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

Buck Merrill

The Outsiders

Benny

Rumble Fish

Tom (segment "Somewhere in California")

Coffee and Cigarettes

Rex Blau

Licorice Pizza

Zack

Down by Law

Earl Piggot

Short Cuts

Singer in Bar

Bis ans Ende der Welt

Self / Sè stesso

La tigre e la neve

Engineer

The Book of Eli

Devil

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Kneller

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Doc Heller

Mystery Men

Self

Roy Orbison: Black and White Night 30

Rudy

Ironweed

Self

Big Time

Self

Tom Waits at Theatre le Palace

Al Silk

Candy Mountain

Self - Organ/Guitar

Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night

Monte

Queens Logic

Wolf

At Play in the Fields of the Lord

Narrator (voice)

Twixt

Zachariah Rigby

Seven Psychopaths

Kenny

Cold Feet

Narrator

A Brief History of John Baldessari

Self

Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert]

Self

Tom Waits: Romeo Bleeding - Live from Austin

Self

Tom Waits - Bridge School Benefit

Self

Tom Waits - One Star Shining : The First Decade

Self

Tom Waits: Under Review

Self

Tom Waits - No Visitors After Midnight

Self

One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur

Self

Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna

Mumbles

Paradise Alley

Wanderer

Domino

(voice)

Wildwood

Zack (Archive footage)

John Lurie: A Lounge Lizard Alone

The Caller

Star.Wav

Silva

Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale

Narrator

The Laughing Heart

Self

Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Concert Experience

Irving Stark

The Cotton Club

Self

Robert Wilson – Die Schönheit des Geheimnisvollen

Plainclothes Policeman (uncredited)

The Two Jakes

Self

Keith Richards: Under the Influence

Disabled Vet (uncredited)

The Fisher King

Father

Father Mother Sister Brother

Self

Tom Waits: VH1 Storytellers

Self

This Is Sparklehorse

Trumpet player (uncredited)

One from the Heart

Radio DJ (voice)

Mystery Train

Self

Tom Waits for No One

Waller

The Old Man & the Gun

Tom

Coffee and Cigarettes III

Self

Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox

Self

Bukowski: Born Into This

Prospector (segment "All Gold Canyon")

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Petrified man at carnival (uncredited)

The Stone Boy

Self

Poetry in Motion

Self

Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country

Hermit Bob

The Dead Don't Die

Captain Millipede (voice)

The Moon’s Milk

Hunley

The Absence of Eden

Self

Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter

Self

Tom Waits: Rockpalast '77

Drunken Bar Owner (uncredited)

Wolfen

News Stand Owner (uncredited)

Motherless Brooklyn

Self

The Making of 'One from the Heart'

R.M. Renfield

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Virgil (Voice)

The Monster of Nix

Narrator (voice)

Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight

Narrator "Laughing Heart" (archive footage)

Human Nature in Eleven Parts

Wild Horse Nine

Self

Tom Waits - Elephant Beer Blues - Songs After Closing Time

Himself

Tom Waits - Live at Premio Tenco in Sanremo Italy

Self

Tom Waits - Live On The Tube

Narrator

Greasy Lake

Temptation

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Known Credits

77

Gender

Male

Birthday

1949-12-07

Place of Birth

Pomona, California, USA

Also Known As

Thomas Alan Waits