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.
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Filmography
all 91
Movies 81
self 35
TV Shows 10
Voice 4
Narrator 4
Writer 1
The Absence of Eden (2024)
Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Concert Experience (2024)
This Is Sparklehorse (2022)
Robert Wilson: The Beauty of the Mysterious (2022)
Licorice Pizza (2021)
Ultra City Smiths (2021)
Motherless Brooklyn (2019)
The Dead Don't Die (2019)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The Old Man & the Gun (2018)
The Moon’s Milk (2018)
Roy Orbison: Black and White Night 30 (2017)
Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox (2017)
Keith Richards: Under the Influence (2015)
The Laughing Heart (2013)
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
A Brief History of John Baldessari (2012)
Twixt (2011)
The Monster of Nix (2011)
Tom Waits: Under the Influence (2010)
The Book of Eli (2010)
The Fallen (2010)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Tom Waits: Romeo Bleeding - Live from Austin (2009)
Tom Waits: Under Review (2008)
One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur (2008)
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2007)
To live and to die in Samarkand (2007)
Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert] (2006)
Domino (2005)
The Tiger and the Snow (2005)
Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)
The Dream Studio (2004)
Bukowski: Born Into This (2003)
The Last Castle (2001)
Stille Nacht V: Dog Door (2001)
Tom Waits - Bridge School Benefit (1999)
Mystery Men (1999)
Tom Waits: VH1 Storytellers (1999)
Bunny (1998)
Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight (1997)
Coffee and Cigarettes III (1997)
The Daily Show (1996)
Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993)
Short Cuts (1993)
Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country (1993)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Night on Earth (1991)
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)
Fishing with John (1991)
The Fisher King (1991)
Until the End of the World (1991)
Queens Logic (1991)
Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter (1990)
The Two Jakes (1990)
The Black Rider (1990)
John Lurie: A Lounge Lizard Alone (1990)
The Simpsons (1989)
Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale (1989)
La fine della notte (1989)
Mystery Train (1989)
Cold Feet (1989)
Big Time (1988)
Candy Mountain (1988)
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night (1988)
Ironweed (1987)
Down by Law (1986)
The Cotton Club (1984)
Streetwise (1984)
The Stone Boy (1984)
La première journée de Nicolas (1984)
Rumble Fish (1983)
The Outsiders (1983)
Poetry in Motion (1982)
The Making of 'One from the Heart' (1982)
One from the Heart (1982)
Wolfen (1981)
Tom Waits at Theatre le Palace (1980)
Tom Waits - No Visitors After Midnight (1979)
Tom Waits for No One (1979)
Paradise Alley (1978)
America 2-Night (1978)
Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna (1978)
Tom Waits: Rockpalast '77 (1977)
Saturday Night Live (1975)
Austin City Limits (1975)
The Mike Douglas Show (1961)
Star.Wav
Loose Talk
Wildwood
Tom Waits - One Star Shining : The First Decade
Ratings
Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1949-12-07 (74 years old)
Birth NameThomas Alan Waits
Birth PlacePomona, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
Also Known AsThomas Alan Waits
AwardsRock and Roll Hall of Fame
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