Tom Waits

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1949-12-07 (74 years old)

Place of Birth Pomona, California, USA

Also Known As Thomas Alan Waits, 汤姆·威兹

Tom Waits

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 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

Actor

Wildwood

as (voice)

Star.Wav

as The Caller

2024
2021
Licorice Pizza

as Rex Blau

2021
Ultra City Smiths

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
2018
The Moon’s Milk

as Captain Millipede (voice)

2013
The Laughing Heart

as Narrator

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

2005
The Tiger and the Snow

as Self / Sè stesso

2005
Domino

as Wanderer

2004
Coffee and Cigarettes

as Tom (segment "Somewhere in California")

1999
Mystery Men

as Doc Heller

1997
1996
1993
Short Cuts

as Earl Piggot

1993
Late Night with Conan O'Brien

as Self - Musical Guest

1992
Bram Stoker's Dracula

as R.M. Renfield

1991
The Fisher King

as Disabled Vet (uncredited)

1991
1991
Queens Logic

as Monte

1991
1990
The Two Jakes

as Plainclothes Policeman (uncredited)

1990
John Lurie: A Lounge Lizard Alone

as Zack (Archive footage)

1989
Mystery Train

as Radio DJ (voice)

1989
Cold Feet

as Kenny

1989
The Simpsons

as Lloyd (voice)

1988
Big Time

as Self

1988
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

1982
1982
One from the Heart

as Trumpet player (uncredited)

1981
Wolfen

as Drunken Bar Owner (uncredited)

1978
Paradise Alley

as Mumbles

1975
Saturday Night Live

as Self - Musical Guest

1975

Sound

2010
The Fallen

as Music

2001
The Last Castle

as Original Music Composer

1998
Bunny

as Music

1998
Bunny

as Music Producer

1991
Night on Earth

as Original Music Composer

1991
1990
1989
1989
1986
Down by Law

as Songs

1984
Rita Ritter

as Original Music Composer

1984
Streetwise

as Music

1982
One from the Heart

as Original Music Composer

Writer

2001
1988
Big Time

as Writer