Tom Waits Filmography

The Dalai Lama: Peace and Prosperity

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Synopsis: His Holiness the Dali Lama visits Radio City Music Hall makes a rare appearance at Radio City Music Hall, and the cameras are rolling to capture every moment of the event for those who were unable to attend the sold-out event. Interwoven throughout the program are photographic montages by Richard Read More

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Actors: Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Shea Whigham, Tom Waits, John Hawkes

Synopsis: Relegated to a forlorn afterlife of unsmiling lost souls and melancholy drifters as a result of committing suicide in the mortal realm, a heartbroken young man sets out to find the girl who inspired his final act of self-destruction after learning that she too has taken her own life in director Goran Dukic Read More

Absolute Wilson

Actors: Robert Wilson, Suzanne Wilson, David Byrne, Susan Sontag, Philip Glass

Synopsis: Filmmaker Katharina Otto-Bernstein offers a detailed look into the world of avant-garde theater icon Robert Wilson, whose visionary works and collaborations with such varied artists as Philip Glass, Allen Ginsberg, and Tom Waits have established him as one of the world's most respected theater Read More

The Tiger and the Snow

Actors: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Jean Reno, Amid Farid

Synopsis: A love-struck poet travels into the heart of wartime Iraq in hopes of rescuing the woman he loves in Academy award-winning director Roberto Benigni's affecting tale of love and devotion. A kind poet and father to his daughters, a respected lecturer and literary figure to his students, and a Read More

Domino

Crew: Musical Performer

Actors: Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, Delroy Lindo

Synopsis: The (mostly) true story of a Hollywood princess turned bounty hunter is told in this witty action-drama from director Tony Scott. Domino Harvey (Keira Knightley) was the daughter of famed actor Laurence Harvey (played by Jesse Pate) who passed on when Domino was only eight years old. Domino's Read More

From the Big Apple to the Big Easy: The Concert for New Orleans

Synopsis: The biggest names in modern music all come together on one stage for this landmark concert organized to raise funds for the relief and rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Katrina and featuring special appearances by a number of New Orleans legends. Featured performers include Aaron Neville Read More

Coffee and Cigarettes

Actors: Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Joie Lee, Cinqué Lee, Steve Buscemi

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch's black-and-white feature Coffee and Cigarettes contains three vignettes originally released as short films along with separate yet somewhat related sketches. As the title suggests, most of the vignettes involve famous people smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. The first, "Coffee Read More

East of Sunset

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Emily Stiles, Jimmy Wayne Farley, Dikla Marshall, George Garritano, Lucia Sullivan

Synopsis: East of Sunset stars Emily Stiles and Jimmy Wayne Farley as a couple that is going through difficult times and find that their love for each other helps ease the pain. She has recently lost her father, and he is a struggling artist with a drug addiction. When he finally begins to get some fame Read More

Long Gone

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Dog Man Tony, Joshua Long Gone, Horizontal John, New York Slim, Stonie

Big Bad Love

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Songwriter

Actors: Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, Paul Le Mat, Rosanna Arquette, Angie Dickinson

Synopsis: Actor Arliss Howard made his debut as a director with this emotional drama adapted from a handful of short stories by Larry Brown. Barlow (Arliss Howard) is a deeply troubled Vietnam veteran who has been chasing a career as a writer, with little success; when he isn't struggling with his Read More

Crowfilm

Crew: Songwriter

Art City, Vol. 2: Simplicity

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Richard Tuttle, Agnes Martin, John Baldessari, Amy Adler, Robert Williams

Synopsis: Art City, Vol. 2: Simplicity documents the studios and work habits of numerous modern artists including Robert Williams, Joan Snyder, and Richard Tuttle. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

Our Burden is Light

Crew: Featured Music

Actors: Denise Coates, Nathan Webb, Jessica Ballard, Jack Rooney, Nate Mendel

Synopsis: Troubled artist Karen and unfulfilled yuppie Kyle are both nearing breaking points in their disjointed lives. Meeting by chance one night on a bus, the two are mugged and left for dead, only to awaken having been brought to an abandoned church by a kind passerby. They come to with no memory of who Read More

Liberty Heights

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, Orlando Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna, Rebekah Johnson

Synopsis: Writer/director Barry Levinson returns to his home town of Baltimore, where he previously set three nostalgic features (Diner, Tin Men, and Avalon) for this story of two brothers growing up in the tumultuous days of 1954, as rock 'n' roll, the atom bomb, and the civil rights movement changed the Read More

Mystery Men

Actors: Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Janeane Garofalo, Kel Mitchell, Wes Studi, Greg Kinnear, Geoffrey Rush

Synopsis: Can seven not-so-superheroes save a city of the future? Based on the comic book series created by Bob Burden, Mystery Men is set in the teeming metropolis of Champion City, where noble superhero Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) keeps the peace and sees that justice is done. When Captain Amazing Read More

Waiting for Twilight

Actors: Guy Maddin, Tom Waits, Paul Cox, Pascale Bussières, Frank Gorshin, Alice Krige, Shelley Duvall

Synopsis: Tom Waits narrates this documentary about Manitoba filmmaker Guy Maddin (Tales from the Gimli Hospital, Careful, Archangel), seen directing Twilight of the Ice Nymphs. Stills, clips, and home movies are combined with talking-head interviews with friends, actors, and co-workers, tracing the Read More

Art City, Vol. 1: Making It in Manhattan

Crew: Featured Music

Synopsis: The makers of Art City, Vol. 1: Making It in Manhattan have interviewed a number of artists and art experts in order to illuminate what makes for a successful career in one of the most influential cities for artists in the entire world. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide Read More

Dead Man Walking

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry, R. Lee Ermey

Synopsis: Tim Robbins' second directorial effort (after the political satire Bob Roberts) was this drama based on a true story, which explores the issue of capital punishment. Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Sarandon) is a nun and teacher living in rural Louisiana. One day, she receives a letter from Matthew Read More

12 Monkeys

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, David Morse

Synopsis: An intense film about time travel, this sci-fi entry was directed by Terry Gilliam, a member of the comedy troupe Monty Python. The film stars Bruce Willis as James Cole, a prisoner of the state in the year 2035 who can earn parole if he agrees to travel back in time and thwart a devastating Read More

Léolo

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Maxime Collin, Ginette Reno, Roland Blouin, Julien Guiomar, Pierre Bourgault

Synopsis: Jean-Claude Lauzon's highly praised film tells the strange story of Léolo, a young boy from Montréal. Told from Léolo's point-of-view, the film depicts his family of lunatics and Léolo's attempts to deal with them. Not one individual in the boy's life is well adjusted. His brother, after being Read More

Short Cuts

Actors: Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, Tim Robbins, Chris Penn, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine, Anne Archer, Fred Ward, Jack Lemmon, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lili Taylor, Robert Downey, Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Annie Ross, Lori Singer, Lyle Lovett, Buck Henry, Huey Lewis

Synopsis: Based on stories by Raymond Carver, Short Cuts follows 22 Los Angeles residents whose lives intersect over the course of a few days. Ann and Howard Finnegan (Andie MacDowell and Bruce Davison) are preparing for their son Casey's birthday party when the boy is injured in an auto accident and falls Read More

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Actors: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, Sadie Frost

Synopsis: Based on Bram Stoker's classic 1897 novel, this film from Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter James Victor Hart offers a full-blooded portrait of the immortal Transylvanian vampire. The major departure from Stoker is one of motivation as Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) is motivated more by romance Read More

Night on Earth

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Songwriter

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Rosie Perez, Giancarlo Esposito, Roberto Benigni, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Lisanne Falk, Béatrice Dalle

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch's deadpan comedy-of-the-night is a collection of five vignettes taking place in the enclosed space of a cab ride, each occurring simultaneously in five different cities and five different time zones -- Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The Los Angeles episode Read More

Fishing with John [TV Series]

Actors: Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Dennis Hopper, Jim Jarmusch, John Lurie, Tom Waits

Synopsis: Musician and independent film personality John Lurie hardly seems like the sort of guy who would host a TV show about fishing. But then again, Fishing With John was hardly a typical nature program; Lurie and guests such as Tom Waits, Dennis Hopper, and Matt Dillon take to the water in search of Read More

At Play in the Fields of the Lord

Actors: Tom Berenger, Aidan Quinn, Kathy Bates, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah

Synopsis: In a remote branch of the Brazilian Amazon, Americans Lewis (Tom Berenger) and Wolf (Tom Waits) are stranded when their plane runs out of gas. They are kept company by an evangelist missionary (John Lithgow) and his wife (Darryl Hannah). The preacher and his followers want to preach to the Read More

The Fisher King

Actors: Adam Bryant, Paul Lombardi, David Hyde Pierce, Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer, Michael Jeter

Synopsis: Terry Gilliam directed this adaptation of Richard LaGravenese's mystical (and mythical) tale of redemption in the hard-time town of New York City. Jeff Bridges is shock radio DJ Jack Lucas, whose low opinion of humanity lends itself well to his radio talk show, where the enmity rubs off on his Read More

Queens Logic

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Linda Fiorentino, John Malkovich, Joe Mantegna, Ken Olin, Tony Spiridakis, Jamie Lee Curtis

Synopsis: Ray (Ken Olin) is a young adult and has a girlfriend whom he lives with quite happily. However, the agreed-upon date of their marriage is coming up, and he's not quite sure he wants to make that kind of commitment. His buddies Dennis, Elliot, and Vinny have their own commitment problems. Dennis (Kevin Bacon Read More

The Two Jakes

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach

Synopsis: The Two Jakes is the much-delayed and rather convoluted sequel to the 1975 classic Chinatown. Released in 1990 after an abortive stab at shooting that began in the mid-'80s, the film was the subject of a creative feud between its principals, star Jack Nicholson, producer Robert Evans, and Read More

Wait Until Spring, Bandini

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Joe Mantegna, Ornella Muti, Faye Dunaway, Michael Bacall, Burt Young

Synopsis: Based on the novel by John Fante, this film follows the trials of the Bandini family as they try to struggle through hard times in 1920s Colorado. Out of work and in need of money, Svevo Bandini (Joe Mantegna) tries to scrounge up the money his family needs to make it through the winter, while Read More

Mystery Train

Actors: Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Nicoletta Braschi, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Elizabeth Bracco, Cinqué Lee, Rufus Thomas, Joe Strummer

Synopsis: Written and directed by the ever-unpredictable Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train is comprised of three short anecdotes involving foreign tourists in Tennessee. Each story is set in a fleabag Memphis hotel which has been redressed as a "tribute" to Elvis Presley. Story #1 involves two Japanese tourists Read More

Cold Feet

Actors: Keith Carradine, Sally Kirkland, Tom Waits, Bill Pullman, Rip Torn

Synopsis: The leader of a group of misfits (Keith Carradine), his girlfriend (Sally Kirkland) and a hit man (Tom Waits!) hatch a bizarre plan to smuggle stolen jewels across the Mexican/American border by means of implanting them in a racehorse surgically. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale

Actors: Tom Waits, Charlotte Coleman, Julia Britton, Bill Paterson

Synopsis: Johnny Fortune (Damon Lowry) may be no good to anyone, but he's not particularly mean about it. After all, he left his girlfriend behind because the men from the casino were after him for stealing money, not her. He flees to England and becomes part of a small-time Punch and Judy act. His job is Read More

Big Time

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Screenwriter

Actors: Tom Waits, Michael Blair, Ralph Carney, Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot

Synopsis: You've seen gravelly-voice actor/singer Tom Waits in meaty dramatic roles in such films as The Fisher King (1989), At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). And you've heard his compositions on the soundtracks of films like Divine Madness (1980), Wolfen (1981) and Let's Get Lost Read More

Wohin?

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Herbert Achternbush, Gabi Geist, Annamirl Bierbichler, Franz Baumgartner, Josef Bierbichler

Synopsis: Several comedy situations are strung together for this offbeat satire. An unassuming businesswoman is discovered to be the mastermind behind a terrorist organization, and a disgruntled waitress has looks that can kill, literally and not figuratively speaking. In another tacky passage, played as a Read More

Ironweed

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, Diane Venora

Synopsis: Based on the William Kennedy novel of the same name Ironweed is set in the waning years of the Depression. Jack Nicholson plays a washed-up ballplayer who deserted his family back in the teens when he accidentally killed his son. Since that time, Nicholson has been a shabby barfly, living from Read More

Candy Mountain

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Songwriter

Actors: Kevin J. O'Connor, Harris Yulin, Tom Waits, Bulle Ogier, Roberts Blossom

Synopsis: After promising a rock star he would find a particular guitar-maker to procure his valuable products, a musician takes a road trip in search of the legend. On his way, he meets various people who have--at one time or another-- been involved with the elusive guru. After he finally meets the man, he Read More

Roy Orbison: A Black & White Night

Actors: Roy Orbison

Synopsis: One of the most distinctive vocalists in the history of rock and roll, Roy Orbison was in the midst of a well-deserved comeback in 1987 when he performed this special concert for television, beautifully filmed in black and white and featuring some famous friends helping him out. Orbison is joined Read More

Down by Law

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Ellen Barkin

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch follows his groundbreaking Stranger Than Paradise with another rambling, character-driven film with a twisted sense of humor. Set in a seedy New Orleans summer, Down By Law details the meeting of three unlikely convicts and their just as unlikely escape. Zack (Tom Waits) is an Read More

Coffee and Cigarettes

Cutting Edge

Synopsis: This musical collection of IRS Records is library of video clips, interviews and footage from America's and Britain's innovative video and music artists. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Streetwise

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Synopsis: This unflinching look at teens living on the streets of Seattle was one of the first documentaries to deal with the ever-growing plight of homelessness among young people. It began as a Life magazine article by photojournalist Mary Ellen Mark and writer Cheryl McCall; Mark and her husband Read More

The Cotton Club

Actors: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins

Synopsis: Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures Read More

First Name: Carmen

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Songwriter

Actors: Maruschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffé, Myriem Roussel, Christophe Odent, Jean-Luc Godard

Synopsis: First Name: Carmen tells the parallel stories of a quartet rehearsing Beethoven and a group of young people robbing a bank, supposedly to get the funds to make a film. Director Jean-Luc Godard attempts to make a film that resembles a string quartet, each of whose parts serves an abstract whole. Read More

The Outsiders

Actors: C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe

Synopsis: Teen rivalry in a small Southern town sets the stage for this dramatic interpretation of the novel by S.E. Hinton. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Outsiders tells the story of the ongoing conflict between the Greasers and the Socs in rural Oklahoma. C. Thomas Howell stars as Ponyboy, the Read More

Rumble Fish

Actors: Herb Rice, Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Dennis Hopper, Diana Scarwid

Synopsis: One of two S.E. Hinton novels Francis Ford Coppola directed in 1983, Rumble Fish is a stylized black-and-white film about the death of gang culture in a rough-and-tumble town full of stunted youths. The central character is the strutting Rusty James (Matt Dillon), a foul-mouthed lunkhead clad in Read More

Poetry in Motion

Actors: Jim Carroll, Charles Bukowski, Amiri Baraka, Anne Waldman

Synopsis: Director Ron Mann has put together readings by 24 different poets (after filming a total of 60 writers reciting their works), and then has poet and author Charles Bukowski verbalize "everyman's" criticisms of poetry: it is boring, irrelevant, self-indulgent, and does not make much sense. Then he Read More

One From the Heart

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Singer, Songwriter

Actors: Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Nastassja Kinski, Raul Julia

Synopsis: After completing Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola initially planned for his next picture to be an intimate romantic musical shot on a low budget in Las Vegas. Three years later, One from the Heart had mushroomed into a big-budget spectacular, shot on strikingly stylized sets at his newly Read More

Wolfen

Actors: Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines, Tom Noonan

Synopsis: Wolfen, a frightening horror movie based upon a novel by Whitley Strieber, is an absorbing update on the werewolf legend. Detective Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) is assigned to investigate the strange murder of a millionaire and his wife in a downtown park. Wilson and his friend, city coroner Read More

On the Nickel

Crew: Songwriter

Actors: Ralph Waite, Donald Moffat, Hal Williams, Penelope Allen, Jack Kehoe, Dan Ades, Paul Weaver, Ina Gould, Jack O'Leary, Cano Graham, James Gammon, Arthur Space, Bert Conway, Jaime Sanchez

Synopsis: The Skid Row derelicts that occupy most of the screen time in this uneven drama about the effects of alcohol addiction do nothing to gain an audience's sympathy. Sam (Donald Moffat) has kicked his habit and picked himself up out of the gutter only to find that no avenues are open to take him away Read More

A Wedding

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, Mia Farrow, Lillian Gish, Amy Stryker, Howard Duff, Geraldine Chaplin, Dennis Christopher

Synopsis: Robert Altman's over-frenetic satire on American marriage rituals and hypocrisy concerns the upper-crust marriage between Dino Corelli (Desi Arnaz Jr.) and Muffin Brenner (Amy Stryker). As the film begins, a senile bishop forgets the lines to the wedding ceremony and Nettie Sloan (the groom's Read More

Paradise Alley

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Conway, Anne Archer, Armand Assante, Joe Spinell, Lee Canalito

Synopsis: Film auteur Sylvester Stallone wrote, directed, and stars in this re-working of Rocky to fit an old-fashioned Hollywood formula, depicting three brothers from New York's Hell's Kitchen of the 1940s who want to claw their way out of poverty. Lee Canalito is the muscle-brained iceman Victor, and Armand Assante Read More

Tom Waits: Burma Shave

Actors: Tom Waits, Cats & Rats