Guy Maddin - Early Life

Early Life

Guy Maddin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on February 28, 1956, to Herdis Maddin (a hairdresser) and Charles "Chas" Maddin (grain clerk and general manager of the Maroons, a Winnipeg hockey team). Maddin has three older siblings: Ross (b. 1944), Cameron (1956-1963), and Janet (b. 1949). Maddin attended Greenway Elementary until the sixth grade, then General Wolfe school grades seven throguh nine, then Daniel McIntyire Collegiate Institute grades ten through twelve.

Maddin studied economics at the University of Winnipeg (graduating in 1977) without a plan to become a filmmaker. Instead he worked briefly at a bank, which he disliked: "I spent a lot of time crying in the vault. Literally — I'd say, 'I'm going into the vault,' and would put my head in my hands and weep for twenty minutes. When I quit, it felt good. I didn't know I was going to start making films then." Maddin then became a house painter along with earlier collaborator John Harvie. Maddin next "began to socialize with a group of movie-mad young men dubbed the Drones, and became friends with University of Manitoba professors Stephen Snyder and George Toles ( later went on to co-write many of Maddin's movies)."