Tom Waits

Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during the 1970s, but his music since the 1980s has reflected greater influence from blues, rock, vaudeville, and experimental genres. Waits was born and raised in a middle-class family in Whittier, California. Inspired by the work of Bob Dylan and the Beat Generation, he began singing on the San Diego folk music circuit as a young boy. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1972, where he worked as a songwriter before signing a recording contract with Asylum Records. His first albums were the jazz-oriented Closing Time (1973) and The Heart of Saturday Night (1974), which reflected his lyrical interest in nightlife, poverty, and criminality. He repeatedly toured the United States, Europe, and Japan, and attracted greater critical recognition and commercial success with Small Change (1976), Blue Valentine (1978), and Heartattack and Vine (1980). He produced the soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's film One from the Heart (1981), and subsequently made cameo appearances in several Coppola films. In 1980, Waits married Kathleen Brennan, split from his manager and record label, and moved to New York City. With Brennan's encouragement and frequent collaboration, he pursued a more experimental and eclectic musical aesthetic influenced by the work of Harry Partch and Captain Beefheart. This was reflected in a series of albums released by Island Records, including Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985), and Franks Wild Years (1987). He continued appearing in films, notably starring in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law (1986), and also made theatrical appearances. With theatre director Robert Wilson, he produced the musicals The Black Rider (1990) and Alice (1992), first performed in Hamburg. Having returned to California in the 1990s, his albums Bone Machine (1992), The Black Rider (1993), and Mule Variations (1999) earned him increasing critical acclaim and multiple Grammy Awards. In the late 1990s, he switched to the record label ANTI-, which released Blood Money (2002), Alice (2002), Real Gone (2004), and Bad as Me (2011). Despite a lack of mainstream commercial success, Waits has influenced many musicians and gained an international cult following, and several biographies have been written about him. In 2015, he was ranked at No. 55 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tom Waits, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Homepage http://www.tomwaits.com/
Birth Location Pomona, California, USA
Born 1949-12-07

Movies

2024
2022
Licorice Pizza as Rex Blau
2021
Motherless Brooklyn as News Stand Owner (uncredited)
2019
The Dead Don't Die as Hermit Bob
2019
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs as Prospector (segment "All Gold Canyon")
2018
2018
The Moon’s Milk as Captain Millipede (voice)
2018
The Laughing Heart as Narrator
2013
Seven Psychopaths as Zachariah Rigby
2012
Twixt as Narrator (voice)
2011
The Monster of Nix as Virgil (Voice)
2011
The Book of Eli as Engineer
2010
2008
2007
Domino as Wanderer
2005
The Tiger and the Snow as Himself / Sè stesso
2005
Coffee and Cigarettes as Tom (segment "Somewhere in California")
2004
2003
Mystery Men as Doc Heller
1999
1999
1997
Short Cuts as Earl Piggot
1993
Bram Stoker's Dracula as R.M. Renfield
1992
The Fisher King as Disabled Vet (uncredited)
1991
Until the End of the World as Singer in Bar (uncredited)
1991
Queens Logic as Monte
1991
The Two Jakes as Plainclothes Policeman (uncredited)
1990
John Lurie: A Lounge Lizard Alone as Zack (Archive footage)
1990
Mystery Train as Radio DJ (voice)
1989
Cold Feet as Kenny
1989
Big Time as Himself
1988
Candy Mountain as Al Silk
1988
Ironweed as Rudy
1987
Down by Law as Zack
1986
The Cotton Club as Irving Stark
1984
The Stone Boy as Petrified man at carnival (uncredited)
1984
Rumble Fish as Benny
1983
The Outsiders as Buck Merrill
1983
Poetry in Motion as Himself
1982
One from the Heart as Trumpet player (uncredited)
1982
Wolfen as Drunken Bar Owner (uncredited)
1981
1979
Paradise Alley as Mumbles
1978
1978
1977
Wildwood as (voice)
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Star.Wav as The Caller
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Movies

The Fallen Music
2010
The Last Castle Original Music Composer
2001
2001
Bunny Music Producer
1998
Bunny Music
1998
1991
Night on Earth Original Music Composer
1991
1990
1989
Big Time Writer
1988
Down by Law Songs
1986
Streetwise Music
1984
One from the Heart Original Music Composer
1982