Tom Waits
Acting
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.
Wild Horse Nine
Wildwood
(voice)
Father Mother Sister Brother
Father
The Last Ride
Self
Human Nature in Eleven Parts
Narrator "Laughing Heart" (archive footage)
The Absence of Eden
Hunley
Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Concert Experience
Self
This Is Sparklehorse
Self
Robert Wilson: The Beauty of the Mysterious
Self
Licorice Pizza
Rex Blau
Motherless Brooklyn
News Stand Owner (uncredited)
The Dead Don't Die
Hermit Bob
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Prospector (segment "All Gold Canyon")
The Old Man & the Gun
Waller
The Moon’s Milk
Captain Millipede (voice)
Roy Orbison: Black and White Night 30
Self
Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox
Self
Keith Richards: Under the Influence
Self
The Laughing Heart
Narrator
Seven Psychopaths
Zachariah Rigby
A Brief History of John Baldessari
Narrator
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
(archive footage)
Twixt
Narrator (voice)
The Monster of Nix
Virgil (Voice)
The Book of Eli
Engineer
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Devil
Tom Waits: Romeo Bleeding - Live from Austin
Self
Tom Waits: Under Review
Self
One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur
Self
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Kneller
![Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert]](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w92/lxpmTfyfn20JnsbJmjfUKlT7ugU.jpg)
Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert]
Self
Domino
Wanderer
The Tiger and the Snow
Self / Sè stesso
Coffee and Cigarettes
Tom (segment "Somewhere in California")
Bukowski: Born Into This
Self
Tom Waits - Bridge School Benefit
Self
Mystery Men
Doc Heller
Tom Waits: VH1 Storytellers
Self
Tom Waits - Dead Man Walking, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Self
Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight
Narrator (voice)
Coffee and Cigarettes III
Tom
Short Cuts
Earl Piggot
Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country
Self
Bram Stoker's Dracula
R.M. Renfield
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
Wolf
The Fisher King
Disabled Vet (uncredited)
Until the End of the World
Singer in Bar
Queens Logic
Monte
Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter
Self
The Two Jakes
Plainclothes Policeman (uncredited)
John Lurie: A Lounge Lizard Alone
Zack (Archive footage)
Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale
Silva
Mystery Train
Radio DJ (voice)
Cold Feet
Kenny
Tom Waits: Big Time
Self
Candy Mountain
Al Silk
Greasy Lake
Narrator
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
Self - Organ/Guitar
Ironweed
Rudy
Tom Waits - Live at Premio Tenco in Sanremo Italy
Himself
Down by Law
Zack
Tom Waits - Live On The Tube
Self
The Cotton Club
Irving Stark
The Stone Boy
Petrified man at carnival (uncredited)
Rumble Fish
Benny
The Outsiders
Buck Merrill
Poetry in Motion
Self
The Making of 'One from the Heart'
Self
One from the Heart
Trumpet player (uncredited)
Wolfen
Drunken Bar Owner (uncredited)
Tom Waits at Theatre le Palace
Self
Tom Waits: No Visitors After Midnight
Self
Tom Waits for No One
Self
Paradise Alley
Mumbles
Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna
Self
Tom Waits: Rockpalast '77
Self
Tom Waits: Elephant Beer Blues - Songs After Closing Time
Self