Michael J. Anderson

Michael J. Anderson

Birth : 1953-10-31, Denver, Colorado, USA

History

Michael Anderson was born in Huron, South Dakota, at 10:30 P.M., on Halloween night. Subject to a genetic anomaly known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta, he grew up in a wheelchair. After graduating high school, he traveled America, singing for tips and living in his car. For six years, he attended the University of Colorado where he majored in numerous subjects ranging from philosophy to microbiology. After college, he began working for Martin Marietta, trouble-shooting the N.A.S.A. computers in the ground-support system of the space shuttle. During this time, he made the documentary "Little Mike," which won a silver medal in the International Film and Television Awards. Soon thereafter, he moved to New York City, where his film and television career began. For many years, Anderson was most well-known among fans of director David Lynch for his work as a backwards-talking dream figure on the cult favorite T.V. series Twin Peaks (1990). Anderson also worked with Lynch for the experimental performance piece Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted (1990) and the T.V.-pilot-turned-feature film Mulholland Drive (2001). Anderson gained further recognition and success in recent years for his work on the H.B.O. series Carnivàle (2003).

Profile

Michael J. Anderson
Michael J. Anderson
Michael J. Anderson

Movies

Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
Man From Another Place
A feature-length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
Tiptoes
Bruno
A man is reluctant to tell his fiancee that his parents, uncle and brother are dwarfs.
Reflections on the Phenomenon of Twin Peaks
Self
"Reflections on the Phenomenon of Twin Peaks" is a featurette originally released on the 2001 DVD release of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. It features various cast and crew reflecting on Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
An Introduction to David Lynch
Self
"An Introduction to David Lynch" is a featurette originally released in the 2001 DVD release, Twin Peaks: The First Season. It features interviews with Catherine E. Coulson, Charles Ramirez-Borg, Lesli Linka Glatter, Miguel Ferrer, Michael J. Anderson, Kyle MacLachlan, Duwayne Dunham, Sheryl Lee, Peggy Lipton, and Richard Beymer, each discussing the filmmaking processes and methods of Twin Peaks co-creator David Lynch.
Learning to Speak in the Red Room
Self
"Learning to Speak in the Red Room" is a featurette originally released in the 2001 DVD release, Twin Peaks: The First Season. It features Michael J. Anderson presenting his method of learning to speak backward, as he and other actors did in the Red Room scenes.
Snow White
Sunday (Violet)
Snow White's mother dies during childbirth, leaving baby Snow and father John for dead on an icy field, who then receives a visit from one of Satan's representatives, granting him three wishes.
Mulholland Drive
Mr. Roque
Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman's identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.
This Is How the World Ends
Noise Robber
Not so much a film about the apocalypse as Araki's previous effort Nowhere was, This Is How The World Ends was a TV Pilot episode for a series that was to be presented on MTV about a group of sexually-active teenagers in Los Angeles..
The Phantom Eye
Carl
Two film students must find a movie in the AMC vault. They have until midnight. If they survive and find the film they can leave the vault. If not then they will die and become part of the movie forever. So where is "The Phantom Eye?"
Mulholland Dr.
Mr. Rouqe
Initially, "Mulholland Dr." was to mark David Lynch's return to television. It is a retooling of a script originally shot as a 94-minute pilot for a TV series (co-written with TV screenwriter Joyce Eliason) for the channel ABC, which had approved the script, but chose not even to air the pilot once it was done in 1999, despite Lynch's labours to cut the project to their liking. It was left in limbo until 18 month later French company Studio Canal Plus (also producer of 'The Straight Story') agreed to pay ABC $7 million for the pilot, and budget a few million more to turn the pilot into a two-hour, 27-minute movie. The cost of the film doubled to $14 million as sets had to be reconstructed and actors recalled.
Club Vampire
Kiddo
Enter the club where your wildest desire and most frightening dreams come true. The price of admission is your soul.
Warriors of Virtue
Mudlap
A young man, Ryan, suffering from a disability, wishes to join the other kids from his schools football team. During an initiation rite, Ryan is swept away through a whirlpool to the land of Tao. There he is hunted by the evil Lord Komodo, who desires the boy as a key to enter the real world. Ryan is rescued by the protectors of Tao, five humanoid kangaroos, each embued with the five elements and virtues. Ryan learns his valuable lesson while saving the land of Tao.
Screwed
himself
A raw, rough-hewn look at the life of Screw publisher Al Goldstein.
First You Live Then You Die
This is an ultra-rare film that was never officially distributed and is hardly even mentioned anywhere on the internet, even though it features some legendary actors.
In the Soup
Little Man
An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Man From Another Place
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
Fool's Fire
Hop-Frog
A crippled dwarf is forced to become jester to a tyrannical king, but when the king abuses a beautiful dwarf with whom the jester is in love the jester plots a terrible revenge.
Mannequin Two: On the Move
Jewel Box Bearer
Although Jason works as a department store clerk, he is also a reincarnated prince. Long ago, his beloved Jessie was snatched away from him by an evil wizard who used his powers to transform her into wooden statue. Now Jessie is in Jason's department store as a mannequin. When he encounters her, she awakens from her thousand-year sleep. They quickly revive their romance, but the evil wizard has been reincarnated as well, and he's up to no good.
Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted
Woodsman (Twin A)
After her boyfriend ends their relationship, the dreamself of a heartbroken woman floats through the air over an industrial wasteland singing ballads of love.
Whatever Happened to Mason Reese
Sushi Chef
One of the early short films of director Brett Ratner.
Suffering Bastards
Little Elvis
Two brothers try to get back the nightclub that was swindled from their mother.
No Such Thing as Gravity
The Botanist
Set in the future, this tells of an Earth run by a conglomerate called the LaFont Corporation, which uses machines to rule its subjects. "Troublemakers" and malcontents are exiled to an artificial planet called Terra Nova. Problems arise when Terra Nova suddenly shifts its orbit and threatens to crash into Earth.
Little Mike: A Videoportrait of Michael Anderson
Himself
Michael J. Anderson is the subject of an award-winning documentary portrait, for which he wrote and performed the song "Little Man."
C'est pas parce qu'on est petit qu'on peut pas être grand
Fritz / The King
Two children enter a fantasy kingdom and are confronted by evil forces.