
Tom Waits
Known for ActingBorn 1949-12-07 (age 76)Pomona, California, USA
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.Read more
Movies & web series
★ 10.0View details →
Rockpalast
1974 · Series
★ 9.0View details →
Rita Ritter
1984 · Movie
★ 8.5View details →
The Making of 'One from the Heart'
1982 · Movie
★ 8.3View details →
Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale
1989 · Movie
★ 8.0View details →
Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country
1993 · Movie
★ 8.0View details →
The Simpsons
1989 · Series
★ 8.0View details →
Poetry in Motion
1982 · Movie
Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna
★ 8.0View details →
Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna
1978 · Movie
★ 7.5View details →
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
2012 · Movie
★ 7.7View details →
Fishing with John
1991 · Series
★ 7.6View details →
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
1988 · Movie
★ 7.5View details →
Night on Earth
1991 · Movie
★ 7.6View details →
Streetwise
1984 · Movie
★ 7.5View details →
The Black Rider
1990 · Movie
★ 7.5View details →
Bram Stoker's Dracula
1992 · Movie
★ 7.1View details →
Roofman
2025 · Movie
★ 7.1View details →
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
2018 · Movie
★ 7.3View details →
Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight
1997 · Movie
★ 7.3View details →
Mystery Train
1989 · Movie
★ 7.3View details →
Tom Waits: Big Time
1988 · Movie
★ 7.3View details →
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993 · Series
★ 7.3View details →
The Fisher King
1991 · Movie
★ 7.3View details →
Down by Law
1986 · Movie
★ 7.0View details →
Licorice Pizza
2021 · Movie
★ 7.2View details →
Coffee and Cigarettes III
1997 · Movie
★ 7.2View details →
Short Cuts
1993 · Movie
★ 7.0View details →
The Monster of Nix
2011 · Movie
★ 7.0View details →
Wristcutters: A Love Story
2007 · Movie
★ 7.2View details →
The Outsiders
1983 · Movie
★ 6.9View details →
Coffee and Cigarettes
2004 · Movie
★ 6.8View details →
Seven Psychopaths
2012 · Movie
★ 6.8View details →
The Book of Eli
2010 · Movie
★ 7.0View details →
La fine della notte
1989 · Movie
★ 6.7View details →
Motherless Brooklyn
2019 · Movie
★ 6.8View details →
One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur
2008 · Movie
★ 6.7View details →
Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox
2017 · Movie
★ 6.7View details →
Keith Richards: Under the Influence
2015 · Movie
★ 7.0View details →
La première journée de Nicolas
1984 · Movie
★ 7.0View details →
Rumble Fish
1983 · Movie
★ 6.8View details →
Bukowski: Born Into This
2003 · Movie
★ 7.0View details →
The Stone Boy
1984 · Movie
★ 6.7View details →
The Tiger and the Snow
2005 · Movie
★ 6.5View details →
Ultra City Smiths
2021 · Series
★ 6.9View details →
Saturday Night Live
1975 · Series
★ 6.5View details →
The Old Man & the Gun
2018 · Movie
★ 6.4View details →
Father Mother Sister Brother
2025 · Movie
★ 6.7View details →
Until the End of the World
1991 · Movie
★ 6.6View details →
Bunny
1998 · Movie