Tom Waits
Actor/Actriz
84
Movies
9
TV Shows
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.
As Actor/Actress
Los Simpson
Lloyd (voice)
The Daily Show
Self
Saturday Night Live
Self - Musical Guest
The Mike Douglas Show
Self
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Self - Musical Guest
Austin City Limits
Self
Rockpalast
Drácula de Bram Stoker
R.M. Renfield
Rebeldes
Buck Merrill
El libro de los secretos
Engineer
La Balada de Buster Scruggs
Prospector (segment "All Gold Canyon")
Licorice Pizza
Rex Blau
Siete Psicópatas
Zachariah Rigby
Hombres Misteriosos
Doc Heller
Father Mother Sister Brother
Father
El imaginario mundo del Doctor Parnassus
Devil
Ultra City Smiths
The Narrator (voice)
Final Cut: Hölgyeim és uraim
(archive footage)
Domino
Wanderer
Los muertos no mueren
Hermit Bob
Cotton Club
Irving Stark
El rey pescador
Disabled Vet (uncredited)
Huérfanos de Brooklyn
News Stand Owner (uncredited)
Short Cuts
Earl Piggot
El Bosque Salvaje: Wildwood
(voice)
La taberna del infierno
Mumbles
Mystery Train
Radio DJ (voice)
El amor es un eterno vagabundo
Rudy
La ley de la calle
Benny
Wild Horse Nine
Behind the Camera
Un Buen Ladrón
Thanks
Una noche en la tierra
Compositor, Songs
One from the Heart
Compositor, Songs
Down by Law
Songs
Miral
Songs
Streetwise
Music
Rita Ritter
Compositor
Bunny
Music, Music Producer
Tom Waits: Big Time
Escritor, Compositor, Lighting Design
Жить и умереть в Самарканде
Sound
The Black Rider
Compositor
Stille Nacht V: Dog Door
Lyricist
Tom Waits: Rockpalast '77
Music
La fine della notte
Songs
La première journée de Nicolas
Music
The Fallen
Music