Name : Frank Zappa
Profession : composer, guitarist, singer, film director
Date of Birth : December 21, 1940
Place of Birth : Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Died : December 4, 1993
Also Credited As : Frank Vincent Zappa.
Frank Zappa- Detailed Biography
Hangdog,
curly-haired musician, composer, bandleader, producer and occasional director
and screenwriter since the 1960s. While Zappa is most famous for his
compositions and legendary guitar playing, he was involved with some notable
films since his acting debut as an interviewer in The Monkees' movie, "Head"
(1968).
Zappa projected his unique vision on the nation's screens as the co-director of
the cultish "200 Motels" (1971). A sometimes inspired but uneven product of the
drug culture, the film featured extended concert sequences of Zappa and his
group, The Mothers of Invention, between some wildly satirical sketches. "200
Motels" also boasted a raunchy animated sequence. His next cinematic effort, the
surreal documentary "Baby Snakes" (1979), also displayed Zappa's odd brand of
humor and a nifty stop-motion animation sequence by Bruce Bickford. Zappa's
final film project was a documentary on clay animator Bickford, entitled "The
Amazing Mr. Bickford" (1989), which he produced, directed, wrote, and supplied
with songs.
During the mid-80s, Zappa became widely visible as a staunch defender of free
speech in popular music, even testifying before a Senate sub-committee and the
PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) on "porn rock" and the labeling of albums
that feature "explicit" lyrics. He likened their method of censorship to
"treating dandruff by decapitation". Zappa's final years were spent in a public
battle with prostate cancer to which he succumbed in 1993.
