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Adam Savage

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For the British drummer, see While She Sleeps.

Adam Savage
Savage in 2017
Born
Adam Whitney Savage

(1967-07-15) July 15, 1967 (age 57)
New York City, U.S.
Alma materNew York University - Tisch
Occupation(s)Designer, fabricator, actor, educator
Spouse
Julia Ward
​
(m. 2004)​
Children2
Websiteadamsavage.com

Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967)[1] is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, educator, television personality and producer, best known as the former co-host, with Jamie Hyneman, of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters and Unchained Reaction.[2] His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and The Matrix Reloaded. He hosts the TV program Savage Builds, which premiered on the Science Channel on June 14, 2019.[3] He is most active on the platform Adam Savage's Tested, which includes a website and a YouTube channel.

Early life

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Savage was born in New York City and raised in North Tarrytown, New York (now Sleepy Hollow).[4] He graduated from Sleepy Hollow High School in 1985.[5] His maternal grandfather, Cushman Haagensen, was a surgeon who pioneered breast cancer surgery.[6] His father, Whitney Lee Savage (1928–1998), was a painter, filmmaker, and animator known for his work on Sesame Street and The Electric Company, two nationally syndicated public television children's shows. The Clay Center in Charleston, West Virginia, features some of his work in its permanent collection.[7][8] Whitney Lee was also known for directing the 1969 underground short film Mickey Mouse in Vietnam.[9]

His mother, Karen, was a psychotherapist. Savage was the second youngest of six children, with the four older children coming from his parents' previous marriages. He has two older brothers,[10] two older sisters, and one younger sister.[11] His sister Kate Savage is an artist.

Savage began acting as a child and had five years of acting school.[2] His early credits include voicing animated characters that his father produced for Sesame Street, Mr. Whipple's stock boy Jimmy in a Charmin commercial, and a drowning young man saved by a lifeguard in the 1985 Billy Joel music video "You're Only Human (Second Wind)."[12]

Savage abandoned acting at age 19. "I had passed on that in favor of doing stuff with my hands," he said. He describes MythBusters as "the perfect marriage of two things, performance, and special effects."[13] As a teenager in Sleepy Hollow, Savage routinely visited the local bike shop to have flat tires fixed. The shop showed him how to do the repairs himself. From this experience, Savage said, "I realized you could take a bike apart and put it back together and it wasn't that hard… I've been building and putting bicycles together since then."[5]

Savage broke his neck on his eighteenth birthday in a swimming accident, an injury he survived without suffering long-term consequences.[14]

Career

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Savage in July 2008
MythBusters Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, Jamie Hyneman, Grant Imahara, and Savage in 2012.

Savage has worked as an animator, graphic designer, carpenter, projectionist, film developer, television presenter, set designer, toy designer, and gallery owner. He worked as a model maker on Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, The Mummy, The Matrix Reloaded, and Space Cowboys, among others. He played the role of a helpful engineer in the 2001 film Ever Since the World Ended and the part of an army surplus store owner who sells a man a rocket engine for his pickup truck in the 2006 The Darwin Awards, which also featured MythBusters co-star Jamie Hyneman.

Savage appeared with Hyneman on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on the May 1, 2008 episode "The Theory of Everything." He appears as a special effects artist in the "making of" material for The Matrix Revolutions, where he discusses some of the miniature effects used and the difficulties involved.[citation needed] He previously taught advanced model making in the Department of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.[2]

Savage has become a regular presenter at magician James Randi's annual skeptics conference The Amaz!ng Meeting since first appearing in January 2006.[15] He credits Michael Shermer with introducing him to the skeptical community. Shermer interviewed him for Skeptic Magazine in 2006.[16] He appeared in the United Kingdom, giving a talk at the first Amaz!ng Meeting London in October 2009 hosted at the Mermaid Conference Centre, Blackfriars.[17] He was a featured performer at the three w00tstock v1.x shows in 2009 and appeared in four w00tstock v2.x shows in 2010. He appeared as a guest on Diggnation's 220th show.[18]

Savage has been a regular guest speaker at the annual Maker Faire since 2008, speaking on different topics such as his obsession with the dodo bird and problem-solving, and taking questions from the audience members about MythBusters, among other topics. He hosted an episode of the Discovery Channel series Curiosity, in which he speculated whether humans could live forever. He discussed various topics during the program, such as limb regeneration, organ printers, and age reversal. In 2011, he appeared as "Dan" in a short film directed by Frank Ippolito entitled Night of the Little Dead. On November 25, 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Twente (Enschede, Netherlands) for popularizing science and technology.[19][20]

Savage and Hyneman were judges on the game show Unchained Reaction which premiered in March 2012.[21] Savage is an occasional guest host for lecture events at the San Francisco-based non-profit City Arts & Lectures,[22] and he delivered a keynote address at the South by Southwest conference on March 10, 2014.[23] On March 24, 2012, he appeared as a featured speaker at the first Reason Rally in Washington D.C.[24] On May 18, 2012, he was the commencement speaker at Sarah Lawrence College.[25][26] He co-hosts the weekly podcast Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project. The project launched on June 5, 2012, and is in the format of a conversation between Savage, tested.com editors-in-chief Will Smith and Norman Chan, and Simone Giertz about topics from science and movies to do it yourself and work ethics. Episodes typically last 30 to 45 minutes.[27] Savage is a co-owner, editor, and contributor at tested.com.[28][29][30]

Savage in May 2019

In 2017, Savage toured with Michael Stevens on the Brain Candy LIVE! tour.[31][32] In April 2017, he played the role of a mission specialist in the episode Caliban's War of the series The Expanse. In June 2017, he was named "Humanist of the Year" by the American Humanist Association at their annual conference.[33] In October 2017, he played a cameo as a merchant selling blood bags in the Blade Runner 2049 short film 2048: Nowhere to Run.[34]

In April 2018, Discovery Channel announced that Savage would host and produce a new series called MythBusters Jr. which focused on a group of young scientists tasked with completing various experiments using STEAM skills.[35][36] In July 2018, he created and acted in the short film A Farewell To Arms in collaboration with Weta Workshop.[37] The same year, he won the Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication.[38] In February 2020, SiliCon Valley Comic Con appointed him as its Creative Director, succeeding Steve Wozniak.[39]

In 2022, Savage became godfather of the Discovery Princess cruise ship.[40] In 2023, he created a box for Isaac Newton's death mask held by the Royal Society.[41][42]

MythBusters

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See also: List of MythBusters cast members and MythBusters
Savage in July 2011

Savage starred on MythBusters from 2003 to 2016. His role with his co-hosts was to disprove or confirm myths through testing and experiments done at different scales. His demeanor on MythBusters is animated and energetic, providing a foil to Jamie Hyneman's more reserved straight-man persona.[43] Savage and Hyneman were the sole hosts of the show for the first season of MythBusters. They introduced members of Hyneman's staff in the second season, who began to appear regularly. Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and welder Scottie Chapman appeared in the second season.

In the third season, robot-builder and model-maker Grant Imahara replaced Chapman. MythBusters was filmed in San Francisco and edited in Artarmon, New South Wales. It aired 282 total episodes before its cancellation at the end of its 2016 season. In November 2017, Discovery's sister network Science Channel revived the series with new hosts Jon Lung and Brian Louden.[44]

In 2019, Savage hosted the spin-off series Mythbusters Jr., featuring a team of teenagers skilled in STEAM topics.

Other work

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In 2019 Savage published his first book, Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It,[45] exploring his approach to making.

Personal life

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Savage married Julia Ward on September 11, 2004.[46] He has twin sons from a previous relationship.[47] He wears hearing aids in both ears due to congenital otosclerosis.[48][49]

In the late 1980s, Savage lived at Eighth Avenue and Carroll Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn.[50] He later moved in with his parents for less than a year, working for a graphic design firm in Manhattan.[50] A close friend living on Broderick Street in San Francisco asked him to become his roommate, and Savage moved to San Francisco in August 1990.[50] He continues to live in San Francisco.[51]

In a 2011 interview, Savage has publicly identified himself as an atheist. In a 2019 Twitter post, he said he was an agnostic.[52][53] In a YouTube video dated December 14, 2020, Savage stated that he had married 20 to 25 couples over 25 years, and implied that he was an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church, a group whose only belief is "Do that which is right."[54]

Regarding his relationship with Hyneman, he mentioned that although the two were not friends, they had mutual respect for each other, stating "We didn't care to say the truth to each other, because we didn't care if we hurt each other's feelings," he said. "It has to do with respect."[55]

Savage has a lifelong interest in costume making and cosplay: "I remember my mom getting me a Jaws costume when Jaws came out… and wearing a Batman costume. Back then, everyone dressed up as hobos." He strives for authenticity with his costumes. While in high school, he and his father made a suit of armor out of aluminum roof flashing with seven hundred rivets. "I wore it to school and passed out from heat exhaustion in math class. I woke up in the nurse's office, and the first thing I said was, 'Where's my armor?'"[5]

In June 2020, Savage's younger sister, Miranda Pacchiana, filed a lawsuit against him, alleging that Savage had repeatedly raped her when they were both children.[56][57] Savage responded:

While I hope that my sister gets the help she needs to find peace, this needs to end. For many years, she has relentlessly and falsely attacked me and other members of my family to anyone who will listen [...] I will fight this groundless and offensive lawsuit and work to put this to rest once and for all.

The siblings' mother came to Adam's defense, stating, "It makes me very sad to say this, but my daughter suffers from severe mental health challenges, and it's devastating that she's putting Adam and our entire family through this. Adam is a good man, and I support him completely."[57] The lawsuit was settled through mediation on May 24, 2021, and dismissed the next day. Details of the settlement were not made public. Pacchiana removed her original blog post about Savage, which had precipitated the lawsuit.[58]

References

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  1. ^ Chase's calendar of events 2009. McGraw-Hill Professional. 2009. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-07-159956-6.
  2. ^ a b c Adam Savage (August 20, 2008). "Skeptics' Guide to the Universe #215 with guest Adam Savage" (MP3). The Skeptics Guide to the Universe (Interview). Interviewed by Steve Novella; Bob Novella; Rebecca Watson; Evan Bernstein. Archived from the original on December 19, 2008. Retrieved November 18, 2008.
  3. ^ Pereira, Alyssa (April 24, 2019). "Iron Man suits and Mad Max-mobiles: Adam Savage to build cool stuff in new Science Channel show". SFGate.com. SF Gate. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  4. ^ "Bio-Adam Savage 2008" (PDF). Symantec. Archived from the original (.PDF) on June 27, 2008. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Kramer, Peter D. (October 29, 2011). "Reminiscing with 'Mythbuster' Adam Savage". The Journal News. Journal News Media Group. pp. B1–B2. Archived from the original on January 22, 2012. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
  6. ^ Adam tells this in Tour of Adam Savage's Home Office
  7. ^ "Clay Center Permanent Collection: W. Lee Savage (1928-1998)". Retrieved August 9, 2022.
  8. ^ "Episode 219: Adam Savage". The Jordan Harbinger Show. July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2023. My dad was not a muppeteer. My dad was an animator […]
  9. ^ Doctorow, Cory (June 23, 2013). "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam". Boing Boing. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  10. ^ "Adam Savage on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  11. ^ Tested (April 4, 2013), Adam Savage Growing Up: In Conversation with Adam's Mom, archived from the original on April 10, 2013, retrieved April 22, 2016
  12. ^ "Adam Savage, Co-Host". The Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008. Retrieved September 20, 2008.
  13. ^ Dwyer, John Stephen (May 5, 2010). "The men behind the MythBusters". Blast Magazine. Archived from the original on November 4, 2010. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
  14. ^ "Ask Adam Savage: "How I Broke My Neck"". youtube.com. July 17, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  15. ^ Wagg, Jeff (February 4, 2008). "The Amaz!ng Meeting 6". James Randi Educational Foundation. Archived from the original on July 10, 2009. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
  16. ^ "Skepticality". Skeptic Magazine. December 12, 2006. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  17. ^ "Amazing Meeting London (2009)". Speakers at Amazing Meeting London. 2009. Archived from the original on April 3, 2009. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
  18. ^ Episode 220: Mythnation! Archived September 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine at Revision3
  19. ^ UT awards honorary doctorates to MythBusters, two leading scientists and a business pioneer Archived July 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine - website of the University of Twente
  20. ^ Mythbuster in Nederland - website EenVandaag (Dutch)
  21. ^ Hibberd, James (January 20, 2012). "'MythBusters' hosts launching new show". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 20, 2012.
  22. ^ "Adam Savage & John Hodgman - City Arts & Lectures".
  23. ^ "Adam Savage to Keynote SXSW Interactive on Monday, March 10". South by Southwest 2016 Music, Film and Interactive Festivals - Austin Texas.
  24. ^ Savage, Adam (March 25, 2012). "Adam Savage at the Reason Rally". YouTube. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021.
  25. ^ "84th Commencement: May 18, 2012". Sarah Lawrence College. May 2012.
  26. ^ "Adam Savage, Commencement Keynote Address". Sarah Lawrence College. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  27. ^ "Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project". iTunes.
  28. ^ "Myths Adam Regrets Tackling on MythBusters and Much, Much More". YouTube. October 13, 2021.
  29. ^ "Viral Video: MythBusters' "Tested"". Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  30. ^ "Unleashing a Myth Buster: Q&A with Adam Savage". FLY. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  31. ^ "Adam Savage Talks up New Science Tour BRAIN CANDY LIVE!". Nerdist.com. Archived from the original on January 29, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  32. ^ Tupponce, Joan (February 15, 2017). "Curious minds come together for 'Brain Candy Live' in Richmond on Feb. 22".
  33. ^ "Building Humanism, Busting Myth and Privilege". The Humanist.com. The American Humanist Association. October 24, 2017. Archived from the original on January 22, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  34. ^ "Adam Savage Becomes an Extra in Blade Runner 2049 Short! - YouTube". www.youtube.com. October 11, 2017. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  35. ^ France, Lisa Respers (April 12, 2018). "Adam Savage is returning with a 'MythBusters' series for kids". CNN. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  36. ^ Burton, Bonnie (April 10, 2018). "Adam Savage to host new show, MythBusters Jr". CNET. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  37. ^ Adam Savage presents: “A Farewell to Arms” on YouTube
  38. ^ Oberhummer-Award an „MythBuster“ Adam Savage
  39. ^ Rezaee, Stan (February 20, 2020). "Adam Savage is the new Creative Director of Silicon Valley Comic Con". 8Bit/Digi.
  40. ^ "Princess Cruises Announces Godparents of Discovery Princess". April 26, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  41. ^ A New Box for Isaac Newton (feat. Adam Savage) - Objectivity 275, June 7, 2023, retrieved August 8, 2023
  42. ^ "Adam Savage's Tested: One Day Builds--Isaac Newton's Death Mask Box". dcmp.org. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
  43. ^ Strauss, Gary (January 15, 2008). "'MythBusters' is the stuff of legends, tall tales". USA Today. p. 1. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
  44. ^ Petski, Denise (July 26, 2017). "Science Channel Sets 'Mythbusters' Return Date – TCA". Deadline. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  45. ^ Xeni, Jardin (May 15, 2019). "Adam Savage, 'Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It' [BOOKS]". BoingBoing. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  46. ^ Chan, Norman (September 12, 2018). "Unlicensed Art - Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project - 9/12/18". Tested. Archived from the original on September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  47. ^ Purdy, Kevin (May 30, 2009). "MythBusters' Adam Savage Talks Tech, Obsessions, and Science". Lifehacker. Archived from the original on June 15, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  48. ^ Savage, Adam (May 4, 2009). "Adam Savage: @jayyoozee Yes I wear a he ..." Adam Savage Twitter. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
  49. ^ Tested in 2018: Adam Savage's Favorite Things!. Adam Savage's Tested. Event occurs at 8m9s. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021 – via Youtube.
  50. ^ a b c "Ask Adam Savage: 'Did you ever meet George Lucas?'" (video). Adam Savage's Tested. May 24, 2020.
  51. ^ Ting, Eric (December 28, 2019). "Former 'MythBusters' host living in San Francisco keeps getting his stuff stolen". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
  52. ^ Savage, Adam (April 18, 2010). Food for The Eagle (Speech). Boing Boing. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
  53. ^ In a 2011 interview on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show, at 1:20:00, Adam Savage is quoted as saying "Both Jamie and I are atheists."
  54. ^ Savage, Adam (December 14, 2020). "Ask Adam Savage: What Is a "Maker"?". Adam Savage's Tested. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  55. ^ Pereira, Alyssa (August 18, 2019). "Adam Savage drops a few 'Mythbusters' secrets at Silicon Valley Comic Con". SFGate. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
  56. ^ Moniuszko, Sara M (July 1, 2020). "'MythBusters' star Adam Savage's sister accuses him of sexual abuse when they were kids". USA Today. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  57. ^ a b Thorne, Will (June 30, 2020). "'Mythbusters' Host Adam Savage Denies Sister's Sexual Abuse Allegations". Variety. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  58. ^ "Pacchiana v. Savage (7:20-cv-05774) Court Records". CourtListener. May 25, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
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