Tom Waits
A Grammy Award-winning musician known for his raspy voice, darkly humorous lyrics, and unusual instrumentation, Tom Waits parlayed his unique musical vision into a side career as a character actor specializing in the same down-at-the-heels men who often populated his songs. During his early career in the 1970s, the vivid storyteller's distinctive blend of outdated musical styles and Beat poetry earned him a cult following, but over the next four decades, Waits became highly sought after to contribute music to over 100 film and television productions, while his ever-evolving sound broke through to larger audiences with albums Bone Machine and Mule Variations. On screen, Waits was tapped for over two dozen film roles by directors including Robert Altman, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam and Francis Ford Coppola. Whether playing a convict on the run in "Down By Law" (1986), a trailer-park dwelling chauffeur in "Short Cuts" (1993), a dapper Devil in "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (2009), or any number of skid row bums and streetwise hustlers, Waits always offered an inventive, humorous, and ultimately sympathetic portrayal of outcasts from the lower rungs of society.
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Tom Waits
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Wildwood | Unknown (Voice) | - | 2024 |
38% |
|
The Absence of Eden | Unknown (Character) | $37.0K | 2023 |
90% |
|
Licorice Pizza | Rex Blau (Character) | $17.3M | 2021 |
54% |
|
The Dead Don't Die | Hermit Bob (Character) | $6.5M | 2019 |
89% |
|
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs | Prospector (Segment "All Gold Canyon") (Character) | - | 2018 |
93% |
|
The Old Man & the Gun | Waller (Character) | $11.1M | 2018 |
No Score Yet |
|
Keith Richards: Under the Influence | Unknown (Character) | - | 2015 |
82% |
|
Seven Psychopaths | Zachariah (Character) | $15.0M | 2012 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Brief History of John Baldessari | Narrator | - | 2012 |
33% |
|
Twixt | Narrator | - | 2011 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Monster of Nix | Virgil (Voice) | - | 2011 |
47% |
|
The Book of Eli | Engineer (Character) | $94.8M | 2010 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Tom Waits: Under the Influence | Unknown (Character) | - | 2010 |
64% |
|
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus | Mr. Nick (Character) | $7.7M | 2009 |
66% |
|
Wristcutters: A Love Story | Kneller (Character) | $231.5K | 2006 |
20% |
|
The Tiger and the Snow |
Himself / |
$9.0K | 2005 |
18% |
|
Domino | Wanderer (Character) | $10.1M | 2005 |
63% |
|
Coffee and Cigarettes | Tom (Character) | $2.0M | 2003 |
86% |
|
Liberty Heights | Original Music | $3.7M | 1999 |
60% |
|
Mystery Men | Dr. A. Heller (Character) | $29.8M | 1999 |
75% |
|
Jerry and Tom | Original Music | - | 1998 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight | The Narrator (Character) | - | 1997 |
95% |
|
Short Cuts | Earl Piggot (Character) | $6.1M | 1993 |
77% |
|
Night on Earth | Original Music | $2.0M | 1992 |
69% |
|
Bram Stoker's Dracula | R.M. Renfield (Character) | $82.0M | 1992 |
57% |
|
At Play in the Fields of the Lord | Wolf (Character) | $1.3M | 1991 |
30% |
|
Queens Logic | Monte (Character) | $301.6K | 1991 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale | Silva (Character) | - | 1989 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Cold Feet | Kenny (Character) | - | 1989 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Big Time |
Unknown (Character), Writer, Original Music |
- | 1988 |
No Score Yet |
|
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night | Self | - | 1988 |
100% |
|
Candy Mountain | Al Silk (Character) | - | 1987 |
60% |
|
Ironweed | Rudy (Character) | $6.9M | 1987 |
88% |
|
Down by Law | Zack (Character) | $106.5K | 1986 |
74% |
|
The Cotton Club | Irving Stark (Character) | - | 1984 |
76% |
|
Rumble Fish | Benny (Character) | - | 1983 |
70% |
|
The Outsiders | Buck Merrill (Character) | - | 1983 |
51% |
|
One From the Heart | Original Music | $61.1K | 1982 |
40% |
|
Paradise Alley | Mumbles (Character) | - | 1978 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
88% | No Score Yet | Ultra City Smiths | Narrator | 2021 |
100% | 78% | Late Show With David Letterman | Music Performer | 2015 |
85% | 76% | The Simpsons | Lloyd (Guest Voice) | 2013 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Late Night With Jimmy Fallon | Music Performer | 2012 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Austin City Limits | Music Performer | 2011 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Daily Show | Guest | 2006 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | VH1 Storytellers | Self | 1999 |
No Score Yet | 57% | Saturday Night Live | Music Performer | 1977 |