11 Facts About Terry Zwigoff

Terry Zwigoff was born on May 18,1949 and is an American film director whose work often deals with misfits, antiheroes, and themes of alienation.

Terry Zwigoff first garnered attention for his work in documentary filmmaking with Louie Bluie and Crumb.

Terry Zwigoff was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, to a Jewish family of dairy farmers.

Terry Zwigoff moved to San Francisco in the 1970s and met cartoonist Robert Crumb, who shared his interest in pre-war American roots music.

Terry Zwigoff later sold Golden Gate's publishing rights to Kitchen Sink Press.

From 1981 to 1984, Terry Zwigoff helmed the letter column of Weirdo, a comics anthology edited by Crumb.

Terry Zwigoff began his film career making documentary films, starting with 1985's Louie Bluie, a one-hour documentary about the blues and string band musician Howard Armstrong.

Terry Zwigoff had been inspired to locate and interview him after listening to a 30s recording, "State Street Rag", on which Armstrong played the mandolin.

Zwigoff worked on a documentary about R Crumb and his two brothers for nine years, during which Zwigoff said he was "averaging an income of about $200 a month and living with back pain so intense that I spent three years with a loaded gun on the pillow next to my bed, trying to get up the nerve to kill myself".

Terry Zwigoff completed Crumb in 1994; the critically acclaimed film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, the DGA award, the NY Film Critics Circle Award, the LA Film Critics Award, and the National Society of Film Critics Award.

In 2009, Terry Zwigoff signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a then 13-year-old girl.