Raspy-voiced singer-songwriter whose down-at-the-heels musical persona and colorful, jazz-tinged narratives have led to a second, successful career as a film composer and actor. Waits cut his first critically praised album, "Closing Time", in 1973, made his screen debut in "Paradise Alley" (1978) and subsequently played supporting roles in a number of movies, notably several by Francis Ford Coppola and Jim Jarmusch.

Waits' songs have highlighted films ranging from Coppola's "One From the Heart" (1982) to Jean-Luc Godard's "First Name: Carmen" (1983), which makes mesmerizing use of "Ruby's Arms," to Jim Jarmusch's "Down By Law" (1986), in which Waits also turned in a fine comic performance.

Waits was aptly cast as Jack Nicholson's hobo sidekick in "Ironweed" (1987) and was the subject of the film "Big Time" (1988), an unfortunate attempt to juxtapose concert footage with "dramatized" sequences inspired by his songs. He has since reunited with both Jarmusch and Coppola. Waits provided the music for Jarmusch's "Night on Earth" (1991) and starred in the director's 1993 segment of the short-film series, "Coffee and Cigarettes (Somewhere in California)", in which he and rock legend Iggy Pop discuss subjects ranging from the art of giving up smoking to Abbott and Costello. Waits reteamed with Coppola to play Renfield in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). He subsequently appeared as an ensemble member in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" (1993), playing the alcoholic, limo-driving husband of Lily Tomlin.