Adam Savage

At 57 years old, Adam Savage has this physical status:

Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, lecturer, and television presenter, best known as the former co-host (with Jamie Hyneman) of Discovery Channel television series MythBusters and Unchained Reaction.

His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and The Matrix Reloaded.

He is the host of a new TV show, Savage Builds, which premiered on the Science Channel on June 14, 2019.

Early life

Savage was born in New York City and was raised in North Tarrytown, New York, which was renamed Sleepy Hollow in 1996. In 1985, he graduated from Sleepy Hollow High School. Cushman Haagensen, his maternal grandfather, was a pioneer of breast cancer surgery. Whitney Lee Savage (1928–1998), a painter, film director, and animator best known for his work on Sesame Street, and he also worked in the Clay Center's permanent collection in Charleston, West Virginia, was his father. Whitney Lee was also responsible for producing the 1969 underground short film Mickey Mouse in Vietnam. Karen was a psychotherapist. Savage was his second youngest of six children, with four of his older children inheriting from his parents' previous marriages. He has two older brothers, two older sisters, and one younger sister. Kate Savage, his sister, is also an artist.

Savage began behaving as a child and attended five years of acting school. He started his career as a voice actor on Sesame Street, Mr. Whipple's stock boy Jimmy, and a drowning young man saved by a lifeguard in 1985 Billy Joel's "You're Only Human (Second Wind).

By the time he was 19 years old, Savage had stopped acting. He continued on to "doing stuff with my hands." "The ultimate mingling of two things, appearance, and special effects" is MythBusters' description. As a child in Sleepy Hollow, Savage, a teenager, erroneously visited the local bike shop to have flat tires fixed. The guy was shown how to do the repairs himself. "I knew you could take a bike apart and put it back together, and that wasn't that difficult...I've been building and putting bicycles together since then," Savage said.

Savage broke his neck in a swimming crash on his eighteenth birthday, which caused him to suffer with no long-term damage.

Personal life

On September 11, 2004, Savage married Julia Ward. He has two sons from his previous marriage. Because of congenital otosclerosis, he wears hearing aids in both ears.

Savage lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on Eighth Avenue and Carroll Street in the late 1980s. He and his parents worked for a graphic design company in Manhattan for less than a year. In August 1990, a close friend who was living on Broderick Street in San Francisco begged him to become his roommate, and Savage moved to San Francisco. He lives in San Francisco.

Savage has openly stated that he is an atheist. Savage said he had married 20 to 25 couples over the course of 25 years, implying that he was an elected minister with the Universal Life Church, a denomination whose sole belief is "Do what is right."

Savage has a lifetime fascination with costume making and cosplay: "I remember my mom buying me a Jaws costume when Jaws first came out...and wearing a Batman costume." Back in the day, everyone dressed up as hobos. He is on the lookout for authenticity in his costumes. He and his father designed a suit of armor out of aluminum roof flashing that had seven hundred rivets while in high school. "I took it to school and was forced to leave heat exhaustion in math class." I woke up in the nurse's office, and the first thing I said was, "Where's my armour?"

Miranda Pacchiana, Savage's younger sister, filed a lawsuit against him in June 2020, alleging that Savage assaulted her repeatedly while they were both children. "While I hope that my sister gets the assistance she needs to find peace," Savage said, "this needs to come to an end." For many years, she has systematically and insulted me and other members of my family's "Irma"—I would combat this groundless and insulting lawsuit and make it a stalemate once and for all." Adam's sister came to Adam's defense, saying, "It makes me really sad to say this, but my daughter has recurring mental health issues, and it's sad that she's putting Adam and our entire family through this." Adam is a good guy, and I adore him completely." The case was settled through mediation on May 24, 2021, and then dismissed on May 25, 2021. The settlement's particulars were not disclosed publicly. Pacchiana's original blog post about Savage, which had caused the litigation, was taken down by Pacchiana.

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Career

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 the films Galaxy Quest, Bicentennial Man, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, The Mummy, The Matrix Reloaded, and Space Cowboys, among others. Savage played the role of a helpful engineer in the 2001 film Ever Since the World Ended and the role of an army surplus store owner who sells a man a rocket engine for his pickup truck in 2006 in The Darwin Awards, which also featured MythBusters co-star Jamie Hyneman. He made a cameo appearance with Hyneman on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on the May 1, 2008, episode "The Theory of Everything." In the "making of" material for The Matrix Revolutions, he appears in his role as a special effects artist and discusses some of the miniature effects used and the difficulties involved. He previously taught advanced model making in the department of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Savage has become a regular presenter at magician James Randi's annual skeptics conference, The Amaz!ng Meeting, since first appearing in January 2006. Savage credits his introduction to the skeptical community to Michael Shermer, who interviewed him for Skeptic Magazine. He also appeared in the United Kingdom, giving a talk at the first Amaz!ng Meeting London from October 3 to 4, 2009, hosted at the Mermaid Conference Centre, Blackfriars. Savage was a featured performer at the three w00tstock v1.x shows in 2009 and appeared in four w00tstock v2.x shows in 2010. He also appeared as a guest on Diggnation's 220th show. Savage has also 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 also taking questions from the audience members about MythBusters, among other topics. Savage hosted an episode of the Discovery Channel series Curiosity, in which he speculated as to whether or not it is possible for humans to live forever. During the program various topics such as limb regeneration, organ printers, and even age reversal are discussed. In 2011, Savage appeared as "Dan" in a short film directed by Frank Ippolito titled 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.

Savage and Hyneman were judges on the game show Unchained Reaction which premiered in March 2012. Savage is an occasional guest host for lecture events at the San Francisco-based non-profit City Arts & Lectures, and delivered a keynote address at South by Southwest conference on March 10, 2014. On March 24, 2012 Savage appeared as a featured speaker at the first Reason Rally in Washington D.C. On May 18, 2012, Savage was the commencement speaker at Sarah Lawrence College. Savage is a co-host on 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 DIY and work ethic. Episodes typically last 30–45 minutes. Savage is a co-owner, editor and contributor at tested.com.

In 2017, Savage toured with Michael Stevens on the Brain Candy LIVE! tour. In April 2017, Savage played the role of a mission specialist in episode Caliban's War of the series The Expanse. In June 2017 Savage was named "Humanist of the Year" by the American Humanist Association at their annual conference. October 2017, Savage played a cameo as a merchant selling blood bags in the Blade Runner 2049 short film prequel, 2048: Nowhere to Run. In April 2018, Discovery Channel announced that Savage will host and produce a new series called MythBusters Jr., a series focused on a group of young scientists tasked with completing various experiments of challenges through the use of STEAM skills. In July 2018, Savage in a collaboration with Weta Workshop created and acted in the shortfilm A Farewell To Arms. In the same year, he won the Heinz Oberhummer Award for Science Communication. On February 20, 2020, Savage was appointed the Creative Director of SiliCon (formally Silicon Valley Comic Con), succeeding Steve Wozniak.

Savage's role with his co-hosts is 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. 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, Chapman was replaced by Grant Imahara, a robot builder and model maker. Filmed in San Francisco and edited in Artarmon, New South Wales, Australia, MythBusters aired 282 total episodes before its cancellation at the end of its 2016 season in March. On November 15, 2017, sister network Science Channel revived the series with the new hosts Jon Lung and Brian Louden, who were selected via the competition spin-off MythBusters: The Search.

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

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

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