Edd Griles, who directed in the bouncy music video for the singer’s breakthrough hit and a wildly popular tune in the early days of MTV, has died. He was 78. Griles died Tuesday at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, his daughter, Allyson Monson, told .
The New York native also directed music videos for Huey Lewis and the News ( “If This Is It,” “Stuck with You”); Eddie Murphy ( ); Lee Greenwood (“God Bless the USA”); Peter Wolf (“Come as You Are”); Sheena Easton (“Jimmy Mack”); Deep Purple and Rainbow; and others. He also produced the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984; the first ESPY Awards in 1993; and from 1996-99, the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants. Griles began directing music videos in 1979, and he did one for a band called Blue Angel, which included Lauper.
When that group split, he and the Brooklyn-born singer teamed for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to promote Lauper’s first major single as a solo artist and the lead single from her debut studio album, 1983’s . The video for what became a feminist anthem was shot on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the summer of 1983 and premiered on MTV in December 1983. Lauper’s mother, Catrine, was her mom in the video, while the flamboyant pro wrestler Captain Lou Albano portrayed her dad.
(Griles and producer Ken Walz had developed a relationship with Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation when they attempted to.
