Moved to New York City at the age of seventeen from Akron, Ohio. Graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in English, class of '75. Without any prior film experience, he was accepted into the Tisch School of the Arts, New York.
On Feb. 2, 1994, Jarmusch appeared for an interview before an audience on the first night of a retrospective of his films held by the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis, MN. Chris Parker, who starred in Jarmusch's first film Permanent Vacation was a friend of Jarmusch's and had never acted before (according to a 2/2/94 interview with Jarmusch). When Jarmusch submitted "Permanent Vacation" to Tisch as his film thesis/project, they wouldn't accept it - apparently, they didn't think it was worth their time Is the older brother of Ann and Tom Jarmusch. Good friend of Aki Kaurismäki, Finnish director of The Man Without a Past. Placed the final segment of his movie Night on Earth in Finland with the three characters speaking Finnish. Up until 2005, has never made a film under a studio's watch. Attended Columbia University. Once almost died from eating wild mushrooms, which resulted in an interest in the study of mushroom. Doesn't allow his movies to be dubbed for foreign movie markets. They are mostly shown with subtitles in other countries. He owns the negatives to all his own films, except one, Year of the Horse, which he made for Neil Young Father worked at the Goodrich tire plant in Akron, Ohio. Mother reviewed films for the Akron Beacon Journal. Although Broken Flowers came out after Lost in Translation, Jarmusch wrote the script exclusively for Bill Murray before Sofia Coppola. Has lived with his girlfriend, filmmaker Sara Driver, for 20 years. [2005]