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Tom Waits
Acting
Biography
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 Recordsβ¦
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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.
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BODY OF WORK
Tom Waits's Filmography
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Ray Gunn
as Eye-Ra (voice)
Wild Horse Nine
Wildwood
as Maxim (voice)
Who Is Martin Mull?
as Self
Father Mother Sister Brother
as Father
The Last Ride
as Self
Human Nature in Eleven Parts
as Narrator "Laughing Heart" (archive footage)
Star.Wav
as The Caller
Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Concert Experience
as Self
This Is Sparklehorse
as Self
Robert Wilson: The Beauty of the Mysterious
as Self
Licorice Pizza
as Rex Blau
Motherless Brooklyn
as News Stand Owner (uncredited)
The Dead Don't Die
as Hermit Bob
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
as Prospector (segment "All Gold Canyon")
The Old Man & the Gun
as Waller
The Moonβs Milk
as Captain Millipede (voice)
Roy Orbison: Black and White Night 30
as Self
Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox
as Self
Keith Richards: Under the Influence
as Self
The Laughing Heart
as Narrator
Seven Psychopaths
as Zachariah Rigby
A Brief History of John Baldessari
as Narrator
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
as (archive footage)
Twixt
as Narrator (voice)
The Monster of Nix
as Virgil (Voice)
The Book of Eli
as Engineer
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
as Devil
Tom Waits: Romeo Bleeding - Live from Austin
as Self
No Poster
Tom Waits: Under Review
as Self
One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur
as Self
Wristcutters: A Love Story
as Kneller
![Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert]](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/lxpmTfyfn20JnsbJmjfUKlT7ugU.jpg)
Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert]
as Self
Domino
as Wanderer
The Tiger and the Snow
as Self / Sè stesso
Coffee and Cigarettes
as Tom (segment "Somewhere in California")
Bukowski: Born Into This
as Self
No Poster
Tom Waits - Bridge School Benefit
as Self
Mystery Men
as Doc Heller
No Poster
Tom Waits: VH1 Storytellers
as Self
Tom Waits - Dead Man Walking, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
as Self
Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight
as Narrator (voice)
Coffee and Cigarettes III
as Tom
Short Cuts
as Earl Piggot
Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country
as Self
Bram Stoker's Dracula
as R.M. Renfield
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
as Wolf
The Fisher King
as Disabled Vet (uncredited)
Until the End of the World
as Singer in Bar
Queens Logic
as Monte
Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter
as Self
The Two Jakes
as Plainclothes Policeman (uncredited)
The Black Rider
as Himself
No Poster
John Lurie: A Lounge Lizard Alone
as Zack (Archive footage)
Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale
as Silva
Mystery Train
as Radio DJ (voice)
Cold Feet
as Kenny
Tom Waits: Big Time
as Self
Candy Mountain
as Al Silk
Greasy Lake
as Narrator
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
as Self - Organ/Guitar
Ironweed
as Rudy
Tom Waits - Live at Premio Tenco in Sanremo Italy
as Himself
Down by Law
as Zack
Tom Waits - Live On The Tube
as Self
The Cotton Club
as Irving Stark
The Stone Boy
as Petrified man at carnival (uncredited)
Rumble Fish
as Benny
The Outsiders
as Buck Merrill
Poetry in Motion
as Self
The Making of 'One from the Heart'
as Self
One from the Heart
as Trumpet player (uncredited)
Wolfen
as Drunken Bar Owner (uncredited)
Tom Waits at Theatre le Palace
as Self
Tom Waits: No Visitors After Midnight
as Self
No Poster
Tom Waits for No One
as Self
Paradise Alley
as Mumbles
No Poster
Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna
as Self
No Poster
Tom Waits: Elephant Beer Blues - Songs After Closing Time
as Self
No Poster
Tom Waits - One Star Shining : The First Decade
as Self