
Tom Waits
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.
89 acting credits
Acting · 89

The Simpsons
1989

The Daily Show
1996

Saturday Night Live
1975

The Mike Douglas Show
1961

Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1993

Austin City Limits
1975

Bram Stoker's Dracula
1992

The Book of Eli
2010

The Outsiders
1983

Ultra City Smiths
2021

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
2018

Father Mother Sister Brother
2025

Seven Psychopaths
2012

Rockpalast
1974

Licorice Pizza
2021

Mystery Men
1999

The Dead Don't Die
2019

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
2009

Wildwood
2026

Domino
2005

Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
2012

Short Cuts
1993

The Fisher King
1991

Motherless Brooklyn
2019

Mystery Train
1989

The Cotton Club
1984

Until the End of the World
1991

Wild Horse Nine
2026

Paradise Alley
1978

Ironweed
1987

Coffee and Cigarettes
2004

Rumble Fish
1983

The Two Jakes
1990

Wristcutters: A Love Story
2007

Fishing with John
1991

The Old Man & the Gun
2018

Down by Law
1986

Ray Gunn
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Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
1988

Twixt
2011

Wolfen
1981

Queens Logic
1991

One from the Heart
1982

The Tiger and the Snow
2005

At Play in the Fields of the Lord
1991

Luck, Trust & Ketchup: Robert Altman in Carver Country
1993

The Stone Boy
1984

The Absence of Eden
2024

Robert Wilson: The Beauty of the Mysterious
2022

Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter
1990

Cold Feet
1989

Greasy Lake
1988

Roy Orbison: Black and White Night 30
2017

Keith Richards: Under the Influence
2015

Candy Mountain
1988

Bukowski: Born Into This
2003

A Brief History of John Baldessari
2012

The Monster of Nix
2011

Coffee and Cigarettes III
1997

Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale
1989

Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight
1997

Tom Waits: Big Time
1988

One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur
2008

Tom Waits - Live at Premio Tenco in Sanremo Italy
1986

This Is Sparklehorse
2022

The Last Ride
2025
Tom Waits: Under Review
2008

Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox
2017

Tom Waits - Live On The Tube
1985

Poetry in Motion
1982
Tom Waits: Elephant Beer Blues - Songs After Closing Time
1976

The Moon’s Milk
2018

Star.Wav
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Tom Waits: Romeo Bleeding - Live from Austin
2009

The Making of 'One from the Heart'
1982

Tom Waits at Theatre le Palace
1980
John Lurie: A Lounge Lizard Alone
1990
Tom Waits for No One
1979

Tom Waits: No Visitors After Midnight
1979
![Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Fw500%2FlxpmTfyfn20JnsbJmjfUKlT7ugU.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Tom Waits - Burma Shave [Live Concert]
2006
Tom Waits - One Star Shining : The First Decade
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Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Concert Experience
2024
The Laughing Heart
2013

Tom Waits: Rockpalast '77
1977
Tom Waits: VH1 Storytellers
1999

Human Nature in Eleven Parts
2025
Tom Waits - Bridge School Benefit
1999

Tom Waits - Dead Man Walking, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
1998
Tom Waits: A Day in Vienna
1978