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Photo of Tom Waits

Tom Waits

Actor, Composer, Writer, Additional CreditsBorn December 7, 1949 (75 years)
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.

Movies & Shows on Plex

  • Wristcutters: A Love Story
  • The Cotton Club
  • Miral
  • Ultra City Smiths

Known For

  • Down by Law
  • The Book of Eli
  • Licorice Pizza
  • The Dead Don't Die
  • Bram Stoker's Dracula
  • Short Cuts
  • The Old Man & the Gun
  • One from the Heart
  • Coffee and Cigarettes
  • Wristcutters: A Love Story
  • Coffee and Cigarettes III
  • Ironweed
  • Big Time
  • At Play in the Fields of the Lord
  • Queens Logic
  • Cold Feet
  • Candy Mountain
  • The Absence of Eden
  • Ultra City Smiths
  • The Monster of Nix

Featured Videos

    Filmography

    2026
    Wildwood · as (voice)
    2025
    2023
    The Absence of Eden · as Hunley
    2021
    Licorice Pizza · as Rex Blau
    2021
    Ultra City Smiths (TV Series) · as The Narrator (voice)
    2019
    Motherless Brooklyn · as News Stand Owner (uncredited)
    2019
    The Dead Don't Die · as Hermit Bob
    2018
    The Ballad of Buster Scruggs · as Prospector (segment "all Gold Canyon")
    2018
    2012
    Seven Psychopaths · as Zachariah Rigby
    2011
    Twixt · as Narrator (voice)
    2011
    The Monster of Nix · as Virgil (voice)
    2010
    The Book of Eli · as Engineer
    2009
    2006
    2005
    Domino · as Wanderer
    2003
    Coffee and Cigarettes · as Tom (segment "somewhere In California")
    1999
    Mystery Men · as Doc Heller
    1997
    Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight · as Narrator (voice)
    1993
    Short Cuts · as Earl Piggot
    1993
    1992
    Bram Stoker's Dracula · as R.m. Renfield
    1991
    1991
    The Fisher King · as Disabled Vet (uncredited)
    1991
    Until the End of the World · as Singer In Bar
    1991
    Queens Logic · as Monte
    1990
    The Two Jakes · as Plainclothes Policeman (uncredited)
    1989
    The Simpsons (TV Series) · as Lloyd (voice)
    1989
    1989
    Mystery Train · as Radio Dj (voice)
    1989
    Cold Feet · as Kenny
    1987
    Candy Mountain · as Al Silk
    1987
    Ironweed · as Rudy
    1986
    Down by Law · as Zack
    1984
    The Cotton Club · as Irving Stark
    1984
    The Stone Boy · as Petrified Man At Carnival (uncredited)
    1983
    Rumble Fish · as Benny
    1983
    The Outsiders · as Buck Merrill
    1981
    Wolfen · as Drunken Bar Owner (uncredited)
    1981
    One from the Heart · as Trumpet Player (uncredited)
    1978
    Paradise Alley · as Mumbles
    1974
    Rockpalast (TV Series)

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