Cyndi Lauper Music Video Director Was 78 Years Old

Directed by Edd Griles Cyndi Lauper in the fluffy music video “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” The singer’s breakthrough hit and wildly popular song in the early days of MTV has died. He was 78 years old.

Griles died Tuesday at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, his daughter Allyson Monson said. Hollywood Reporter.

The New York native has also directed music videos for Huey Lewis and the News (“The Heart of Rock & Roll” “If This Is This,” “It’s Up to You”); Eddie Murphy (“Always Party”); Lee Greenwood (“God Bless the USA”); Peter Wolf (“Come As You Are”); Sheena Easton (“Jimmy Mack”); Dark Purple and Rainbow; et al.

He also produced the opening ceremony of the MTV Video Music Awards in 1984; The first ESPY Awards in 1993; and the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants from 1996-99.

Griles began directing music videos in 1979, making one for a band called Blue Angel, which included Lauper. When the group disbanded, she and the Brooklyn-born singer teamed up for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to promote Lauper’s first major single as a solo artist and the lead single from her 1983 debut studio album. He’s So Extraordinary.

The video, which became a feminist anthem, was shot on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the summer of 1983 and premiered on MTV in December 1983. Lauper’s mother Catrine was her mother in the video, while flamboyant professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano was her mother in the video. He was playing his father.

(Griles and producer Ken Walz had developed a relationship with Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation when they tried to make a film set in the world of professional wrestling.)

“Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1984, won her first VMA award for best female video and surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube in January 2022.

Griles also directed music videos for Lauper’s “From time to time” – for which he was nominated as manager of the year at the VMAs – “O Bop” And “The Hole in My Heart.”

Born on November 18, 1945, Edward Mori Griles graduated from Flushing High School in Queens and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He started in advertising in 1965 as an art director at DDB Worldwide, then joined the National Hockey League in 1972 as an editor and creative director. Target Magazine and executive producer for NHL Films.

Griles’ directing and producing resume wasn’t limited to music videos.

For Shelley Duvall‘s Tall Tales and Legends In 1985, he directed the episode “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” starring Ed Begley Jr., Charles Durning and Beverly D’Angelo, and was a producer on the 1988 CBS adaptation. Herman Wouk‘s Caine Rebellion Tribunal-Martial It was directed by Robert Altman.

He also created and produced award shows for cars and bicycles.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife, Danielle; son-in-law David; and grandchildren Max and Carly.