{short description|American musician, painter and actor}}
{{BLP sources|date=February 2011}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}
'''John Lurie''' (born December 14, 1952) is an American actor, musician, painter and producer.
{{Infobox person
| name = John Lurie
| image = JohnLurie RayHenders.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Lurie in 2013
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1952|12|14}}
| birth_place = [[Minneapolis]], Minnesota, U.S.
| education =
| alma_mater =
| occupation = {{Hlist|Actor|musician|painter|television producer}}
| years_active = 1978–present
| known_for = [[The Lounge Lizards]]
| notable_works =
| television = ''[[Painting with John]]'', ''[[Fishing with John]]'', ''[[Oz (TV series)|Oz]]''
| spouse =
| children =
| relatives = [[Evan Lurie]] (brother)
| awards =
| website = {{URL|www.johnlurieart.com}}
}}


'''John Lurie''' (born December 14, 1952) is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded [[the Lounge Lizards]] jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, including ''[[Stranger than Paradise]]'' and ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]''; has composed and performed music for 20 television and film works; and he produced, directed, and starred in the ''[[Fishing with John]]'' television series. In 1996 his soundtrack for ''[[Get Shorty (film)|Get Shorty]]'' was nominated for a [[Grammy Award]], and his album ''The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits'' has been praised by critics and fellow musicians.<ref>[[Painting with John#cite note-order-1]]</ref>
==Biography==
Lurie was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, moved to New Orleans at the age of 6, then moved to Worcester, Massachusetts.


Since 2000, he has suffered from symptoms attributed to [[Lyme disease controversy|chronic Lyme disease]] and has focused his attention on painting.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.johnlurieart.com/ |title=John Lurie Art |access-date=January 23, 2013}}</ref> His art has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. His [[primitivist]] painting ''[[Bear Surprise]]'' became an [[internet meme]] in Russia in 2006. His television series, ''[[Painting with John]]'', debuted on [[HBO]] in January 2021 and ran for three seasons before being cancelled.<ref>{{cite web |title='Painting with John' is HBO at its arty, unpredictable best |date=2021-01-29 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727155310/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-01-29/painting-with-john-review-john-lurie-hbo |archive-date=2023-07-27 |url-status=live |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-01-29/painting-with-john-review-john-lurie-hbo}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Otterson |first=Joe |date=2023-08-16 |title='Painting With John' Canceled After Three Seasons at HBO |url=https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/painting-with-john-canceled-hbo-1235698067/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> Lurie's 1980s NYC memoir, ''The History of Bones'', was published by Penguin Random House in August 2021.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/561234/the-history-of-bones-by-john-lurie/| title = The History of Bones by John Lurie: 9780399592973 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books}}</ref>
In 1978 he formed [[The Lounge Lizards]] with his brother [[Evan Lurie]]. The Lounge Lizards exhibited the talent of artists such as [[Calvin Weston]], [[Billy Martin (percussionist)|Billy Martin]], [[Oren Bloedow]], [[Steven Bernstein (musician)|Steve Bernstein]], [[Marc Ribot]], and [[Erik Sanko]], among others. The band continued to make music for 20 years. During this time, Lurie recorded 22 albums and composed scores for over 20 movies, the most notable being ''[[Stranger than Paradise]]'', ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]'', ''[[Mystery Train (film)|Mystery Train]]'', ''[[Clay Pigeons]]'', ''[[Animal Factory]]'', and ''[[Get Shorty (film)|Get Shorty]]'', which earned him a [[Grammy]] nomination.


==Early life==
During the 1980s he starred in three films directed by [[Jim Jarmusch]], (On Jim Jarmusch:" I hate those Jarmusch movies for a million reasons. I could write a book... The people in our culture now who have made it—like in that early period, they were the bottom of the list—the David Byrne’s, the Jim Jarmusch’s, the Tom Cruise’s, they were the kid who would bring the teacher an apple. There would be a math genius sitting next to you, he would get nowhere. He might blow up the school but that would be the extent of his accomplishment. But that person that knew how to play the whole thing for themselves—but it had nothing to do with talent. ")''[[Stranger Than Paradise]]'', ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]'', and ''[[Permanent Vacation (film)|Permanent Vacation]]''. He went on to have roles in other notable films including ''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]'' and ''[[The Last Temptation of Christ (film)|The Last Temptation of Christ]]'(On working with Scorsese: "“He’s a little dope,” you know? That was not a comfortable experience working on “Last Temptation…”). Lurie also starred, during 2001-2003, on the [[HBO]] prison series ''[[Oz (TV Series)|Oz]]'' as inmate [[Greg Penders]] ("The “Oz” thing, I did it as a lark and then they told me I’m a regular character like I had no choice. Then they told me this thing that my character was going to do which sounded great so I accepted. But this stuff they promised never got shot. I turned down a fortune to be in that stupid TV show...").
Lurie was born in [[Minneapolis]] and raised with his brother [[Evan Lurie|Evan]] and sister Liz in [[New Orleans]], Louisiana and [[Worcester, Massachusetts]].<ref name="PSF 2006">{{cite web |url=http://www.furious.com/perfect/johnlurie.html |title=John Lurie |last1=Brown |first1=Tim |date=December 2006 |publisher=Perfect Sound Forever |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/john-lurie-discussion-part-2/2268 |title=APRIL 2011: JOHN LURIE DISCUSSION PART 2 |last1=Forson |first1=Kofi |date=April 2011 |publisher=Whitehot Magazine |access-date=January 23, 2019}}</ref> His mother, an artist, was [[Welsh Americans|Welsh]], and his father was half [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian Jewish]] and half [[Sicilian Americans|Sicilian]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/01/28/john-lurie-growing-up-in-public/ | title=John Lurie: Growing up in Public | date=January 29, 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/16/sleeping-with-weapons | title=Sleeping with Weapons | magazine=The New Yorker | date=August 9, 2010 | last1=Friend | first1=Tad }}</ref>


In high school, he played basketball and harmonica and [[Jam session|jammed]] with [[Mississippi Fred McDowell]] and [[Canned Heat]] in 1968.<ref name="PSF 2006"/> He briefly played the harmonica in a band from [[Boston]], but soon switched to the guitar and eventually the saxophone.<ref name="Ortiz 2009">{{cite web |url=http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=1210 |title=Q&A: JOHN LURIE (Unabridged)|last1=Ortiz |first1=Alan |date=March 1, 2009 |publisher=Stop Smiling|access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref>
His 1991 TV series ''[[Fishing with John]]'', which he wrote, directed and starred in, was a cult success.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} The critically acclaimed series aired on [[Independent Film Channel|IFC]] and [[Bravo (US TV channel)|Bravo]]. Episodes included guests [[Tom Waits]], [[Willem Dafoe]], [[Matt Dillon]], [[Jim Jarmusch]], and [[Dennis Hopper]]. It has since been released on DVD by [[The Criterion Collection|Criterion]].


After high school, he hitchhiked across the United States to [[Berkeley, California]]. He moved to New York City in 1974, then briefly visited London, where he performed his first saxophone solo at the Acme Gallery.<ref name="PSF 2006"/>
In 1993 Lurie, with [[Howard Shore]], composed the theme to [[Late Night with Conan O'Brien]] which was also used as the theme to [[The Tonight Show]] when O'Brien hosted.


==Music==
In 1999 Lurie released the album ''The Legendary Marvin Pontiac - Greatest Hits'', which was purportedly a posthumous collection of the work of an insane African-Jewish musician named Marvin Pontiac (1932–1977). Pontiac, however, was a fictional character,
<ref>
{{Citation
| last = Robins
| first = Wayne
| title = Behind The Legend of the Legendary Marvin Pontiac: A Conversation with John Lurie
| publisher = ''Emusic Magazine''
| date = 2008-04-21
| url = http://www.emusic.com/features/spotlight/2008_04-qa-john-lurie.html
}}
</ref> and the music was actually written by Lurie, and performed by Lurie, John Medeski, Billy Martin, G. Calvin Weston, [[Marc Ribot]], and [[Tony Scherr]].<ref>[http://www.emusic.com/album/Marvin-Pontiac-The-Legendary-Marvin-Pontiac-Greatest-Hits-MP3-Download/10938965.html The Legendary Marvin Pontiac - Greatest Hits], ''Emusic''.
</ref>
The album included praise from [[David Bowie]], [[Angelique Kidjo]], [[Iggy Pop]], [[Leonard Cohen]], and others, who were in on the joke, and a fictional "biography" was published by [[Allmusic]]<ref>[{{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p419988/biography|pure_url=yes}} Marvin Pontiac], ''[[Allmusic]]''.</ref>


===The Lounge Lizards===
Since the late 1990s, Lurie claims to have been diagnosed with a number of diseases, including advanced Lyme disease, mercury poisoning, a rare form of epilepsy, a rare form of multiple sclerosis, malaria, basilar migraines, and an autoimmune disorder stemming from chronic hepatitis B. ("Well, it’s probably Lyme disease. It depends on who I believe. It’s MS; it’s an auto-immune disorder. I’ve had 30 different diagnoses. It’s a rare form of migraines. It’s a rare seizure disorder. Who knows?"){{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}
{{Main|The Lounge Lizards}}
In 1978 John formed [[the Lounge Lizards]] with his brother [[Evan Lurie]] on piano; they were the only constant members in the band through numerous lineup changes.


[[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' described the band as "staking out new territory west of [[Charles Mingus|Mingus]], east of [[Bernard Herrman]]." While originally a somewhat satirical "fake jazz" combo spawned by the noisy [[No Wave]] music scene, the Lounge Lizards gradually became a showcase for Lurie's increasingly sophisticated compositions. The band had five to eight members. Musicians included, at different times, guitarists [[Arto Lindsay]], [[Marc Ribot]], [[David Tronzo]], Michele Navazio and Danny Blumenthal; cellist [[Jane Scarpantoni]]; vibraphonist [[Bryan Carrott]]; keyboardist [[John Medeski]]; drummers [[Anton Fier]], [[Grant Calvin Weston]] and Dougie Bowne; percussionists [[Billy Martin (percussionist)|Billy Martin]], E.J. Rodriguez and [[Ben Perowsky]]; bassists [[Erik Sanko]], [[Tony Scherr]], [[Oren Bloedow]] and [[Tony Garnier (musician)|Tony Garnier]]; trumpeter [[Steven Bernstein (musician)|Steven Bernstein]]; trombonist [[Curtis Fowlkes]] and saxophonists [[Roy Nathanson]] and [[Michael Blake (musician)|Michael Blake]]. They made music for 20 years.
Lurie has said that his illnesses have kept him from acting or performing music. He now spends most of his time in his apartment playing online poker, or traveling to disseminate his conjecture that the painter [http://www.johnperrynyc.com John Perry] is stalking him.

Though Lurie can produced no evidence to support his claims, he states regularly in the press that Perry intends to murder him.
===Marvin Pontiac===
In 1999 Lurie released the album ''The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits'', a posthumous collection of the work of an African-Jewish musician named Marvin Pontiac, a fictional character Lurie created. It includes a biographical profile describing the troubled genius's hard life, and the cover shows a photograph purported to be one of the few ever taken of him.<ref name="emusic">{{cite web|url=http://www.emusic.com/music-news/spotlight/behind-the-legend-of-the-legendary-marvin-pontiac-a-conversation-with-john-lurie/|title=Behind The Legend of the Legendary Marvin Pontiac: A Conversation with John Lurie|last1=Robins|first1=Wayne|publisher=eMusic|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816023931/http://www.emusic.com/music-news/spotlight/behind-the-legend-of-the-legendary-marvin-pontiac-a-conversation-with-john-lurie/|access-date=February 2, 2013|archive-date=August 16, 2013}}</ref> Lurie wrote the music and performed with [[John Medeski]], [[Billy Martin (percussionist)|Billy Martin]], G. Calvin Weston, [[Marc Ribot]], and [[Tony Scherr]]. The album received praise from [[David Bowie]], [[Angelique Kidjo]], [[Iggy Pop]], [[Leonard Cohen]] and others. On choosing to create a character to whom the album would be fictionally credited, Lurie said in a 2008 interview, "For a long time, I was threatening to do a vocal record. But the idea of me putting out a record where I sang seemed ostentatious or pretentious. Like the music of [[Telly Savalas]] . . . I don't sing very well, I was shy about it. As a character, it made it easier."<ref name=emusic/>

[[Elmore Leonard]]'s 2002 novel ''[[Tishomingo Blues (novel)|Tishomingo Blues]]'' has detailed descriptions of Marvin Pontiac's biography and music, crediting him with influencing Iggy Pop and David Bowie.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leonard |first1=Elmore |title=Tishomingo Blues |date=2002 |publisher=Morrow |location=New York |isbn=978-0060008727 |edition=1st}}</ref>

In 2017, John Lurie released his first music album in 17 years, ''Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://geni.us/TheAsylumTapes|title = Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes}}</ref>

===John Lurie National Orchestra===
[[File:01 John Lurie.jpg|thumb|upright|Lurie in 1992]]
Parallel to the final version of the Lounge Lizards in the early 1990s, Lurie formed a smaller group, the John Lurie National Orchestra. Lurie played alto and soprano saxes, Grant Calvin Weston played drums, and Billy Martin performed on congas, timbales, kalimba, and other small percussion. Unlike the tightly-arranged music of the Lounge Lizards, the Orchestra's music was heavily improvised and compositions were credited to all three musicians.

They released the album ''Men With Sticks'' (Crammed Discs 1993) and recorded music for the ''Fishing With John'' TV series. In February 2014 the Orchestra released ''The Invention of Animals'', a collection of out-of-print studio tracks and unreleased live recordings from the '90s. Columnist Mel Minter wrote:

<blockquote>
This new release may require a reassessment of Lurie the saxophonist because the playing is engagingly fluid, inventive, and visceral—and well worth revisiting. . . . The emotional immediacy of Lurie's playing – and that of his partners – makes for riveting stuff. Think of his sax not so much as a musical instrument, but instead, as a window with a clear view of his soul.<ref name=3saxophones>{{cite web |url=http://www.melminter.com/2014/02/06/three-saxophones-two-reviews-and-one-preview/|title=Three Saxophones: Two Reviews and One Preview|last1=Minter |first1=Mel |date=February 7, 2014|publisher=Musically Speaking |access-date=April 3, 2014}}</ref><ref name=offthetracks>{{cite web|url=http://www.offthetracks.co.nz/the-john-lurie-national-orchestra-the-invention-of-animals//|title=The John Lurie National Orchestra: The Invention of Animals|last1=Sweetman|first1=Simon|publisher=Off The Tracks|access-date=April 3, 2014|archive-date=March 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318181309/https://offthetracks.co.nz/the-john-lurie-national-orchestra-the-invention-of-animals/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Jeff Jackson of Jazziz added, "The resulting music is delicate, primal and utterly gorgeous."<ref name=Jazziz>{{cite journal |last=Jackson |first=Jeff |date=Spring 2014 |title=The John Lurie National Orchestra "The Invention of Animals" |journal=Jazziz |page=117 }}</ref>

==Film and television==
In 1993 Lurie composed the theme to ''[[Late Night with Conan O'Brien]]'' with [[Howard Shore]]. The theme was also used when O'Brien hosted on ''[[The Tonight Show]].'' Lurie formed his own record label in 1998, Strange & Beautiful Music, and released the Lounge Lizards album ''Queen of All Ears'' and a ''Fishing with John'' soundtrack.

Lurie has written scores for over 20 movies, including ''[[Stranger than Paradise]]'', ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]'', ''[[Mystery Train (film)|Mystery Train]]'', ''[[Clay Pigeons]]'', ''[[Animal Factory]]'', and ''[[Get Shorty (film)|Get Shorty]]'', for which he received a [[Grammy Award]] nomination.<ref name="Sutton 2011">{{cite web |url=http://www.jambands.com/features/2011/02/01/john-lurie-sustains/ |title=John Lurie Sustains |last1=Sutton |first1=Larson |date=February 1, 2011 |publisher=jambands.com |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref>

In the 1980s, Lurie starred in the [[Jim Jarmusch]] films ''[[Stranger Than Paradise]]'' and ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]'', and made cameos in the films ''[[Permanent Vacation (1980 film)|Permanent Vacation]]'' and ''[[Downtown 81]]''. He went on to act in other notable films including ''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]'', ''[[Wild at Heart (film)|Wild at Heart]]'' and ''[[The Last Temptation of Christ (film)|The Last Temptation of Christ]]''. From 2001 to 2003 he starred in the [[HBO]] prison series ''[[Oz (TV Series)|Oz]]'' as inmate [[Greg Penders]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0527099/?ref_=sr_1 |title=John Lurie |publisher=IMDb |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref>

Lurie wrote, directed and starred in the TV series ''[[Fishing with John]]'' in 1991 and 1992, which featured guests [[Tom Waits]], [[Willem Dafoe]], [[Matt Dillon]], [[Jim Jarmusch]], and [[Dennis Hopper]]. It aired on [[Independent Film Channel|IFC]] and [[Bravo (US TV channel)|Bravo]]. It has since become a cult classic<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A573969 ''Fishing with John'' on BBC], accessed February 15, 2011</ref> and was released on DVD by [[The Criterion Collection|Criterion]].

In January 2021 Lurie's series ''[[Painting with John]]'' aired on HBO. In June 2021 he announced that a second season of the show was planned and for the first time in 22 years, he was rehearsing music for it.<ref>{{Cite tweet |user= lurie_john
|number= 1400133649941598210|title=I am rehearsing music tonight...}}</ref> The third season of ''Painting with John'', consisting of six episodes, first aired on June 2, 2023. Lurie's friend and fellow musician [[Flea (musician)|Flea]] appears in one of the episodes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://press.wbd.com/na/media-release/hbo-0/season-three-hbo-original-painting-john-debuts-june-2-official-trailer-key-art|title=Media Release: Season Three Of The HBO Original PAINTING WITH JOHN Debuted June 2|publisher=Warner Bros. Discovery|date=May 15, 2023|access-date=May 15, 2023|language=en}}</ref>


==Painting==
==Painting==
[[File:The skeleton in my closet has moved back out to the garden. (2009).jpg|thumb|upright|''The skeleton in my closet has moved back out to the garden'' (2009)]]
For the last six years, Lurie has been exhibiting his paintings, and credits painting with "saving his life",<ref name="lopate">
{{cite episode
| title = John Lurie's Works on Paper
| url = http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/06/14#segment61187/
| series = The Leonard Lopate Show
| station = WNYC
| city = New York
| airdate = 2006-06-14.}}
</ref> referring to his illness and seclusion.


Lurie has been painting since the 1970s.<ref name=MMFA2007/> Most of his early works are in watercolor and pencil, but in the 2000s he began working in oil. In 2011, he said of his art, "My paintings are a logical development from the ones that were taped to the refrigerator 50 years ago."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20110210_MELANCHOLY_MIRTH.html |title=Melancholy Mirth |date=February 10, 2011 |publisher=The Inquirer Digital: Arts & Entertainment |access-date=March 4, 2011}}</ref>
In spring 2004, he had his first exhibition at [[Anton Kern Gallery]], New York. Within 10 minutes of the opening night, all the pieces were sold.{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} His subsequent exhibitions at [[Galerie Daniel Blau]] in [[Munich]]; [[Galerie Lelong]] in [[Zürich]] and [[Galerie Gabriel Rolt]] in [[Amsterdam]] were all met with equal success. {{Citation needed|date=June 2008}} Lurie was represented at the [[Basel International Art Fair]] in June 2005, 2006 and will be again this year. In January 2005, Lurie exhibited his second show in New York at [[Roebling Hall]]'s new Chelsea location. On April 30, 2006, Lurie opened his first solo museum show at P.S.1. Contemporary Arts Center, New York. In 2007, his work was showcased at [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]].<ref>[http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/expositions/exposition_117.html "John Lurie: The Erotic Poetry of Hoog"]</ref>


His work has been exhibited since July 2003, when two pieces were shown at the Nolan/Eckman Gallery in New York City.<ref name="Lurie News">{{Cite web |url=https://www.johnlurieart.com/exhibitions |title=Strange & Beautiful |access-date=February 14, 2011 |archive-date=July 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716015615/http://www.johnlurieart.com/exhibitions/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> He had his first solo gallery exhibition at Anton Kern Gallery in May and June 2004 and has subsequently been exhibited at Galerie Daniel Blau in [[Munich]], Galerie Lelong in [[Zürich]], the Galerie Gabriel Rolt in [[Amsterdam]], the Basel International Art Fair at Roebling Hall and the [[P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center]] in New York, the [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]], the NEXT Art Fair in Chicago, the [[Mudam]] [[Luxembourg]], the [[Watari Museum of Contemporary Art]] in Tokyo, Gallery Brown in Los Angeles, and the University of the Arts in [[Philadelphia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://momaps1.org/exhibitions/view/112 |date=May 2006 |publisher=MOMA PS1 |title=John Lurie: Works on Paper |access-date=August 19, 2013}}</ref><ref name="MMFA2007">{{cite web |url=http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/expositions/exposition_117.html |title=John Lurie: The Erotic Poetry of Hoog |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307164652/http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/expositions/exposition_117.html |archive-date=March 7, 2012 |access-date=January 15, 2013}}</ref><ref name="Lurie News"/> [[The Museum of Modern Art]] has acquired some of his work for their permanent collection.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?artistFilterInitial=&criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A28698&page_number=1&template_id=10&sort_order=1 |title=MoMA collection |access-date=January 15, 2013}}</ref>
Lurie continued to exhibit in domestic and international venues in 2008. A collection of work was displayed at the NEXT Art Fair Chicago and Luries work was exhibited at the Mudam Luxembourg from October through December in 2008. In addition, [[The Museum of Modern Art]] and The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford have acquired his work for their permanent collections. .<ref>[http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?artistFilterInitial=&criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A28698&page_number=1&template_id=10&sort_order=1 MoMA permanent collection search]</ref>


Lurie has also made his work available to the public via two art books. In June 2006, Lurie released his first book, ''Learn To Draw'', a compilation of black and white drawings published by Walther Konig. In May 2008, Lurie's most recent release, ''A Fine Example of Art'', a hard cover, full color book of over 80 reproductions of his work, published by powerHouse Books, was made available at select domestic and international book stores as well as on Amazon.com.
Lurie has released two art books. ''Learn To Draw'', a compilation of black and white drawings, was published by Walther Konig in June 2006. ''A Fine Example of Art'' includes over 80 reproductions of his work and was published by powerHouse Books in 2008.


Lurie's watercolor painting ''[[Bear Surprise]]'' was enormously popular on numerous Russian websites in an [[Internet meme]] known as [[Preved]].<ref name="Sonkin 2006">{{cite web |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/salon/364054.html |title=The "preved" phenomenon gained enormous popularity on the Russian-language Internet with the speed of an avalanche |work=The Moscow Times |date=May 12, 2006 |access-date=January 25, 2013}}</ref>
Lurie's watercolor painting ''[[Bear Surprise]]'' achieved enormous popularity on numerous Russian websites, in an [[Internet phenomenon]] known as [[Preved]].<ref>[http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/05/12/106.html CONTEXT - This Week in Arts and Ideas from The Moscow Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Lurie combined text and images in unique and interesting ways creating a personal mythology that breaks down the distinctions between real experiences and the imaginary. Lurie has showed his works at [[P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center]], [[Roebling Hall]], and Anton Kern gallery in New York, and [[Galerie Daniel Blau]] in [[Munich]].<ref>{{citation | title=John Lurie at P.S. 1 | publisher=ARTINFO | date= May 5, 2006 | url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/15468/john-lurie-at-ps-1/ | accessdate=2008-05-20 }}</ref> They were on show at the [[Mudam]] museum in [[Luxembourg]] from October 11, 2008 to December 8, 2008. John Lurie's show ''The Skeleton in my closet has moved back out to the garden'', was on view at Fredericks & Freiser (536 W. 24th St. betw. 10th & 11th Aves.) from October 10 to Saturday, November 7, 2009.<ref>[http://sites.google.com/site/basquiatbiography/news/johnlurieinchelsea John Lurie in Chelsea], Basquiat Blog.</ref>


==Personal life==
From January 30th through May 9, 2010, the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo dedicated their entire museum to exhibiting hundreds of Lurie's works.
===Romantic relationships===
Lurie has never married. He detailed many of his romantic relationships between the 1970s and 1990s in his 2021 memoir ''The History of Bones.'' In August 2010, Lurie was reported to be dating a woman named Jill Goodwin (b. 1979).<ref name="Friend 2010" />


== Filmography ==
===Health===
Lurie became ill with neurological symptoms in 1994,<ref name="Sutton 2011"/> and has experienced debilitating ill health since 2000.<ref name="Sutton 2011"/> At one point he was told he had a year to live.<ref name="Ortiz 2009"/> During this time, he wrote in a mad dash until his brain fog got so severe that he had to stop writing.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Interview: A Little Hello From John Lurie|url=https://www.clereviewofbooks.com/home/john-lurie-interview-history-of-bones|access-date=2021-12-02|website=Cleveland Review of Books|language=en-US}}</ref>
* ''[[Underground U.S.A.]]'' (1980)

* ''[[Permanent Vacation (film)|Permanent Vacation]]'' (1980)
He stated in a 2006 interview that he has "Advanced Lyme",<ref name="PSF 2006"/> referring to [[Lyme disease controversy|chronic Lyme disease]]. This is a controversial medical diagnosis, generally rejected by medical professionals, used to describe "a broad array of illnesses or symptom complexes for which there is no reproducible or convincing scientific evidence of any relationship to [[Borrelia burgdorferi]] infection."<ref name="nejm-feder">{{cite journal | title = A Critical Appraisal of "Chronic Lyme Disease" | journal = [[The New England Journal of Medicine|NEJM]] | volume = 357 | issue = 14 | pages = 1422–30 |date=October 2007 | pmid = 17914043 | doi = 10.1056/NEJMra072023 | last1 = Feder | first1 = HM | last2 = Johnson | first2 = BJB | last3 = O'Connell | first3 = S | display-authors = 3 | last4 = Shapiro | first4 = ED | last5 = Steere | first5 = AC | last6 = Wormser | first6 = GP | author7 = Ad Hoc International Lyme Disease Group | last8 = Agger | first8 = WA | last9 = Artsob | first9 = H }}</ref><ref name=IDSA_FAQ>{{cite web | url = http://www.idsociety.org/Lyme_Facts/ | title = Ten Facts You Should Know About Lyme Disease | publisher = [[Infectious Diseases Society of America]] | date = May 10, 2011 | access-date = June 18, 2013 | archive-date = May 29, 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130529060105/http://www.idsociety.org/Lyme_Facts/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> He has stated that his diagnosis was received from "eight different purveyors of contemporary medicine" after years of disagreement among his physicians.<ref name=Moody2011/> Lurie's illness prevents him from acting or performing music, so he spends his time painting.<ref name="PSF 2006"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/in-conversation-with-john-lurie/1948 |title=In Conversation with John Lurie |last1=Forson |first1=Kofi |date=September 2009 |work=Whitehot Magazine |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref>
* ''[[The Offenders]]'' (1980)

* ''[[Subway Riders]]'' (1981)
===Stalking incident===
* ''[[Stranger Than Paradise]]'' (1983)
In August 2010, [[Tad Friend]] wrote a piece in ''The New Yorker'' about Lurie disappearing from New York to avoid a man named John Perry, who Friend said was [[stalking]] Lurie.<ref name="Friend 2010">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/16/100816fa_fact_friend |title=Sleeping With Weapons |last1=Friend |first1=Tad |date=August 16, 2010 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref> In the online literary magazine ''The Rumpus'', [[Rick Moody]] noted that Friend's profile in ''The New Yorker'', nominally about Lurie and his art, was two-thirds to three-quarters about Perry, including a full page photo of Perry standing in front of one of his own paintings. Moody described Perry as a deceitful stalker capable of violence and was also critical of Friend's "ungenerous" characterization of Lurie's illness as a "mysterious disease."<ref name=Moody2011>{{cite web |url=http://therumpus.net/2011/06/swinging-modern-sounds-30-what-is-and-is-not-masculine|title=SWINGING MODERN SOUNDS #30: What Is and Is Not Masculine |last1=Moody |first1=Rick |date=June 24, 2011 |work=The Rumpus |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref>
* ''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]'' (1984)

* ''[[Desperately Seeking Susan]]'' (1985)
In May 2011 Perry undertook a public [[hunger strike]] to protest ''The New Yorker'' characterizing him as a stalker. Commenting about the protest, Lurie said, "He's conducting a hunger strike a half block from my house to prove he's not a stalker."<ref name=Palmeri2011/> Lurie described the article as "wildly inaccurate," noting that its publication did not resolve anything and that "the situation continues."<ref name="Sutton 2011"/>
* ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]'' (1986)

* ''[[The Last Temptation of Christ (film)|The Last Temptation of Christ]]'' (1988)
Editor [[David Remnick]] said the piece in his magazine was "thoroughly reported and fact-checked."<ref name=Palmeri2011>{{cite web |url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/the_squawk_of_the_town_TfYrR65jsQqLEb0sfDU2LM |title=The squawk of the town|last1=Palmeri |first1=Tara |date=June 24, 2011 |work=NY Post |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref> But in a letter to ''The New Yorker'' in August 2012, several interviewees claimed their words had been "twisted, misquoted, or ignored," and that "the man presented in the article [Lurie] is not the man that we know."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://johnlurie-newyorker.blogspot.com/2012/10/letter-to-editors-of-new-yorker_9751.html |title=John Lurie profile in The New Yorker |access-date=January 24, 2013}}</ref> In a February 2014 interview, Lurie told the ''Los Angeles Times'', "What one would hope is that the beauty in the music and in the paintings can somehow transcend and invalidate the kind of sickness that led to the article being written as it was and the kind of irresponsibility that allowed it to be published."<ref name=LATimes>{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-john-lurie-jazz-20140204,0,6501884,full.story#axzz2sNCbSn6j|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228181948/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-john-lurie-jazz-20140204,0,6501884,full.story#axzz2sNCbSn6j|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 28, 2014|title=John Lurie re-emerges with 'Invention of Animals'|last1=Barton |first1=Chris |date=February 4, 2014 |newspaper=LA Times |access-date=March 31, 2014}}</ref>
* ''[[Il piccolo diavolo]]'' (1988)

* ''[[Wild at Heart (film)|Wild at Heart]]'' (1990)
==Filmography==
* ''[[John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards Live in Berlin 1991]]'' (1992) (concert film)
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
* ''[[Smoke (film)|Smoke]]'' (1995) (uncredited)
|-
* ''[[Blue in the Face]]'' (1995)
! scope="col" | Year
* ''[[Just Your Luck]]'' (1996)
!scope="col"| Title
* ''[[New Rose Hotel (1998 film)|New Rose Hotel]]'' (1998)
!scope="col" |Role
* ''[[Sleepwalk (film)|Sleepwalk]]'' (2000)
!scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1978
| scope="row" |''Rome '78''
| {{unknown}}
|
|-
| 1979
| scope="row" |''Men in Orbit''
| Astronaut
|Also writer, director
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1980
| scope="row" |''[[Underground U.S.A.]]''
| Jack Smith
|
|-
| scope="row" |''The Offenders''
| The Lizard
|
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Permanent Vacation (1980 film)|Permanent Vacation]]''
| Sax player
|Also composer
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1981
| scope="row" |''[[Downtown 81]]''
| Himself
|
|-
| scope="row" |''Subway Riders''
| The Saxophonist
|Also composer
|-
| 1983
| scope="row" |''Variety''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| scope="row" |''[[Stranger Than Paradise]]''
| Willie
|Also composer
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]''
| Slater
|
|-
| 1985
| scope="row" |''[[Desperately Seeking Susan]]''
| Neighbor Saxophonist
|
|-
| 1986
| scope="row" |''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]''
| Jack
|Also composer
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1988
| scope="row" |''[[The Last Temptation of Christ (film)|The Last Temptation of Christ]]''
| [[James, son of Zebedee|James]]
|
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Il piccolo diavolo]]''
| Cusatelli
|English title: ''The Little Devil''
|-
| 1989
| scope="row" |''[[Mystery Train (film)|Mystery Train]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| 1990
| scope="row" |''[[Wild at Heart (film)|Wild at Heart]]''
| Sparky
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1991
| scope="row" |''[[Fishing with John]]''
| Himself
|Also creator, director, composer
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Keep It for Yourself]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Short film; composer
|-
| 1992
| scope="row" |''[[John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards Live in Berlin 1991]]''
| Himself
|Documentary
|-
| 1993
| scope="row" |''[[Late Night with Conan O'Brien]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composed title theme
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1995
| scope="row" |''[[Get Shorty (film)|Get Shorty]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Blue in the Face]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1996
| scope="row" |''Just Your Luck''
| Coker
|
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Manny & Lo]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| 1997
| scope="row" |''[[Excess Baggage (1997 film)|Excess Baggage]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1998
| scope="row" |''[[New Rose Hotel (1998 film)|New Rose Hotel]]''
| Distinguished Man
|
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Lulu on the Bridge]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Clay Pigeons]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2000
| scope="row" |''Sleepwalk''
| Frank
|
|-
| scope="row" |''[[Animal Factory]]''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| 2001
| scope="row" |''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]''
| Himself
|Archival footage from ''[[Fishing With John]]'' (Episode: "Hooky")
|-
| 2001–03
| scope="row" |''[[Oz (TV series)|Oz]]''
| Greg Penders
|12 episodes
|-
| 2004
| scope="row" |''Tortured by Joy''
| Narrator
|Short film
|-
| 2005
| scope="row" |''Face Addict''
| {{n/a}}
|Composer
|-
| 2010–11
| scope="row" |''[[Mobsters (TV series)|Mobsters]]''
| Narrator
|
|-
| 2021-2023
| scope="row" |''[[Painting with John]]''
| Himself
|Also creator, director
|}


== Discography ==
== Discography ==
=== John Lurie ===
* ''[[Berlin 1991 Volume One and the Lounge Lizards]]'' (1991)
* ''[[Men With Sticks: John Lurie National Orchestra]]'' (1993)
* ''[[The Days with Jacques]]''
* ''[[The Legendary Marvin Pontiac]]'' (1999)


=== Lounge Lizards ===
=== John Lurie ===
'''as John Lurie National Orchestra'''
* ''[[Lounge Lizards (album)|Lounge Lizards]]'' (1981)
* ''Men with Sticks'' ([[Crammed Discs|Crammed Discs/Made to Measure]], 1993)
* ''[[No Pain for Cakes]]'' (1986)
'''as Marvin Pontiac'''
* ''[[Voice of Chunk]]'' (1988)
* ''The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits'' (Strange and Beautiful Music, 1999)
* ''[[Big Heart: Live in Tokyo]]'' (1986)
* ''Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes'' (Strange and Beautiful Music, 2017)<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/john-lurie-emerges-out-of-nowhere-with-some-strikingly-resonant-fake-music/|title=Out of Nowhere, New Music from John Lurie's Made-Up Outsider Artist|author=Petrusich, Amanda|date=November 28, 2017|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|access-date=December 10, 2017}}</ref>
* ''[[Live: 1979-1981]]'' (1992)
* ''[[Live in Berlin, Volume One]]'' (1992)
* ''[[Live in Berlin, Volume Two]]'' (1993)
* ''[[Queen of All Ears]]'' (1998)
* ''[[Big Heart: Live in Tokyo (Import)]]'' (2004)


=== Soundtracks ===
=== Soundtracks ===
'''Albums'''
* ''[[Stranger Than Paradise]]'' and ''[[The Resurrection of Albert Ayler]]'' (album released in 1986)
* ''The Days with Jacques'' (Sony Records, 1994)
* ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]'' and ''[[Variety (movie)|Variety]]'' (album released in 1987)
* ''[[Mystery Train (film)|Mystery Train]]'' (1989)
* ''[[Excess Baggage (1997 film)|Excess Baggage]]'' (Prophecy, 1997)
* ''[[Fishing with John#Soundtrack|Fishing with John]]'' (recorded in 1991; Strange and Beautiful Music, 1998)
* ''[[Get Shorty (film)|Get Shorty]]'' (1995)
'''Other soundtrack releases'''
* ''[[Excess Baggage]]'' (1997)

* ''[[Fishing with John]]'' (recorded in 1991, released in 1998)
*''[[Stranger Than Paradise#Soundtrack|Stranger than Paradise]]'' and ''The Resurrection of Albert Ayler'' (Crammed Discs/Made to Measure, 1986) 2–score compilation
* ''[[African Swim]]'' and ''[[Manny and Lo]]'' (1999)
*''[[Down by Law (film)#Soundtrack|Down by Law]]'' and ''[[Variety (1983 film)|Variety]]'' (Crammed Discs/Made to Measure, 1987) 2–score compilation
* ''[[Mystery Train (film)#Soundtrack|Mystery Train]]'' (Milan/[[RCA Records|RCA]], 1989) split album with various artists
* ''[[Get Shorty (film)#Soundtrack|Get Shorty]]'' ([[Verve (PolyGram)|Verve]], 1995) various artists album
* ''African Swim'' and ''[[Manny & Lo]]'' (Strange and Beautiful Music, 1999) 2–score compilation

=== Compilations ===

* ''The Invention of Animals'' (2014)''<ref>{{cite web |author=Masters, Mark |date=January 20, 2014 |title=The John Lurie National Orchestra: The Invention of Animals Album Review |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18865-the-john-lurie-national-orchestra-the-invention-of-animals/ |access-date=January 23, 2017 |work=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]}}</ref>''

=== With Lounge Lizards ===
'''Studio albums'''
* ''[[Lounge Lizards (album)|Lounge Lizards]]'' (Editions EG/[[Polydor Records|Polydor]], 1981)
* ''[[No Pain for Cakes]]'' (Island, 1986)
* ''[[Voice of Chunk]]'' (VeraBra, 1988)
* ''[[Queen of All Ears]]'' (Strange and Beautiful Music, 1998)
'''Live albums'''

*''Live from the Drunken Boat'' (Europe, 1983)
* ''Live: 1979–1981'' (ROIR, 1985)
* ''Big Heart: Live in Tokyo'' ([[Island Records|Island]], 1986)
* ''Live in Berlin, Volume One'' (VeraBra, 1992)
* ''Live in Berlin, Volume Two'' (VeraBra, 1993)

===Guest appearances===
* ''[[Heartbeat (Ryuichi Sakamoto album)|Heartbeat]]'' by [[Ryuichi Sakamoto]] (Virgin Records, 1991); saxophone on "Lulu"
* ''[[One Hot Minute]]'' by [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] (Warner Bros., 1995); harmonica on "One Hot Minute"
* ''[[Perfect Hair (album)|Perfect Hair]]'' by [[Busdriver]] (Big Dada, 2014); Lurie painted the album cover art
* ''[[Rain Dogs]]'' by [[Tom Waits]] (Island Records, 1985); saxophone on "Walking Spanish"
* ''[[Saints (Marc Ribot album)|Saints]]'' by [[Marc Ribot]] (Atlantic, 2001); includes an arrangement of Lurie's "It Could Have Been Very Beautiful"
* ''[[Spillane (album)|Spillane]]'' by [[John Zorn]] (Elektra Nonesuch, 1987); spoken vocals on "Spillane"
* ''[[Winter Was Hard]]'' by [[Kronos Quartet]] (Nonesuch, 1988); includes an arrangement of Lurie's "Bella by Barlight"


== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{reflist}}


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{Commons category-inline|John Lurie}}
{{External links|date=August 2010}}
* {{IMDb name|0527099}}


{{The Lounge Lizards}}
* http://staires.org/audio/1937
{{Authority control}}
* http://hectocotylus.blogspot.com/2010/08/sleeping-with-weapons-why-did-john.html
* http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/is_john_perry_a_phantom_in_john_luries_head/
* http://www.juxtapoz.com/Features/an-artists-lost-fame-john-luries-fall-from-grace
* http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/pesadilla/John/Lurie/elpepicul/20100904elpepicul_7/Tes
* http://www.joe-mammy.com/pages/features/john-lurie-3/lurie.htm
* http://percy3.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/john-lurie-a-lounge-lizard-weighs-in/
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tanja-m-laden/speaking-with-john_b_640096.html
* http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/audios/20101006/carne-cruda---pescando-john-lurie---
* http://www.nypress.com/article-20515-conversations-with-john.html
06-10-10/895457.shtml
* [http://www.strangeandbeautiful.com www.strangeandbeautiful.com (official website of John Lurie's music)]
* [http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/06/14#segment61187 Leonard Lopate interview with John Lurie]
* [http://www.citypaper.net/articles/061198/20Q.shtml Interview] in [[Philadelphia City Paper]] regarding ''[[Fishing With John]]''
* [http://www.furious.com/perfect/johnlurie.html December 2006 Interview in Perfect Sound Forever]
* [http://www.johnlurieart.com/art John Lurie art]
* {http://www.jambands.com/features/2011/02/01/john-lurie-sustains
* {http://theartblog.org/2011/01/john-lurie-from-another-perspective
* {http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/16988/john-lurie
* [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/16/100816fa_fact_friend August 2010 ''New Yorker'' article on Lurie (abstract)]



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| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH =
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lurie, John}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lurie, John}}
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:people from Worcester, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Musicians from Minneapolis]]
[[Category:American actors]]
[[Category:Artists from Worcester, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American film producers]]
[[Category:Television producers from New York City]]
[[Category:American musicians]]
[[Category:American jazz musicians]]
[[Category:American painters]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:American male painters]]

[[Category:American people of Welsh descent]]
[[de:John Lurie]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[fr:John Lurie]]
[[Category:American people of Italian descent]]
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[[Category:21st-century American painters]]
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[[Category:21st-century American male artists]]
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[[Category:Painters from New York City]]
[[ja:ジョン・ルーリー]]
[[Category:Artists from Minneapolis]]
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[[Category:Male actors from Worcester, Massachusetts]]
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[[Category:Musicians from Worcester, Massachusetts]]
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[[Category:Jazz musicians from Minnesota]]
[[Category:The Lounge Lizards members]]
[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]

Latest revision as of 07:18, 24 November 2024

John Lurie
Lurie in 2013
Born (1952-12-14) December 14, 1952 (age 71)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actor
  • musician
  • painter
  • television producer
Years active1978–present
Known forThe Lounge Lizards
TelevisionPainting with John, Fishing with John, Oz
RelativesEvan Lurie (brother)
Websitewww.johnlurieart.com

John Lurie (born December 14, 1952) is an American musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded the Lounge Lizards jazz ensemble; has acted in 19 films, including Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law; has composed and performed music for 20 television and film works; and he produced, directed, and starred in the Fishing with John television series. In 1996 his soundtrack for Get Shorty was nominated for a Grammy Award, and his album The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits has been praised by critics and fellow musicians.[1]

Since 2000, he has suffered from symptoms attributed to chronic Lyme disease and has focused his attention on painting.[2] His art has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. His primitivist painting Bear Surprise became an internet meme in Russia in 2006. His television series, Painting with John, debuted on HBO in January 2021 and ran for three seasons before being cancelled.[3][4] Lurie's 1980s NYC memoir, The History of Bones, was published by Penguin Random House in August 2021.[5]

Early life

[edit]

Lurie was born in Minneapolis and raised with his brother Evan and sister Liz in New Orleans, Louisiana and Worcester, Massachusetts.[6][7] His mother, an artist, was Welsh, and his father was half Russian Jewish and half Sicilian.[8][9]

In high school, he played basketball and harmonica and jammed with Mississippi Fred McDowell and Canned Heat in 1968.[6] He briefly played the harmonica in a band from Boston, but soon switched to the guitar and eventually the saxophone.[10]

After high school, he hitchhiked across the United States to Berkeley, California. He moved to New York City in 1974, then briefly visited London, where he performed his first saxophone solo at the Acme Gallery.[6]

Music

[edit]

The Lounge Lizards

[edit]
Main article: The Lounge Lizards

In 1978 John formed the Lounge Lizards with his brother Evan Lurie on piano; they were the only constant members in the band through numerous lineup changes.

Robert Palmer of The New York Times described the band as "staking out new territory west of Mingus, east of Bernard Herrman." While originally a somewhat satirical "fake jazz" combo spawned by the noisy No Wave music scene, the Lounge Lizards gradually became a showcase for Lurie's increasingly sophisticated compositions. The band had five to eight members. Musicians included, at different times, guitarists Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot, David Tronzo, Michele Navazio and Danny Blumenthal; cellist Jane Scarpantoni; vibraphonist Bryan Carrott; keyboardist John Medeski; drummers Anton Fier, Grant Calvin Weston and Dougie Bowne; percussionists Billy Martin, E.J. Rodriguez and Ben Perowsky; bassists Erik Sanko, Tony Scherr, Oren Bloedow and Tony Garnier; trumpeter Steven Bernstein; trombonist Curtis Fowlkes and saxophonists Roy Nathanson and Michael Blake. They made music for 20 years.

Marvin Pontiac

[edit]

In 1999 Lurie released the album The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits, a posthumous collection of the work of an African-Jewish musician named Marvin Pontiac, a fictional character Lurie created. It includes a biographical profile describing the troubled genius's hard life, and the cover shows a photograph purported to be one of the few ever taken of him.[11] Lurie wrote the music and performed with John Medeski, Billy Martin, G. Calvin Weston, Marc Ribot, and Tony Scherr. The album received praise from David Bowie, Angelique Kidjo, Iggy Pop, Leonard Cohen and others. On choosing to create a character to whom the album would be fictionally credited, Lurie said in a 2008 interview, "For a long time, I was threatening to do a vocal record. But the idea of me putting out a record where I sang seemed ostentatious or pretentious. Like the music of Telly Savalas . . . I don't sing very well, I was shy about it. As a character, it made it easier."[11]

Elmore Leonard's 2002 novel Tishomingo Blues has detailed descriptions of Marvin Pontiac's biography and music, crediting him with influencing Iggy Pop and David Bowie.[12]

In 2017, John Lurie released his first music album in 17 years, Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes.[13]

John Lurie National Orchestra

[edit]
Lurie in 1992

Parallel to the final version of the Lounge Lizards in the early 1990s, Lurie formed a smaller group, the John Lurie National Orchestra. Lurie played alto and soprano saxes, Grant Calvin Weston played drums, and Billy Martin performed on congas, timbales, kalimba, and other small percussion. Unlike the tightly-arranged music of the Lounge Lizards, the Orchestra's music was heavily improvised and compositions were credited to all three musicians.

They released the album Men With Sticks (Crammed Discs 1993) and recorded music for the Fishing With John TV series. In February 2014 the Orchestra released The Invention of Animals, a collection of out-of-print studio tracks and unreleased live recordings from the '90s. Columnist Mel Minter wrote:

This new release may require a reassessment of Lurie the saxophonist because the playing is engagingly fluid, inventive, and visceral—and well worth revisiting. . . . The emotional immediacy of Lurie's playing – and that of his partners – makes for riveting stuff. Think of his sax not so much as a musical instrument, but instead, as a window with a clear view of his soul.[14][15]

Jeff Jackson of Jazziz added, "The resulting music is delicate, primal and utterly gorgeous."[16]

Film and television

[edit]

In 1993 Lurie composed the theme to Late Night with Conan O'Brien with Howard Shore. The theme was also used when O'Brien hosted on The Tonight Show. Lurie formed his own record label in 1998, Strange & Beautiful Music, and released the Lounge Lizards album Queen of All Ears and a Fishing with John soundtrack.

Lurie has written scores for over 20 movies, including Stranger than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Clay Pigeons, Animal Factory, and Get Shorty, for which he received a Grammy Award nomination.[17]

In the 1980s, Lurie starred in the Jim Jarmusch films Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law, and made cameos in the films Permanent Vacation and Downtown 81. He went on to act in other notable films including Paris, Texas, Wild at Heart and The Last Temptation of Christ. From 2001 to 2003 he starred in the HBO prison series Oz as inmate Greg Penders.[18]

Lurie wrote, directed and starred in the TV series Fishing with John in 1991 and 1992, which featured guests Tom Waits, Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Jim Jarmusch, and Dennis Hopper. It aired on IFC and Bravo. It has since become a cult classic[19] and was released on DVD by Criterion.

In January 2021 Lurie's series Painting with John aired on HBO. In June 2021 he announced that a second season of the show was planned and for the first time in 22 years, he was rehearsing music for it.[20] The third season of Painting with John, consisting of six episodes, first aired on June 2, 2023. Lurie's friend and fellow musician Flea appears in one of the episodes.[21]

Painting

[edit]
The skeleton in my closet has moved back out to the garden (2009)

Lurie has been painting since the 1970s.[22] Most of his early works are in watercolor and pencil, but in the 2000s he began working in oil. In 2011, he said of his art, "My paintings are a logical development from the ones that were taped to the refrigerator 50 years ago."[23]

His work has been exhibited since July 2003, when two pieces were shown at the Nolan/Eckman Gallery in New York City.[24] He had his first solo gallery exhibition at Anton Kern Gallery in May and June 2004 and has subsequently been exhibited at Galerie Daniel Blau in Munich, Galerie Lelong in Zürich, the Galerie Gabriel Rolt in Amsterdam, the Basel International Art Fair at Roebling Hall and the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the NEXT Art Fair in Chicago, the Mudam Luxembourg, the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Gallery Brown in Los Angeles, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.[25][22][24] The Museum of Modern Art has acquired some of his work for their permanent collection.[26]

Lurie has released two art books. Learn To Draw, a compilation of black and white drawings, was published by Walther Konig in June 2006. A Fine Example of Art includes over 80 reproductions of his work and was published by powerHouse Books in 2008.

Lurie's watercolor painting Bear Surprise was enormously popular on numerous Russian websites in an Internet meme known as Preved.[27]

Personal life

[edit]

Romantic relationships

[edit]

Lurie has never married. He detailed many of his romantic relationships between the 1970s and 1990s in his 2021 memoir The History of Bones. In August 2010, Lurie was reported to be dating a woman named Jill Goodwin (b. 1979).[28]

Health

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Lurie became ill with neurological symptoms in 1994,[17] and has experienced debilitating ill health since 2000.[17] At one point he was told he had a year to live.[10] During this time, he wrote in a mad dash until his brain fog got so severe that he had to stop writing.[29]

He stated in a 2006 interview that he has "Advanced Lyme",[6] referring to chronic Lyme disease. This is a controversial medical diagnosis, generally rejected by medical professionals, used to describe "a broad array of illnesses or symptom complexes for which there is no reproducible or convincing scientific evidence of any relationship to Borrelia burgdorferi infection."[30][31] He has stated that his diagnosis was received from "eight different purveyors of contemporary medicine" after years of disagreement among his physicians.[32] Lurie's illness prevents him from acting or performing music, so he spends his time painting.[6][33]

Stalking incident

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In August 2010, Tad Friend wrote a piece in The New Yorker about Lurie disappearing from New York to avoid a man named John Perry, who Friend said was stalking Lurie.[28] In the online literary magazine The Rumpus, Rick Moody noted that Friend's profile in The New Yorker, nominally about Lurie and his art, was two-thirds to three-quarters about Perry, including a full page photo of Perry standing in front of one of his own paintings. Moody described Perry as a deceitful stalker capable of violence and was also critical of Friend's "ungenerous" characterization of Lurie's illness as a "mysterious disease."[32]

In May 2011 Perry undertook a public hunger strike to protest The New Yorker characterizing him as a stalker. Commenting about the protest, Lurie said, "He's conducting a hunger strike a half block from my house to prove he's not a stalker."[34] Lurie described the article as "wildly inaccurate," noting that its publication did not resolve anything and that "the situation continues."[17]

Editor David Remnick said the piece in his magazine was "thoroughly reported and fact-checked."[34] But in a letter to The New Yorker in August 2012, several interviewees claimed their words had been "twisted, misquoted, or ignored," and that "the man presented in the article [Lurie] is not the man that we know."[35] In a February 2014 interview, Lurie told the Los Angeles Times, "What one would hope is that the beauty in the music and in the paintings can somehow transcend and invalidate the kind of sickness that led to the article being written as it was and the kind of irresponsibility that allowed it to be published."[36]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1978 Rome '78 Un­known
1979 Men in Orbit Astronaut Also writer, director
1980 Underground U.S.A. Jack Smith
The Offenders The Lizard
Permanent Vacation Sax player Also composer
1981 Downtown 81 Himself
Subway Riders The Saxophonist Also composer
1983 Variety — Composer
1984 Stranger Than Paradise Willie Also composer
Paris, Texas Slater
1985 Desperately Seeking Susan Neighbor Saxophonist
1986 Down by Law Jack Also composer
1988 The Last Temptation of Christ James
Il piccolo diavolo Cusatelli English title: The Little Devil
1989 Mystery Train — Composer
1990 Wild at Heart Sparky
1991 Fishing with John Himself Also creator, director, composer
Keep It for Yourself — Short film; composer
1992 John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards Live in Berlin 1991 Himself Documentary
1993 Late Night with Conan O'Brien — Composed title theme
1995 Get Shorty — Composer
Blue in the Face — Composer
1996 Just Your Luck Coker
Manny & Lo — Composer
1997 Excess Baggage — Composer
1998 New Rose Hotel Distinguished Man
Lulu on the Bridge — Composer
Clay Pigeons — Composer
2000 Sleepwalk Frank
Animal Factory — Composer
2001 SpongeBob SquarePants Himself Archival footage from Fishing With John (Episode: "Hooky")
2001–03 Oz Greg Penders 12 episodes
2004 Tortured by Joy Narrator Short film
2005 Face Addict — Composer
2010–11 Mobsters Narrator
2021-2023 Painting with John Himself Also creator, director

Discography

[edit]

John Lurie

[edit]

as John Lurie National Orchestra

as Marvin Pontiac

  • The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits (Strange and Beautiful Music, 1999)
  • Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes (Strange and Beautiful Music, 2017)[37]

Soundtracks

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Albums

Other soundtrack releases

Compilations

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  • The Invention of Animals (2014)[38]

With Lounge Lizards

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Studio albums

Live albums

  • Live from the Drunken Boat (Europe, 1983)
  • Live: 1979–1981 (ROIR, 1985)
  • Big Heart: Live in Tokyo (Island, 1986)
  • Live in Berlin, Volume One (VeraBra, 1992)
  • Live in Berlin, Volume Two (VeraBra, 1993)

Guest appearances

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Painting with John#cite note-order-1
  2. ^ "John Lurie Art". Retrieved January 23, 2013.
  3. ^ "'Painting with John' is HBO at its arty, unpredictable best". Los Angeles Times. January 29, 2021. Archived from the original on July 27, 2023.
  4. ^ Otterson, Joe (August 16, 2023). "'Painting With John' Canceled After Three Seasons at HBO". Variety. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  5. ^ "The History of Bones by John Lurie: 9780399592973 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books".
  6. ^ a b c d e Brown, Tim (December 2006). "John Lurie". Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  7. ^ Forson, Kofi (April 2011). "APRIL 2011: JOHN LURIE DISCUSSION PART 2". Whitehot Magazine. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  8. ^ "John Lurie: Growing up in Public". January 29, 2020.
  9. ^ Friend, Tad (August 9, 2010). "Sleeping with Weapons". The New Yorker.
  10. ^ a b Ortiz, Alan (March 1, 2009). "Q&A: JOHN LURIE (Unabridged)". Stop Smiling. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  11. ^ a b Robins, Wayne. "Behind The Legend of the Legendary Marvin Pontiac: A Conversation with John Lurie". eMusic. Archived from the original on August 16, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2013.
  12. ^ Leonard, Elmore (2002). Tishomingo Blues (1st ed.). New York: Morrow. ISBN 978-0060008727.
  13. ^ "Marvin Pontiac: The Asylum Tapes".
  14. ^ Minter, Mel (February 7, 2014). "Three Saxophones: Two Reviews and One Preview". Musically Speaking. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  15. ^ Sweetman, Simon. "The John Lurie National Orchestra: The Invention of Animals". Off The Tracks. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
  16. ^ Jackson, Jeff (Spring 2014). "The John Lurie National Orchestra "The Invention of Animals"". Jazziz: 117.
  17. ^ a b c d Sutton, Larson (February 1, 2011). "John Lurie Sustains". jambands.com. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  18. ^ "John Lurie". IMDb. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  19. ^ Fishing with John on BBC, accessed February 15, 2011
  20. ^ @lurie_john (June 2, 2021). "I am rehearsing music tonight..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  21. ^ "Media Release: Season Three Of The HBO Original PAINTING WITH JOHN Debuted June 2". Warner Bros. Discovery. May 15, 2023. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  22. ^ a b "John Lurie: The Erotic Poetry of Hoog". Archived from the original on March 7, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  23. ^ "Melancholy Mirth". The Inquirer Digital: Arts & Entertainment. February 10, 2011. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
  24. ^ a b "Strange & Beautiful". Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
  25. ^ "John Lurie: Works on Paper". MOMA PS1. May 2006. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  26. ^ "MoMA collection". Retrieved January 15, 2013.
  27. ^ "The "preved" phenomenon gained enormous popularity on the Russian-language Internet with the speed of an avalanche". The Moscow Times. May 12, 2006. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
  28. ^ a b Friend, Tad (August 16, 2010). "Sleeping With Weapons". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  29. ^ "Interview: A Little Hello From John Lurie". Cleveland Review of Books. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
  30. ^ Feder, HM; Johnson, BJB; O'Connell, S; et al. (October 2007). "A Critical Appraisal of "Chronic Lyme Disease"". NEJM. 357 (14): 1422–30. doi:10.1056/NEJMra072023. PMID 17914043.
  31. ^ "Ten Facts You Should Know About Lyme Disease". Infectious Diseases Society of America. May 10, 2011. Archived from the original on May 29, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  32. ^ a b Moody, Rick (June 24, 2011). "SWINGING MODERN SOUNDS #30: What Is and Is Not Masculine". The Rumpus. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  33. ^ Forson, Kofi (September 2009). "In Conversation with John Lurie". Whitehot Magazine. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  34. ^ a b Palmeri, Tara (June 24, 2011). "The squawk of the town". NY Post. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  35. ^ "John Lurie profile in The New Yorker". Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  36. ^ Barton, Chris (February 4, 2014). "John Lurie re-emerges with 'Invention of Animals'". LA Times. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
  37. ^ Petrusich, Amanda (November 28, 2017). "Out of Nowhere, New Music from John Lurie's Made-Up Outsider Artist". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  38. ^ Masters, Mark (January 20, 2014). "The John Lurie National Orchestra: The Invention of Animals Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
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