Trivia

Told New York Times that the first time he visited a whorehouse, as a soldier in France during World War II, he was taken there by Ernest Hemingway.

His films have influenced both John Waters and John Landis. Waters has often cited him as inspiration for his female characters.

His works were considered pornographic at the time of their release, but contain very little graphic sexual content by today's standards.

Famous for his breast fetish, Meyer would often cast women in their first trimester of pregnancy as their breasts would have ballooned even further. He also had a dislike for augmented breasts and would not be featured in his films until Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens (1979).

While bivouacked at Moberley House, Manchester, sometime in May 1944, he was assigned by Col. Laughton, of the US Army Pictorial Service (London), to film a group of GI prisoners being trained in a stockade near Southampton. The Military Police guards told Meyer that they had been convicted of capital crimes and had been sentenced to death, but had agreed to be parachuted behind enemy lines prior to D-Day in a daring sabotage mission. He was driven there by his army driver, Charles E. Sumners, filmed the 12 dirty, uncooperative prisoners (one of whom was an American Indian and one of whom was black) for about 40 minutes, then returned to his unit. He sent the 200-foot reel to headquarters and later received the usual critique by Capt. Fred F. Fox on his work. Meyer encountered Col. Laughton near Metz, after the invasion, and was told the men had been parachuted into France, but had not been heard from since. Meyer told this story to his friend Eric Michael Nathanson, who was impressed by it, and used the story as the basis for his novel (as E.M. Nathanson) "The Dirty Dozen", which became the monster hit movie The Dirty Dozen (1967).

In 1977, Malcolm McLaren hired Meyer to direct a film starring Sex Pistols. Meyer handed the scriptwriting duties over to Roger Ebert, who, in collaboration with McLaren, produced a screenplay entitled "Who Killed Bambi?". According to Ebert, filming ended after a day and a half when the electricians walked off the set after McLaren was unable to pay them (McLaren has claimed that the project actually died at the behest of main financier 20th Century-Fox, under the pretext that "We are in the business of making family entertainment.").

In the 1980s he directed a video for a rock band who took their name from one of his films--Faster Pussycat. The bands Vixen and Mudhoney also took their names from Meyer film titles, even though Meyer had no connection to them.

A first-rate cameraman, Meyer fine-tuned his craft in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. After the war he moved to Hollywood to try to find work as a studio cameraman, but despite his expertise and the excellent footage he had shot during the war, he was refused a job due to the guild system. The Hollywood guilds typically were closed to outsiders unless they had gone through the apprentice system by starting at the very bottom.

Considered his marriage to third wife Edy Williams a huge mistake. After divorcing Williams, he never married again.

His films are often studied in film schools and shown on the cult film festival circuit.

Famously reclusive, he rarely granted interviews in person but most of his 24 movies have been released through his company, RM Films.

Told John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of the punk rock band Sex Pistols) during the pre-production of the ultimately aborted Sex Pistols film, "Who Killed Bambi?", that the United States had saved Britain during World War II after Rotten had expressed his distaste for Americans. Meyer had been stationed in Britain during the war; Rotten was unimpressed.

A World War II US army veteran, Meyer had a special hatred for Adolf Hitler and often incorporated scathing satirical humor involving the Nazis and Hitler himself in his movies to mock and ridicule them, which explains why they always get their just desserts in his films.

Although he briefly attended junior college, he admitted that he was pretty much self-taught as a photographer and filmmaker.

Served in the US Army during World War II, with the 166th Signal Photographic Company, attaining the rank of Staff Sergeant and was commissioned to the 3rd US Army Headquarters, under the command of Gen. George S. Patton. On the afternoon of July 3, 1944, his section (Newsreel Unit #1) boarded a landing ship tank (LST) pointing to Normandy, France. Meyeropted to land early before the headquarters' company, and went over the side to a waiting landing craft infantry (LCI), getting a preview of the war immediately at hand. His camerawork--both at rest and during infantry and artillery action--received good reviews from his superiors; his composition and coverage often received special favorable mention. On June 2, 1945, he did a special request for Gen. Patton, and the footage he shot is used in Patton (1970), and seems to have influenced the statue of Patton at the West Point Military Academy, New York.

After his army service he returned to Hollywood and got a job as an industrial cameraman (1945) with the Local 659 Guild of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). After he was regraded to still man (1955), he found work as a still photographer (uncredited) for The Red Skelton Hour (1951), and episodes of such television series as Cheyenne (1955), Gunsmoke (1955), Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1956), Perry Mason (1957), Maverick (1957), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Sea Hunt (1958), Rawhide (1959), The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Fugitive (1963).

Although his films objectified women and often displayed female sexuality and nudity, his films have a cult following among gay men and are popular among them, especially Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970).

Nickname 'King Leer'.

Was good friends with filmmaker John Waters.