Alejandro Jodorowsky — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-06-12

A Chilean surrealist who made films so violent and mystical they couldn't get proper distribution, then became a cult deity anyway. John Lennon loved El Topo enough to fund his next one.

Biography

About

Born 17 February 1929, Jodorowsky dropped out of college and worked as a clown before founding Teatro Mímico in 1947. He moved to Paris in the early 1950s to study mime under Étienne Decroux, appearing in the silent film Les têtes interverties in 1957. From 1960 he split time between Mexico City and Paris, co-founding Panic Movement, a surrealist collective staging violent theatrical events. His first feature, Fando y Lis (1967), caused such scandal in Mexico it was banned. The acid western El Topo (1970) became the first midnight cult film and caught Lennon's ear; former Beatles manager Allen…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Alejandro Jodorowsky

Alejandro Jodorowsky

said2016

Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.

— As quoted in Investing with Impact: Why Finance is a Force for Good (2016) by Jeremy Balkin

Alejandro Jodorowsky

said2007

I think the art of filmmaking is something you learn through actions, by doing it, not by learning theories. And as you do it, your mind starts to change.

— Anarchy and Alchemy: the Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky by Ben Cobb (2007) p. 115

Alejandro Jodorowsky

saidundated

At that time they said I was crazy because I wanted to make a movie that was 14 or 16 hours. But now people do it.

— Alejandro Jodorowsky reveals how his Dune inspired alien challanges to get the script published

Alejandro Jodorowsky

saidundated

For art to be art it has to cure.

Alejandro Jodorowsky

saidundated

It is useless to know the future if one ignores who one is here in the moment. (...) The more I advance, the more I notice that all problems stem from the genealogy tree.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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