Kenneth Anger was an American experimental filmmaker, actor, and novelist was born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer on February 3, 1927, till May 11, 2023.
He worked in the underground. Beginning in 1937, he made around 40 works, all short films, nine of which have been collectively referred to as the “Magick Lantern Cycle”.
Kenneth Anger parents: Wilbur Anglemyer, Lillian Coler
On February 3, 1927, in Santa Monica, California, Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer was given the name Kenneth Anger. Despite coming from a Presbyterian background, he had a greater interest in the occult.
His crippled mother, Lillian Coler (the eldest of the two), was of English descent, while his father, Wilbur Anglemyer, was of German origin and was born in Troy, Ohio. After being married, Anger’s parents, who had met at Ohio State University, had two children: Jean Anglemyer, born in 1918, and Robert “Bob” Anglemyer, born in 1921.
Anger’s films have been characterised as having “elements of erotica, documentary, psychodrama, and spectacle” and combine surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult in diverse ways.
He has been referred to be “one of America’s first openly gay filmmakers” and had numerous films produced before homosexuality was accepted as a legitimate sexual orientation in the United States.
As a fan of the English magician Aleister Crowley and a follower of Thelema, the religion Crowley created, Anger also investigated esoteric themes in several of his works.
