An independent film, or indie film, is a film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly outside of major film studios. The term also refers to art films which differ noticeably from most mass marketed films. In addition to being produced by independent production companies, independent films are often produced and/or distributed by subsidiaries of major studios. In order to be considered independent, less than half of a film's financing should come from a major studio. Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower film budgets than major studio films. Generally, the marketing of independent films is characterized by limited release designed to build word-of-mouth or to reach small specialty audiences.

History

Resistance to the Edison Trust

The roots of independent film can be traced back to the filmmakers in the 1900s who resisted the control of a trust called the Motion Picture Patents Company or "Edison Trust."

The Motion Picture Patents Company, founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major film companies (Edison, Biograph, Vitagraph, Essanay, Selig, Lubin, Kalem, American Star, American Pathé), the leading distributor (George Kleine) and the biggest supplier of raw film, Eastman Kodak.

At the time of the formation of the MPPC, Thomas Edison owned most of the major patents relating to motion pictures, including that for raw film. The MPPC vigorously enforced its patents, constantly bringing suits and receiving injunctions against independent filmmakers. Because of this, a number of filmmakers responded by building their own cameras and moving their operations to Hollywood, California, where the distance from Edison's home base of New Jersey made it more difficult for the MPPC to enforce its patents.

The Edison Trust was soon ended by two decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States: one in 1912, which canceled the patent on raw film, and a second in 1915, which cancelled all MPPC patents. Though these decisions succeeded at legalizing independent film, they would do little to remedy the de facto ban on small productions; the independent filmmakers who had fled to Southern California during the enforcement of the trust had already laid the groundwork for the studio system of classical Hollywood cinema.

The studio system replaces Edison

In early 1910, director D.W. Griffith was sent by the Biograph Company to the west coast with his acting troupe, consisting of actors Blanche Sweet, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, and others. They started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the company decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood, a little village that was friendly and enjoyed the movie company filming there. Griffith then filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, ''In Old California'', a Biograph melodrama about California in the 1800s, while it belonged to Mexico. Biograph stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York.

During the Edison era of the early 1900s, many Jewish immigrants had found employment in the U.S. film industry. Under the Edison Trust, they were able to make their mark in a brand-new business: the exhibition of films in storefront theaters called nickelodeons. Within a few years, ambitious men like Samuel Goldwyn, Carl Laemmle, Adolph Zukor, Louis B. Mayer, and the Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Samuel, and Jack) had switched to the production side of the business. After hearing about Biograph's success in Hollywood, in 1913 many such would-be movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Edison. Soon they were the heads of a new kind of enterprise: the movie studio.

By establishing a new system of production, distribution, and exhibition which was independent of The Edison Trust in New York, these studios opened up new horizons for cinema in the United States. The Hollywood oligopoly replaced the Edison monopoly. Within this new system, a pecking order was soon established which left little room for any newcomers. At the top were the five major studios, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, RKO Pictures, and Warner Bros. Beneath them were Columbia Pictures, United Artists, and Universal Studios. Finally there was "Poverty Row," a catch all term used to encompass any other smaller studio that managed to fight their way up into the increasingly exclusive movie business. It is worth noting that though the small studios that made up Poverty Row could be characterized as existing "independently" of any major studio, they utilized the same kind of vertically and horizontally integrated systems of business as the larger players in the game. Though the eventual breakup of the studio system and its restrictive chain-theater distribution network would leave independent movie houses eager for the kind of populist, seat-filling product of the Poverty Row studios, that same paradigm shift would also lead to the decline and ultimate disappearance of "Poverty Row" as a Hollywood phenomenon. While the kinds of films produced by Poverty Row studios only grew in popularity, they would eventually become increasingly available both from major production companies and from independent producers who no longer needed to rely on a studio's ability to package and release their work.

The following table illustrates the categories commonly used to characterize the Hollywood system.

!The Big Five majors	!The Little Three majors	!Poverty Row (top four of many)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	United Artists
Paramount Pictures	Columbia Pictures	Republic Pictures
20th Century Fox	Universal Studios	Monogram Pictures
Warner Bros.
RKO Pictures

United Artists and the resistance to the studio system

The studio system quickly became so powerful that some filmmakers once again sought independence as a result. On February 5, 1919 four of the leading figures in American silent cinema (Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith) formed United Artists, the first independent studio in America. Each held a 20% stake, with the remaining 20% held by lawyer William Gibbs McAdoo. The idea for the venture originated with Fairbanks, Chaplin, Pickford, and cowboy star William S. Hart a year earlier as they were traveling around the U.S. selling Liberty bonds to help the World War I effort. Already veterans of Hollywood, the four film stars began to talk of forming their own company to better control their own work as well as their futures. They were spurred on by the actions of established Hollywood producers and distributors, who were making moves to tighten their control over their stars' salaries and creative license. With the addition of Griffith, planning began, but Hart bowed out before things had formalized. When he heard about their scheme, Richard A. Rowland, head of Metro Pictures, is said to have observed, "The inmates are taking over the asylum."

The four partners, with advice from McAdoo (son-in-law and former Treasury Secretary of then-President Woodrow Wilson), formed their distribution company, with Hiram Abrams as its first managing director. The original terms called for Pickford, Fairbanks, Griffith and Chaplin to independently produce five pictures each year, but by the time the company got under way in 1920-1921, feature films were becoming more expensive and more polished, and running times had settled at around ninety minutes (or eight reels). It was believed that no one, no matter how popular, could produce and star in five quality feature films a year. By 1924, Griffith had dropped out and the company was facing a crisis: either bring in others to help support a costly distribution system or concede defeat. The veteran producer Joseph Schenck was hired as president. Not only had he been producing pictures for a decade, but he brought along commitments for films starring his wife, Norma Talmadge, his sister-in-law, Constance Talmadge, and his brother-in-law, Buster Keaton. Contracts were signed with a letter of independent producers, especially Samuel Goldwyn, Alexander Korda and Howard Hughes. Schenck also formed a separate partnership with Pickford and Chaplin to buy and build theaters under the United Artists name.

Still, even with a broadening of the company, UA struggled. The coming of sound ended the careers of Pickford and Fairbanks. Chaplin, rich enough to do what he pleased, worked only occasionally. Schenck resigned in 1933 to organize a new company with Darryl F. Zanuck, Twentieth Century Pictures, which soon provided four pictures a year to UA's schedule. He was replaced as president by sales manager Al Lichtman who himself resigned after only a few months. Pickford produced a few films, and at various times Goldwyn, Korda, Walt Disney, Walter Wanger, and David O. Selznick were made "producing partners" (i.e., sharing in the profits), but ownership still rested with the founders. As the years passed and the dynamics of the business changed, these "producing partners" drifted away. Goldwyn and Disney left for RKO, Wanger for Universal Pictures, and Selznick for retirement. By the late 1940s, United Artists had virtually ceased to exist as either a producer or distributor.

The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers

In 1941, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Orson Welles, Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Alexander Korda, and Walter Wanger—many of the same people who were members of United Artists—founded the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. Later members included William Cagney, Sol Lesser, and Hal Roach. The Society aimed to preserve the rights of independent producers in an industry overwhelmingly controlled by the studio system. SIMPP fought to end monopolistic practices by the five major Hollywood studios which controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition of films.

In 1942, the SIMPP filed an antitrust suit against Paramount's United Detroit Theatres. The complaint accused Paramount of conspiracy to control first-run and subsequent-run theaters in Detroit. It was the first antitrust suit brought by producers against exhibitors alleging monopoly and restraint of trade.

In 1948, the United States Supreme Court Paramount Decision ordered the Hollywood movie studios to sell their theater chains and to eliminate certain anti-competitive practices. This effectively brought an end to the studio system of Hollywood's Golden Age.

By 1958, many of the reasons for creating the SIMPP had been corrected and SIMPP closed its offices.

Low-budget films

The efforts of the SIMPP and the advent of inexpensive portable cameras during World War II effectively made it possible for any person in America with an interest in making films to write, produce, and direct one without the aide of any major film studio. These circumstances soon resulted in a number of critically acclaimed and highly influential works, including Maya Deren's ''Meshes of the Afternoon'' in 1943, Kenneth Anger's ''Fireworks'' in 1947, and Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin and Ray Abrashkin's ''Little Fugitive'' in 1953. Filmmakers such as Ken Jacobs with little or no formal training began to experiment with new ways of making and shooting films.

''Little Fugitive'' became the first independent film to be nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the American Academy Awards. It also received Silver Lion at Venice. Both Engel and Anger's films won acclaim overseas from the burgeoning French New Wave, with ''Fireworks'' inspiring praise and an invitation to study under him in Europe from Jean Cocteau, and François Truffaut citing ''Little Fugitive'' as an essential inspiration to his seminal work, ''The 400 Blows''. As the 1950s progressed, the new low-budget paradigm of filmmaking gained increased recognition internationally, with films such Satyajit Ray's critically acclaimed ''Apu Trilogy'' (1955–1959).

Unlike films of the collapsing studio system, these new low-budget films could afford to take risks and explore new artistic territory outside of the classical Hollywood narrative. Maya Deren was soon joined in New York by a crowd of like minded avant-garde filmmakers who were interested in creating films as works of art rather than entertainment. Based upon a common belief that the "official cinema" was "running out of breath" and had become "morally corrupt, aesthetically obsolete, thematically superficial, [and] temperamentally boring,", this new crop of independents formed The Film-Makers' Cooperative, an artist-run, non-profit organization which they would use to distribute their films through a centralized archive. Founded in 1962 by Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Gregory Markopoulos, and others, the Cooperative provided an important outlet for many of cinema's creative luminaries in the 1960s, including Jack Smith and Andy Warhol. When he returned to America, Ken Anger would debut many of his most important works there. Mekas and Brakhage would go on to found the Anthology Film Archives in 1970, which would likewise prove essential to the development and preservation of independent films, even to this day.

The exploitation boom and the MPAA rating system

Not all low budget films existed as non-commercial art ventures. The success of films like ''Little Fugitive'', which had been made with low (or sometimes non-existent) budgets encouraged a huge boom in popularity for non-studio films. Low budget film making promised exponentially greater returns (in terms of percentages) if the film could have a successful run in the theaters. During this time, independent producer/director Roger Corman began a sweeping body of work that would become legendary for its frugality and grueling shooting schedule. Until his so-called "retirement" as a director in 1971 (he continued to produce films even after this date) he would produce up to seven movies a year, matching and often exceeding the five-per-year schedule that the executives at United Artists had once thought impossible.

Like those of the avante-garde, the films of Roger Corman took advantage of the fact that unlike the studio system, independent films had never been bound by its self-imposed production code. Corman's example (and that of others like him) would help start a boom in independent B-movies in the 1960s, the principal aim of which was to bring in the youth market which the major studios had lost touch with. By promising sex, wanton violence, drug use, and nudity, these films hoped to draw audiences to independent theaters by offering to show them what the major studios could not. Horror and science fiction films experienced a period of tremendous growth during this time. As these tiny producers, theaters, and distributors continued to attempt to undercut one another, the B-grade shlock film soon fell to the level of the Z movie, a niche category of films with production values so low that they became a spectacle in their own right. The cult audiences these pictures attracted soon made them ideal candidates for midnight movie screenings revolving around audience participation and cosplay.

In 1968, a young filmmaker named George A. Romero shocked audiences with ''Night of the Living Dead'', a new kind of intense and unforgiving independent horror film. This film was released just after the abandonment of the production code, but before the adoption of the MPAA rating system. As such, it was the first and last film of its kind to enjoy a completely unrestricted screening, in which young children were able to witness Romero's new brand of highly realistic gore. This film would help to set the climate of independent horror for decades to come, as films like ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' in 1974 and ''Cannibal Holocaust'' in 1980 continued to push the envelope.

With the production code abandoned and violent and disturbing films like Romero's gaining popularity, Hollywood opted to placate the uneasy filmgoing public with the MPAA ratings system, which would place restrictions on ticket sales to young people. Unlike the production code, this rating system posed a threat to independent films in that it would affect the number of tickets they could sell and cut into the grindhouse cinema's share of the youth market. This change would further widen the divide between commercial and non-commercial films.

New Hollywood and independent filmmaking

Following the advent of television and the Paramount Case, the major studios attempted to lure audiences with spectacle. Screen gimmicks, Widescreen processes and technical improvements, such as Cinemascope, stereo sound, 3-D and others, were invented in order to retain the dwindling audience by giving them a larger-than-life experience.

The 1950s and early 1960s saw a Hollywood dominated by musicals, historical epics, and other films which benefited from these advances. This proved commercially viable during most of the 1950s. However, by the late 1960s, audience share was dwindling at an alarming rate. Several costly flops, including ''Cleopatra'' and ''Hello, Dolly!'' put severe strain on the studios. Meanwhile, in 1951, lawyers-turned-producers Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin had made a deal with the remaining stockholders of United Artists which would allow them to make an attempt to revive the company and, if the attempt was successful, buy it after five years. The attempt was a success, and in 1955 United Artists became the first "studio" without an actual studio. UA leased space at the Pickford/Fairbanks Studio, but did not own a studio lot as such. Because of this, many of their films would be shot on location. Primarily acting as bankers, they offered money to independent producers. Thus UA did not have the overhead, the maintenance or the expensive production staff which ran up costs at other studios. UA went public in 1956, and as the other mainstream studios fell into decline, UA prospered, adding relationships with the Mirisch brothers, Billy Wilder, Joseph E. Levine and others.

By the mid 1960s, RKO had collapsed completely, and the remaining four of big five had recognized that they did not know how to reach the youth audience. Foreign films, especially European and Japanese cinema, were experiencing a major boom in popularity with young people, who were interested in seeing films with non-traditional subjects and narrative structures. An added draw for such films was that they, like the American independents, were unencumbered by the production code. In an attempt to capture this audience, the Studios hired a host of young filmmakers (many of whom were mentored by Roger Corman) and allowed them to make their films with relatively little studio control.

In 1967, Warner Brothers offered first-time producer Warren Beatty 40% of the gross on his film ''Bonnie and Clyde'' instead of a minimal fee. The movie proceeded to gross over $70 million worldwide by 1973. This initial successes paved the way for the studio to relinquish almost complete control to the film school generation and began what the media dubbed "New Hollywood."

On May 16, 1969, Dennis Hopper, a young American filmmaker, wrote, directed, and acted in his first film, ''Easy Rider''. Along with his producer/star/co-writer Peter Fonda, Hopper was responsible for the first completely independent film of New Hollywood. ''Easy Rider'' debuted at Cannes and garnered the "First Film Award," ("Prix de la premiere oeuvre") after which it received two Oscar nominations, one for best original screenplay and one for Corman-alum Jack Nicholson's breakthrough performance in the supporting role of George Hanson, an alcoholic lawyer for the ACLU.

Following on the heels of Easy Rider just over a week later, the revived United Artists' ''Midnight Cowboy'', which, like ''Easy Rider'', took numerous cues from Ken Anger and his influences in the French New Wave, became the first and only X rated film to win the Academy Award for best picture. ''Midnight Cowboy'' also held the distinction of featuring cameo roles by many of the top Warhol superstars, who had already become symbols of the militantly anti-Hollywood climate of NYC's independent film community.

Within a month, another young Corman trainee, Francis Ford Coppola, made his debut in Spain at the Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival with ''The Rain People'', a film he had founded his own studio, American Zoetrope, to make a reality. Though ''The Rain People'' was largely overlooked by American audiences, Zoetrope would became a powerful force in New Hollywood. Through Zoetrope, Coppola formed a distribution agreement with studio giant, Warner Bros., which he would exploit to achieve wide releases for his films without making himself subject to the controlling forces of Hollywood.

These three films provided the major Hollywood studios with both an example to follow and a new crop of talent to draw from. In 1971, Zoetrope co-founder George Lucas made his feature film debut with ''THX 1138'', also released by Zoetrope through their deal with Warner Bros., announcing himself as another major talent of New Hollywood. By the following year, the leaders of the New Hollywood revolution had made enough of a name for themselves that Coppola was offered Paramount's multi-generational gangster epic, ''The Godfather.'' Meanwhile Lucas had obtained studio funding for ''American Graffiti'' from Universal. In the mid-1970s, the major Hollywood studios continued to tap these new filmmakers for both ideas and personnel, producing idiosyncratic, startling original films such as 'Paper Moon', ''Dog Day Afternoon'' and ''Taxi Driver,'' all of which were met with enormous critical and commercial success. These successes by the members of New Hollywood led each of them in turn to make more and more extravagant demands, both on the studio and eventually on the audience.

It can often seem that all members of the New Hollywood generation were independent filmmakers. Though those mentioned above began with a considerable claim on the title, almost all of the major films commonly associated with the movement were studio projects. The New Hollywood generation soon became firmly entrenched in a revived incarnation of the studio system, which financed the development, production and distribution of their films. Very few of these filmmakers ever independently financed or independently released a film of their own, or ever worked on an independently financed production during the height of the generation's influence. Seemingly independent films such as ''Taxi Driver'', ''The Last Picture Show'' and others were studio films: the scripts were based on studio pitches and subsequently paid for by the studios, the production financing was from the studio, and the marketing and distribution of the films were designed and controlled by the studio. Though Coppola made considerable efforts to resist the influence of the studios, opting to finance his risky 1979 film ''Apocalypse Now'' himself rather than compromise with skeptical studio executives, he, and filmmakers like him, had saved the old studios from financial ruin by providing them with a new formula for success.

Indeed, it was during this period that the very definition of an independent film became blurred. Though ''Midnight Cowboy'' was financed by United Artists, the company was certainly a studio. Likewise, Zoetrope was another "independent studio" which worked within the system to make a space for independent directors who needed funding. George Lucas would leave Zoetrope in 1971 to create his own independent studio, Lucasfilm, which would produce the blockbuster ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises. In fact, the only two movies of the movement which can be described as uncompromisingly independent are ''Easy Rider'' at the beginning, and Peter Bogdanovich's ''They All Laughed'', at the end. Peter Bogdanovich bought back the rights from the studio to his 1980 film and paid for its distribution out of his own pocket, convinced that the picture was better than what the studio believed — he eventually went bankrupt because of this.

In retrospect, it can be seen that Steven Spielberg's ''Jaws'' (1975) and George Lucas's ''Star Wars'' (1977) marked the beginning of the end for the New Hollywood. With their unprecedented box-office successes, these movies jump-started Hollywood's blockbuster mentality, giving studios a new paradigm as to how to make money in this changing commercial landscape. The focus on high-concept premises, with greater concentration on tie-in merchandise (such as toys), spin-offs into other media (such as soundtracks), and the use of sequels (which had been made more respectable by Coppola's ''The Godfather Part II''), all showed the studios how to make money in the new environment.

On realizing how much money could potentially be made in films, major corporations started buying up the remaining Hollywood studios, saving them from the oblivion which befell RKO in the 50s. Eventually, even RKO was revived. The corporate mentality these companies brought to the filmmaking business would slowly squeeze out the more idiosyncratic of these young filmmakers, while ensconcing the more malleable and commercially successful of them. Like the original independents who fled the Edison Trust to form old Hollywood, the young film school graduates who had fled the studios to explore on-location shooting and dynamic, neo-realist styles and structures ended up replacing the tyrants they had sought to dislodge with a more stable and all-pervasive base of power.

Outside Hollywood

Though many of the thematic changes which would resound through the American cinema of the 1970s would prominently feature heightened depictions of realistic sex and violence, those directors who wished to reach the audience which the old Hollywood once had quickly learned to stylize these actions in a way that made them appealing and attractive, rather than repulsive or obscene. However, at the same time that the maverick film students who would become the American new wave were developing the skills they would use to take over Hollywood, many of their classmates had begun to develop in a different direction. Influenced by foreign "art house" directors, (such as Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini) exploitation shockers (including Joseph P. Mawra, Michael Findlay, and Henri Pachard) and those who walked the line between, (Kenneth Anger, et al.) a number of young film makers began to experiment with transgression not as a box-office draw, but as an artistic act. Directors such as John Waters and David Lynch would make a name for themselves by the early 70s for the bizarre and often disturbing imagery which characterized their films.

When Lynch's first feature film, 1977's ''Eraserhead'', brought Lynch to the attention of producer Mel Brooks, he soon found himself in charge of the $5 million film ''The Elephant Man'' for Paramount. Though ''Eraserhead'' was strictly an out-of-pocket, low-budget, independent film, Lynch made the transition with unprecedented grace. The film was a huge commercial success, and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay nods for Lynch. It also established his place as a commercially viable, if somewhat dark and unconventional, Hollywood director. Seeing Lynch as a fellow studio convert, George Lucas, a fan of ''Eraserhead'' and now the darling of the studios, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct his next ''Star Wars'' sequel, ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.'' However, Lynch had seen what had happened to Lucas and his comrades in arms after their failed attempt to do away with the studio system. He refused the opportunity, stating that he would rather work on his own projects.

Lynch instead chose to direct a big budget adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction novel ''Dune'' for Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis's De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, on the condition that the company release a second Lynch project, over which the director would have complete creative control. Although De Laurentiis hoped it would be the next ''Star Wars'', Lynch's ''Dune'' (1984) was a critical and commercial dud, costing $45 million to make, and grossing a mere $27.4 million domestically. The producer was furious that he would now be forced to allow Lynch to make any kind of film he wanted. He offered Lynch only $6 million, reasoning that it would be best to let it be a small flop and be rid of the director. However, the film, ''Blue Velvet'' was a resounding success. Lynch subsequently returned to his independent roots, and did not work with another major studio for over a decade.

John Waters, on the other hand, proved too hot to handle for the major studios. Distributing his films locally though a production company of his own creation known as Dreamland Productions, Waters defied the mainstream completely until the early 80s, when the fledgling New Line Cinema agreed to work with him on Polyester. During the 80s, Waters would become a pillar of the New York based independent film movement known as the "Cinema of Transgression," a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a loose-knit group of like-minded New York artists using shock value and humor in their super 8mm films and video art. Other key players in this movement included Kembra Pfahler, Casandra Stark, Beth B, Tommy Turner, Richard Kern and Lydia Lunch. Rallying around such institutions as the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Anthology Film Archives, this new generation of independents devoted themselves to the defiance of the now-establishment New Hollywood, proposing that "all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again."

In India, John Abraham, a Malayalam film director founded an independent production house called ''Odessa Collective'' in 1984. With Odessa, he aimed at production and exhibition of meaningful films with the active participation of the general public. For the financing of the first film produced by Odessa, John and his friends traveled through villages and collected money from the general public. The film, ''Amma Ariyan'' (Report to mother) (1986) was exhibited across the state of Kerala on a non-commercial basis.

The Sundance Institute

In 1978, Sterling Van Wagenen and Charles Gary Allison, with Chairperson Robert Redford, (veteran of New Hollywood and star of ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'') founded the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah and showcase what the potential of independent film could be. At the time, the main focus of the event was to present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions; however it also included a small program of new independent films. The jury of the 1978 festival was headed by Gary Allison, and included Verna Fields, Linwood Gale Dunn, Katherine Ross, Charles E. Sellier Jr., Mark Rydell, and Anthea Sylbert.

In 1981, the same year that United Artists, bought out by MGM, ceased to exist as a venue for independent filmmakers, Sterling Van Wagenen left the film festival to help found the Sundance Institute with Robert Redford. In 1985, the now well-established Sundance Institute, headed by Sterling Van Wagenen, took over management of the US Film Festival, which was experiencing financial difficulties. Gary Beer and Sterling Van Wagenen spearheaded production of the inaugural Sundance Film Festival which included Program Director Tony Safford and Administrative Director Jenny Walz Selby.

In 1991, the festival was officially renamed the ''Sundance Film Festival'', after Redford's famous role as The Sundance Kid. Through this festival, such notable figures as Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, James Wan and Jim Jarmusch garnered resounding critical acclaim and unprecedented box office sales. In 2005, about 15% of the U.S. domestic box office revenue was from independent studios.

The "Indie Film" Movement

The 1990s saw the rise and success of independent films not only through the film festival circuit but at the box office as well while established actors such Bruce Willis, John Travolta, and Tim Robbins found success themselves both in independent films and Hollywood studio films. The success of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' in 1990 from New Line Cinema grossed over $100 million in the United States making it the most successful indie film in box-office history. Miramax Films had a string of hits with ''Sex, Lies, and Videotape'', ''My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown'', and ''Cinema Paradiso'', putting Miramax and New Line Cinema in the sights of big companies looking to cash in on the success of independent studios. In 1993, Disney bought Miramax for $60 million. Turner Broadcasting, in a billion-dollar deal, acquired New Line Cinema, Fine Line Features, and Castle Rock Entertainment in 1994. The acquisitions proved to be a good move for Turner Broadcasting as New Line released ''The Mask'' and ''Dumb & Dumber'' and Castle Rock releasing ''The Shawshank Redemption'' and the release of ''Pulp Fiction'' by Miramax, all in 1994.

The acquisitions of the smaller studios by conglomerate Hollywood was a plan in part to take over the independent film industry and at the same time start independent studios of their own. The following are all indie studios owned by conglomerate Hollywood:

Sony Pictures Classics 1992

Fox Searchlight Pictures 1995

Paramount Vantage 1998

Focus Features 2002

Warner Independent Pictures 2003

By the early 2000s, Hollywood was producing three different classes of films: 1) Big Budget Blockbusters 2) Art films, specialty films and niche-market films produced by the conglomerate-owned indies and 3) Genre and specialty films coming from true indie studios and producers. The third category comprised over half the features released in the United States and usually cost between $5 and $10 million to produce.

Present day and digital filmmaking

Today, due to the large volume of inexpensive, high end digital film equipment available at the consumer level, independent filmmakers are no longer dependent on major studios to provide them with the tools they need to produce a film. Thanks to the falling cost of technology, thousands of small production companies can obtain the resources they need to produce entertaining films at a fraction of the cost of the big Hollywood studios. Post production has also been simplified by non-linear editing software available for home computers.

Presently, five of the Golden Age Majors continue to exist as important Hollywood studio entities through 2009. Their output is still marked by familiar stories and conservative choices in cast and crew. Companies such as Lucasfilm continue to exist, co-financing their productions and partnering with Big Six studios for distribution. In fact, co-financing has become a growing trend in modern day Hollywood, with over two-thirds of the films put out by Warner Bros. in 2000 being funded as joint ventures, up from 10% in 1987.

In an effort to cash in on the present day boom in independent film, today's Big Six major studios have created a number of independent-flavored subsidiaries, designed to develop less commercial, more character driven films which appeal to the growing art house market. These include MGM, UA (under MGM), New Line Cinema, HBO Films, Castle Rock Entertainment, Disneynature, DreamWorks, Sony Pictures Classics, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Miramax Films, Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse, Paramount Classics/Paramount Vantage, Go Fish Pictures (under DreamWorks), Focus Features, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Destination Films, Fox Faith, Fox Atomic, Gener8Xion Entertainment, Hollywood Pictures, Rogue Pictures and Sherwood Pictures.

The increasing popularity and feasibility of low-budget films over the last 15 years has led to a vast increase in the number of aspiring filmmakers — people who have written spec scripts and who hope to find several million dollars to turn that script into a successful independent film like ''Reservoir Dogs,'' ''Little Miss Sunshine,'' or ''Juno''. Aspiring filmmakers often work day-jobs while they pitch their scripts to independent film production companies, talent agents, and wealthy investors. Their dreams are much more attainable than they were before the independent film revolution because gaining the backing of a major studio is no longer needed in order for aspiring filmmakers to potentially access millions of dollars to make their film.

Independent movie-making has also resulted in the proliferation and repopularization of short films and short film festivals. Full-length films are often showcased at film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival, the Slamdance Film Festival, the South By Southwest film festival, the Raindance Film Festival, ACE Film Festival, or the Cannes Film Festival. Award winners from these exhibitions are more likely to get picked up for distribution by major film studios.

The following studios are considered to be the most prevalent of the modern independent studios (they are used to produce/release independent films and foreign-language films in America):

Film4 Productions

Lions Gate Films

Summit Entertainment

Overture Films

IFC Films

Samuel Goldwyn Films

The Weinstein Company/Dimension Films

Magnolia Pictures

Palm Pictures

Tartan Films

Newmarket Films

ThinkFilm

Troma Entertainment

First Look Studios

Yari Film Group

In addition to these higher profile "independent" studios there are thousands of smaller production companies that produce authentic independent films every year. These smaller companies look to regionally release their films theatrically or for additional financing and resources to distribute, advertise and exhibit their project on a national scale. The direct-to-video market is not often noted as artistically fertile ground but among its many entries are ambitious independent films that either failed to achieve theatrical distribution or did not seek it. Moving forward, particularly as theatrical filming goes digital and distribution eventually follows, the line between "film," direct-to-disc productions, and feature-length videos whose main distribution channel is wholly electronic, should continue to blur.

Technology and independent films today

The independent film scene's development in the 1990s and 2000s has been stimulated by a range of factors, including the development of affordable digital cinematography cameras that can rival 35 mm film quality and easy-to-use computer editing software. Until digital alternatives became available, the cost of professional film equipment and stock was a major obstacle to independent filmmakers who wanted to make their own films. In 2002, the cost of 35 mm film stock went up 23%, according to ''Variety''.

But the advent of consumer camcorders in 1985, and more importantly, the arrival of digital video in the early 1990s lowered the technology barrier to movie production. An off-the-shelf personal computer and a non-linear editing system have dramatically reduced costs of post-production, while technologies such as DVD, Blu-ray Disc and online video services have simplified distribution. Even 3-D technology is available to low-budget, independent filmmakers.

With new technology, especially the new digital cameras Arri Alexa and RED Epic, independent films can create footage that looks like the real 35mm cameras but without the high cost. These cameras can also make use of low available light levels, so independent films do not need to bring outside light into the scene. These cameras are designed to capture a noiseless image from 200 to 1000 ASA. In addition to new digital cameras, independent film makers are benefitting from the new editing software. Instead of needing a post-house to do the editing, independent film makers can now use cheap editing software, a computer, and VOIP Software to keep in touch from around the country. Editing software available include Avid Media Compser (the system on which most major motion pictures have been edited), Final Cut Pro and (Color Grading Software) DaVinci Resolve. BlackMagic released DaVinci Resolve for only US$995 when they bought the company. These new technologies allow independent film makers to create images that are comparable to the high-budget films. In 2008 Canon released the first DSLR camera that could shoot full HD video, the Canon 5D Mark II. With the creation of the 5D Mark II independent filmmakers have the ability to shoot video at 1920 by 1080 at 24 frames per second, giving the video footage a "look" that is much alike 35mm film cameras. Also the camera allows for a greater control over depth of field, exchangeable lenses and low light capabilities — things which independent filmmakers have been longing years.

Director Francis Ford Coppola, long an advocate of new technologies like non-linear editing and digital cameras, said in 2007 that "cinema is escaping being controlled by the financier, and that's a wonderful thing. You don't have to go hat-in-hand to some film distributor and say, 'Please will you let me make a movie?'"

See also

Low budget film

No budget film

List of film festivals

Film Festivals

Art film, also known as "arthouse films" or "art cinema"

Exploitation Film

Major Movie Studios

The Movie Making Manual wikibook

Experimental film

list of video topics

Video

Chroma key

History of cinema

List of 'years in film'

Silent movies

Talkies

Independent Spirit Awards

''Dreams on Spec'', a film-making documentary

References

Further reading

External links

IFTA - The Independent Film & Television Alliance, an International trade association representing Independent Producers

Indie Films at the Internet Movie Database

Independent Feature Project IFP

Category:Film genres Category:Film and video terminology

ar:أفلام مستقلة ca:Cinema independent de:Independentfilm es:Cine independiente fa:فیلم مستقل fr:Cinéma indépendant ko:독립 영화 id:Film independen it:Film indipendente he:סרט עצמאי hu:Amerikai független film ms:Filem indie nl:Gespecialiseerde film ja:自主映画 no:Indiefilm pl:Kino niezależne ro:Film independent ru:Независимый кинематограф США simple:Independent movie fi:Independent-elokuva sv:Independentfilm th:ภาพยนตร์อิสระ tr:Bağımsız film zh:美國獨立電影

name	Zachary Quinto
birth name	Zachary John Quinto
birth date	June 02, 1977
birth place	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
occupation	Actor
yearsactive	2000–present
website	http://www.zacharyquinto.com/ }}

Zachary John Quinto (born June 2, 1977) is an American actor primarily known for playing Sylar on ''Heroes'' and Spock in the 2009 film ''Star Trek''.

Early life

Quinto, who is of half-Italian and half-Irish descent, was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Green Tree, Pennsylvania, with his mother Margo and his brother Joe. His father, John, who was a barber, died of cancer when Quinto was 7 years old. He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1995 with NFL Quarterback Mark Bulger, where he participated in their musicals and won the Gene Kelly Award for Best Supporting Actor, and then attended Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama, from which he graduated in 1999..

Career

Quinto first appeared on television in the short-lived television series ''The Others'', and appeared as a guest star on shows including ''CSI'', ''Touched by an Angel'', ''Charmed'', ''Six Feet Under'', ''Lizzie McGuire'', and ''L.A. Dragnet''. In 2003, he landed a recurring role as computer expert Adam Kaufman on the Fox series ''24''; Quinto appeared in 23 episodes of the third season.

In 2006, Quinto played the role of Sasan, the haughty, gay Iranian-American best friend of Tori Spelling on her VH1 series ''So NoTORIous''. Later that year, he joined the cast of ''Heroes'' as Gabriel Gray, better known as the serial killer Sylar.

His casting as a young Spock in the J. J. Abrams-directed reboot of the ''Star Trek'' film franchise was officially announced at the 2007 Comic-Con. Speaking alongside Leonard Nimoy at a press conference to promote the new ''Star Trek'' film, Quinto revealed that Nimoy had been given casting approval over who would play the role of the young Spock. "For me Leonard's involvement was only liberating, frankly," says Quinto. "I knew that he had approval over the actor that would play young Spock, so when I got the role I knew from the beginning it was with his blessing."

In a September 2008 interview, ''Star Trek'' director J. J. Abrams said of Quinto's performance as Spock: "Zachary brought a gravity and an incredible sense of humor, which is a wonderful combination because Spock's character is deceivingly complicated. The revelation for me watching the movie, when I finally got to watch the whole thing after working on sequences, was that he is extraordinary. He was doing things I didn't even realize while we were shooting – these amazing things to track his story."

Following ''Star Trek'', he appeared in the comedy short ''Boutonniere'' (2009). It "...was a movie written and directed by my former landlady and friend [actress Coley Sohn]. She called up and said, 'Would you do me a favor and be in my short film?'"

Quinto has joined with Corey Moosa and Neal Dodson to form Before the Door Pictures. The company is working on projects in film, television, new media, and the graphic novel arena. It announced a three-book publishing deal with comic book publisher Archaia at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. The first project from the partnership is expected to be a 100-page graphic novel called ''Mr. Murder is Dead'', created by writer Victor Quinaz. It will be followed by the comic book series ''LUCID: A Matthew Dee Adventure'' written by writer/actor Michael McMillian.

Quinto's theatre experience includes roles in a variety of productions, including ''Much Ado About Nothing'' at the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival and ''Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow'' at the Old Globe Theatre. Baseline Studio Systems announced in January 2010 that Steven Spielberg may direct a biopic about George Gershwin, which is scheduled for release in 2012, with Quinto confirmed for the lead role. Opening October 29, 2010, Quinto plays the lead role of Louis Ironson in an Off-Broadway revival of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" at the Signature Theatre, New York, NY. He has modeled for magazines including ''GQ''.

Film and television

;2000

''The Others'' (episode "Unnamed") as Tony

;2001

''Touched by an Angel'' (episode "When Sunny Gets Blue") as Mike

''An American Town'' as Bennett

;2002

''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (episode "Anatomy of a Lye") as Mitchell Sullivan

''Off Centre'' (episode "Diddler on the Roof") as Smudge

''Lizzie McGuire'' (episode "Party Over Here") as Director

''Haunted'' (episode "Grievous Angels") as Paul Kingsley

''The Agency'' (episode "Air Lex") as Jay Lambert

;2003

''Six Feet Under'' (episode "The Eye Inside") as Hip Student

''Charmed'' (episode "Cat House") as Warlock

''Miracles'' (episode "Battle at Shadow Ridge") as Messenger

''24'' (2003–2004) (23 episodes) as Adam Kaufman

;2004

''Dragnet'' (episode "Frame of Mind") as Howard Simms

''Hawaii'' (episode "No Man Is an Island") as Loomis

''Joan of Arcadia'' (episode "P.O.V.") as Pretentious Filmmaker God

;2005

''Blind Justice'' (episode "In Your Face") as Scott Collins

;2006

''Crossing Jordan'' (episode "Code of Ethics") as Leo Fulton, Jr

''Twins'' (episode "When I Move, You Move") as Jason

''So NoTORIous'' (10 episodes) as Sasan

''Heroes'' (2006–2010) (60 episodes) as Gabriel Gray/Sylar

;2008

''Robot Chicken'' (episode "Bionic Cow") as Archimedes Q. Porter / Sylar (voice)

;2009

''Star Trek'' as Spock

''Boutonniere'' as Michael Paul David (short film)

''Hostage: A Love Story'' as Gunman (short film)

;2010

''Before After'' (short films)

;2011

''Margin Call'' as Peter Sullivan

''Girl Walks Into a Bar'' as Nick

''What's Your Number?'' as Jack ''Jimmy'' Quinton

;2012

''Untitled Star Trek sequel'' as Spock

References

External links

Zachary Quinto on Twitter

Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:Carnegie Mellon University alumni Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent

ar:زاكري كوينتو an:Zachary Quinto ca:Zachary John Quinto cs:Zachary Quinto da:Zachary Quinto de:Zachary Quinto es:Zachary Quinto eo:Zachary Quinto fa:زاکاری کوئینتو fr:Zachary Quinto ko:재커리 퀸토 id:Zachary Quinto it:Zachary Quinto he:זאכרי קווינטו jv:Zachary Quinto hu:Zachary Quinto nl:Zachary Quinto ja:ザカリー・クイント no:Zachary Quinto pl:Zachary Quinto pt:Zachary Quinto ru:Куинто, Закари sk:Zachary Quinto fi:Zachary Quinto sv:Zachary Quinto th:แซกคารี ควินโต tr:Zachary Quinto uk:Закарі Квінто zh:沙查·昆圖

birthname	Edward Paul Helms
birth date	January 24, 1974
birth place	Atlanta, Georgia, US
occupation	Actor/comedian
yearsactive	2002–present
alma mater	Oberlin College }}

Edward Paul "Ed" Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian known for his work as a correspondent on ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'', as Andy Bernard on the US version of the sitcom/mockumentary ''The Office'' and for his role as Dr. Stu Price in ''The Hangover'' films.

Early life

Helms was born and raised in Atlanta. His mother was a school administrator and his father was an attorney. He graduated from The Westminster Schools in 1992 a year after his Office costar Brian Baumgartner. Originally a geology major, Helms graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in film theory and technology in 1996 and spent a semester as an exchange student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

After graduating from Oberlin, Helms began his comedy and acting career as a writer and performer with New York City sketch comedy bands, and studied improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe.

Helms concurrently worked as a trainee film editor at Crew Cuts, a post-production facility in New York City. While doing so, he recorded some rough voiceover scratch tracks that eventually led to paying voiceover work, which in turn led to finding a talent agent.

Career

Television work

Helms was performing comedy in New York City when, as he recalled in a 2005 interview, "''The Daily Show'' had a sort of open audition with a casting company that I had dealt with. I read for the part, and got it". In his April 2002 to mid-2006 tenure on the satirical news program, Helms contributed "field reports" in addition to hosting various segments of the show, such as Digital Watch, Ad Nauseam, and Mark Your Calendar. He has also contributed to the This Week in God segment. Helms left the show in 2006, but has occasionally returned for brief appearances. On July 21, 2008 he returned for Obama Quest – a segment covering then-Senator Barack Obama's trip to Iraq. He occasionally narrates the Prescott Group educational films on sister series ''The Colbert Report''.

In late July 2006 NBC announced that Helms would join the cast of the mockumentary ''The Office'', along with his fellow ''The Daily Show'' correspondent Steve Carell, in a recurring role as Andy Bernard. Helms has been a series regular since the third season.

Helms returned to ''The Daily Show'' on December 5, 2006, stating he had been gone because he was "undercover at a paper company in Scranton", an allusion to his stint on ''The Office''. In February 2007, NBC announced that Helms had been promoted to series regular, and in February 2010 Helms was added to the show's opening credits. In June 2009, on a radio interview with National Public Radio, Helms said that like his character, Andy Bernard, he is obsessed with a capella music.

Helms has appeared on such television shows as ''Tanner on Tanner'', ''Childrens Hospital'', ''Arrested Development'' and ''Cheap Seats'', and in various Comedy Central specials. He has done commercial voiceover work in campaigns for Burger King, Doritos, Hotels.com, Sharp Aquos and Advair asthma medication, and he voices Angel, a character on Cartoon Network's ''Weighty Decisions'' series.

Helms plays guitar, banjo and piano, and he has played all three, as well as a sitar, in some of his movies and television performances.

Film work

Helms starred in the 2011 film ''Cedar Rapids'' and co-starred in the blockbuster 2009 film ''The Hangover''. He previously appeared in small roles in films including ''Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian'', ''Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story'', ''Meet Dave'', ''Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay'', ''I'll Believe You'', ''Evan Almighty'', ''Semi-Pro'' and, with ''Office'' co-star Jenna Fischer, ''Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story''. In 2009, Helms appeared in ''The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard'', directed by Neal Brennan and starring Jeremy Piven.

Helms has been developing, with Judd Apatow, a Universal Pictures film, ''A Whole New Hugh'', in which he would star, and which he would co-write with Jake Fleisher and Ian Berger. ''Variety'' reported in February 2009 that Helms would star and he and Fleisher would co-write a Warner Bros. feature about a time-traveling Civil War re-enactor, with the film to be produced through ''The Office'' star Steve Carell's production company Carousel. Helms reprised his role in 2011's ''The Hangover Part II''.

Other work

Helms is also in a band called "The Lonesome Trio" with his friends Ian and Jake. They formed the band when they were in college, and still get together to play a few shows every year.

Filmography

Films

''Zombie-American'' ''Everyone's Hero'' ''Evan Almighty'' ''Semi-Pro'' ''Manure'' ''Cedar Rapids (film) ''The Lorax (film)

Year	! Film	! Role	! Notes
2004	Blackballed (film)>Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story''	Bunker McLaughlin
2005	|	Glen the Zombie
2006	|	Hobo Louie	Voice only
rowspan="3"	2007	|	Ark Reporter
''I'll Believe You''	Leon
''Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story''	Stage Manager
rowspan="5"	2008	|	Turtleneck
''Confessions of a Shopaholic (film)	Confessions of a Shopaholic''	Garret E. Barton
''Meet Dave''	No. 2 – 2nd In Command
''Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay''	Interpreter
''Lower Learning''	Maurice
rowspan="5"	2009	|	Chet Pigford
''Monsters vs. Aliens''	News Reporter
''Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian''	Worker for "Daley Devices"
''The Hangover (film)	The Hangover''	Dr. Stu Price
''The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard''	Paxton Harding
rowspan="4"	2011	Cedar Rapids'' ||	Tim Lippe	Executive Producer
''Jeff Who Lives at Home''	Pat
''The Hangover Part II''	Dr. Stu Price
''The Muppets (film)	The Muppets''	Cameo
rowspan="3"	2012	The Lorax'' ||	The Once-ler	Post-Production

Television

''Arrested Development (TV series) ''Lies and the Wives We Tell Them To'' ''The Colbert Report'' ''Upright Citizens Brigade: Asssscat'' ''Family Guy'' ''The Office (U.S. TV series) ''Saturday Night Live''

Year	! Show	! Role	! Notes
2002–2006	''The Daily Show''	Correspondent
rowspan="2"	2004	Arrested Development'' ||	James	Single episode
''Cheap Seats	Cheap Seats: Without Ron Parker''	Bradley Wallace
rowspan="2"	2005	|		Television film
''Sunday Pants''	Neil the Angel
rowspan="2"	2006	|	Narrator	Single episode
''Samurai love god	Samurai Love God''	Samurai Love God
rowspan="2"	2008	|	Guest Monologist	Television film
''American Dad!''	Mr. Buckley
2009	|		Single episode; voice only
2006 – present	The Office'' ||	Andy Bernard	Series regular
rowspan="3"	2011	|	Presenter>Host	701st episode
''Wilfred (U.S. TV series)	Wilfred''	Daryl
''NTSF:SD:SUV::''	Ed

References

External links

Ken P., May 5, 2006 Helms Deep: Ken P. goes in-depth with Daily Show correspondent Ed Helms. at [IGN.com]. Retrieved 2009-10-28

Plum TV Telluride video of Ed Helms, Rob Corddry and Aziz Ansari at Comedy Fest 2008

Ed Helms in "Zombie American" short

Category:1974 births Category:Actors from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:American actors Category:American banjoists Category:American comedians Category:American comedy musicians Category:American film actors Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:American voice actors Category:Living people Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:The Office (U.S. TV series) Category:Oberlin College alumni

arz:إد هيلمز da:Ed Helms de:Ed Helms es:Ed Helms fr:Ed Helms it:Ed Helms nl:Ed Helms ja:エド・ヘルムズ no:Ed Helms pl:Ed Helms pt:Ed Helms ru:Хелмс, Эд fi:Ed Helms sv:Ed Helms uk:Ед Хелмс

Name	Iggy Pop
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	James Newell Osterberg, Jr.
Birth date	April 21, 1947
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, drums
Genre	Punk rock, protopunk, garage rock, glam punk, shock rock, glam rock, hard rock
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, producer, actor
Years active	1960–present
Label	Virgin, RCA, Elektra
Associated acts	The Stooges, The Trolls, The Nymphs, The Iguanas, Slash, David Bowie, Deborah Harry, Blondie, Sum 41
Website	Iggy & The Stooges Official Website }}

Iggy Pop (born James Newell "Jim" Osterberg, Jr.; April 21, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and occasional actor. He is considered an influential innovator of punk rock, hard rock, and other styles of rock music. Pop began calling himself "Iggy" after his first band in high school (for which he was drummer), The Iguanas. He was lead singer/songwriter of influential protopunk band The Stooges and became known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics.

Pop's popularity has ebbed and flowed throughout the course of his solo career. His best-known songs include "Lust for Life", "Real Wild Child", "Candy" (a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52's), "China Girl" and "The Passenger".

Early life

Iggy Pop was born in Muskegon, Michigan, the son of Louella (née Christensen) and James Newell Osterberg, Sr., a former high school English teacher and baseball coach at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Osterberg was raised in a trailer park in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is of Irish and English descent on his father's side, and of Norwegian and Danish ancestry on his mother's. His father was adopted by a Swedish American family and took on their surname (Österberg).

Music career

Early days: 1960 to 1967

Osterberg began his music career as a drummer in different high school bands in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One band was the Iguanas, from the name of which he adopted his future moniker Iggy. After exploring local blues-style bands such as the Prime Movers (with brothers Dan and Michael Erlewine), he eventually dropped out of the University of Michigan and moved to Chicago to learn more about blues. While in Chicago, he played drums in blues clubs, helped by Sam Lay (formerly of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) who shared his connections with Iggy. Inspired by Chicago blues as well as bands like The Sonics and The MC5, he formed the Psychedelic Stooges and began calling himself Iggy. The band was composed of Iggy on vocals, Ron Asheton on guitar, Asheton's brother Scott on drums, and Dave Alexander on bass.

The Stooges era: 1968 to 1975

The seeds of Iggy Pop's stage persona were sown when he saw The Doors perform in 1967 at the University of Michigan and was amazed by the stage antics and antagonism displayed by singer Jim Morrison. Morrison's extreme behavior, while performing in a popular band, inspired the young Pop to push the boundaries of stage performance. Pop was the first performer to do a stage-dive, which he started at a concert in Detroit. Other exploits of Pop include rolling around in broken glass, exposing himself to the crowd and vomiting on stage.

In 1968, one year after their live debut and now dubbed The Stooges, the band signed with Elektra Records, again following in the footsteps of The Doors, who were Elektra's biggest act at the time (reportedly, Pop called Moe Howard to see if it was alright to call his band "The Stooges," to which Howard responded by merely saying "I don't care what they call themselves, as long as they're not the ''Three'' Stooges!" and hung up the phone). The Stooges' first two albums ''The Stooges'', (on which Iggy was credited, much to his displeasure, as "Iggy Stooge"), produced by John Cale; and ''Fun House'', sold poorly. Shortly after the new members joined, the group disbanded because of Pop's growing heroin addiction.

In 1971, Iggy Pop and David Bowie met at Max's Kansas City, a nightclub and restaurant in New York City. Pop's career received a boost from his relationship with Bowie when Bowie decided in 1972 to produce an album with Pop in England. With James Williamson signed on as guitarist, the search began for a rhythm section. However, since neither Pop nor Bowie was satisfied with any players in England, they decided to re-unite The Stooges. It would not be a true reunion insofar as Dave Alexander, due to alcoholism, was unable to play on the record (he later died in 1975). Also, Ron Asheton grudgingly moved from guitar to bass to make way for Williamson to play guitar. The recording sessions produced the rock landmark ''Raw Power''. After its release Scott Thurston was added to the band on keyboards/electric piano and Bowie continued his support, but Iggy's drug problem persisted. The Stooges' last show ended in a fight between the band and a group of bikers, documented on the album ''Metallic K.O.'' Drug abuse stalled his career again for several years.

Bowie and Berlin: 1976 to 1978

After the second breakup of The Stooges, Iggy Pop made some recordings with James Williamson, but these were not released until 1977 (as ''Kill City'', credited jointly to Iggy Pop and Williamson). Pop was unable to control his drug use and checked himself into a mental institution, UCLA’s neuropsychiatric institute, to try to clean up. David Bowie was one of his few visitors there, and he continued to support his friend and collaborator. It was also rumored that Bowie would smuggle in cocaine to give to Pop. In 1976, Bowie took him along as his companion on the ''Station to Station'' tour. This was Iggy Pop's first exposure to large-scale professional touring and he was impressed, particularly with Bowie's work rate.

Bowie and Pop relocated to West Berlin to wean themselves off their addictions. In 1977, Pop signed with RCA and Bowie helped write and produce ''The Idiot'' and ''Lust for Life,'' Pop's two most acclaimed albums as a solo artist, the latter with another team of brothers, Hunt and Tony Sales, sons of comedian Soupy Sales. Among the songs Bowie and Pop wrote together were "China Girl", "Tonight", and "Sister Midnight", all of which Bowie performed on his own albums later on (the last being recorded with different lyrics as "Red Money" on the album ''Lodger''). Bowie also played keyboards in Pop's live performances, some of which are featured on the album ''TV Eye'' in 1978. In return, Pop contributed backing vocals on Bowie's ''Low''.

The Arista albums: 1979 to 1981

Iggy Pop had grown dissatisfied with RCA, later admitting that he had made ''TV Eye'' as a quick way of fulfilling his three-album RCA contract. He moved to Arista Records, under whose banner he released ''New Values'' in 1979. This album was something of a Stooges reunion, with James Williamson producing and latter-day Stooge Scott Thurston playing guitar and keyboards. Not surprisingly, the album's style harked back to the guitar sound of the Stooges. Although highly regarded by many Iggy fans (some preferring it to the Bowie collaborations), ''New Values'' was not a popular success, despite some strong material including "Five Foot One" and "I'm Bored."

The album was moderately successful in Australia and New Zealand, however, and this led to Iggy Pop's first visit there to promote it. While in Melbourne, he made a memorable appearance on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's nationwide pop show ''Countdown''. During his anarchic performance of ''I'm Bored'', Pop made no attempt to conceal the fact that he was lip-synching, and he even tried to grab the teenage girls in the audience. He was also interviewed by host Ian "Molly" Meldrum, an exchange which was frequently punctuated by the singer jumping up and down on his chair and making loud exclamations of "G'day mate" in a mock Australian accent. His ''Countdown'' appearance is generally considered one of the highlights of the show's history and it cemented his popularity with Australian punk fans; since then he has often toured there. While visiting New Zealand, Iggy Pop recorded a music video for "I'm Bored", and attended a record company function where he appeared to slap a woman and throw wine over a photographer. While in Australia, Iggy Pop was also the guest on a live late-night commercial TV interview show on the Ten Network. It is not known whether a recording of this interview exists, but the famous ''Countdown'' appearance has often been re-screened in Australia.

During the recording of ''Soldier'' (1980), Iggy Pop and Williamson quarrelled over production (the latter apparently wanted a big, Phil Spector-type sound) and Williamson was fired. Bowie appeared on the song ''Play it Safe'', performing backing vocals with the group Simple Minds. The album and its follow-up ''Party'' (1981) were both commercial failures, and Iggy Pop was dropped from Arista. His drug habit varied in intensity, but persisted.

The 1980s

In 1980, Iggy Pop published his autobiography ''I NEED MORE'', co-written with Anne Weher, an Ann Arbor arts patron. The book, which includes a selection of black and white photographs, features a foreword by Andy Warhol. Warhol says that he met Iggy when he was Jim Osterberg, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1966. "I don't know why he hasn't made it really big," wrote the one Pop artist about the other. "He is so good."

The 1982 album ''Zombie Birdhouse'' on Chris Stein's Animal label, with Stein himself producing, was no more commercially successful than his Arista works, but again, in 1983, Iggy Pop's fortunes changed when David Bowie recorded a cover of the song "China Girl". The song had originally appeared on ''The Idiot'', and was a major hit on Bowie's blockbuster ''Let's Dance'' album. As co-writer of the song, Pop received substantial royalties. On ''Tonight'' in 1984, Bowie recorded two more of their co-written songs, this time from the ''Lust for Life'' album, "Tonight" and "Neighborhood Threat", assuring Iggy Pop financial security, at least for the short term. The support from Bowie enabled Pop to resolve problems and permitted him to take a three-year break during which he overcame his heroin addiction and took acting classes.

Additionally, Iggy Pop contributed the title song to the 1984 film ''Repo Man'' (with Steve Jones, previously of the Sex Pistols, on guitar) as well as an instrumental called "Repo Man Theme" that was played during the opening credits.

In 1985, Pop recorded some demos with Jones. He played these demos to Bowie, who was sufficiently impressed to offer to produce an album for Pop: 1986's New Wave-influenced ''Blah Blah Blah'', featuring the single "Real Wild Child", a cover of "The Wild One" originally written and recorded by Australian rock 'n' roll pioneer Johnny O'Keefe in 1958. The single was a Top 10 hit in the UK and was successful around the world, especially in Australia, where for the last twenty years it has been used as the theme music for the ABC's late-night music video show ''Rage''. It remains Pop's solitary brush with major commercial success. ''Blah Blah Blah'' was Pop's highest-charting album in the U.S. since ''The Idiot'' in 1977, peaking at #75 on the ''Billboard'' Top 200 albums chart.

Also in 1985, the movie ''Rock & Rule'' was released featuring performances by Iggy Pop and Lou Reed for the character Mok. Pop's song in the film was "Pain & Suffering" from the final sequence of the film.

In 1987, Pop appeared (along with Bootsy Collins) on a mostly instrumental album, ''Neo Geo'', by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. The music video for "Risky", written and directed by Meiert Avis, won the first ever MTV Breakthrough Video Award. The groundbreaking video explores transhumanist philosopher FM-2030's ideas of ''Nostalgia for the Future'' in the form of an imagined love affair between a robot and one of Man Ray's models in Paris in the late 1930s. Additional inspiration was drawn from Jean Baudrillard, Edvard Munch's 1894 painting ''Puberty'', and Roland Barthes ''Death of the Author''. The surrealist black-and-white video uses stop motion, light painting, and other retro in-camera effects techniques. Meiert Avis shot Sakamoto while at work on the score for ''The Last Emperor'' in London. Sakamoto also appears in the video painting words and messages to an open shutter camera. Iggy Pop, who performs the vocals on "Risky", chose not to appear in the video, allowing his performance space to be occupied by the surrealist era robot.

Pop's follow-up to ''Blah Blah Blah'', ''Instinct'' (1988), was a turnaround in musical direction. Its stripped-back, guitar-based sound leaned further towards the sound of the Stooges than any of his solo albums to date. His record label, which had most likely been expecting another ''Blah Blah Blah'', dropped him. Nevertheless, the ''King Biscuit'' radio show recording of the ''Instinct'' tour (featuring guitarist Andy McCoy and Alvin Gibbs on bass) reaching Boston on July 19, 1988, remains one of punk-rock's most enduring live albums. Working with rock attorney Stann Findelle, Pop scored more movie soundtrack inclusions in 1989, "Living on the Edge of the Night" in the Ridley Scott Michael Douglas thriller, Black Rain and "Love Transfusion" in Wes Craven's Shocker.

The 1990s

In 1990, Pop recorded ''Brick by Brick'', produced by Don Was, with members of Guns N' Roses and The B-52's as guests, as well as backup vocals by many local Hollywood groups, two of whom (Whitey Kirst and Craig Pike) would create his band to tour and perform on his ''Kiss My Blood'' video (1991), directed by world-famous director Tim Pope and filmed at the Olympia in Paris. The video attracted much controversy, as it featured much footage of Pop performing with his penis exposed to the audience. The album was his first Gold-certified album in the U.S. (denoting sales of over 500,000 copies) and featured his first Top 40 U.S. hit, "Candy", a duet with B-52's singer Kate Pierson.

Also in 1990, Pop starred in the controversial opera ''The Manson Family'' by composer John Moran, released on Point Music/Phillip Classics, where he sang the role of prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. That year he was also contributed to the Red Hot Organization's AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue project, singing a version of "Well Did You Evah!" in a duet with Deborah Harry.

In 1991, Pop and Kirst contributed the song "Why Was I Born (Freddy's Dead)" to the soundtrack of the film ''Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare''. The song also plays over the end credits of the film, with a compilation of clips from the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street'' series running alongside the end credits.

In 1992, he collaborated with Goran Bregović on the soundtrack for the movie ''Arizona Dream'' by Emir Kusturica. Pop sang four of the songs: ''In the Deathcar'', ''TV Screen'', ''Get the Money'', and ''This is a Film''. Also in 1992, he collaborated with the New York City band White Zombie. He recorded spoken word vocals on the intro and outro of the song "Black Sunshine" as well as playing the character of a writer in the video shot for the song. He is singled out for special thanks in the liner notes of the band's album ''La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1''.

In 1993, Pop released ''American Caesar'', including two successful singles, "Wild America" and "Beside You." The following year Pop contributed to Buckethead's album ''Giant Robot'', including the songs "Buckethead's Toy Store" and "Post Office Buddy". He appears also on the Les Rita Mitsouko album ''Système D'' where he sings the duet "My Love is Bad" with Catherine Ringer.

In 1995, Pop again found mainstream fame when his 1977 song "Lust for Life" was featured in the film ''Trainspotting''. A new video was recorded for the song, with clips from the film and studio footage of Iggy dancing with one of its stars, Ewen Bremner. An Iggy Pop concert also served as a plot point in the film. The song has also been used in TV commercials for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (with many music critics denouncing the usage of the song to promote peppy cruises) and as the theme music to ''The Jim Rome Show'', a nationally-syndicated American sports talk show.

In 1996, Pop released ''Naughty Little Doggie'', with Whitey Kirst returning on guitar, and the single "I Wanna Live". In 1997, he remixed ''Raw Power'' to give it a rougher, more hard-edged sound; fans had complained for years that Bowie's official "rescue effort" mix was muddy and lacking in bass. Pop testified in the reissue's liner notes that on the new mix, "everything's still in the red". He co-produced his 1999 album ''Avenue B'' with Don Was, releasing the single "Corruption." Pop produced 2001's ''Beat 'Em Up'', which gave birth to The Trolls, releasing the single "Football" featuring Trolls alumni Whitey Kirst and brother Alex.

In the early to middle 1990s, Pop would make several guest appearances on the Nickelodeon show ''The Adventures of Pete and Pete''. He played James Mecklenberg, Nona Mecklenberg's father.

The Stooges reunion: 2003 to present

Pop's 2003 album ''Skull Ring'' featured collaborators Sum 41, Green Day, Peaches, and The Trolls, as well as Ron and Scott Asheton, reuniting the three surviving founding members of The Stooges for the first time since 1974. Pop made a guest appearance on Peaches's song ''Kick It'' as well as the video. Also in 2003, his first full-length biography was published. ''Gimme Danger – The Story of Iggy Pop'' was written by Joe Ambrose; Pop did not collaborate on the biography or publicly endorse it. Having enjoyed working with the Ashetons on ''Skull Ring'', Pop reformed The Stooges with bassist Mike Watt (formerly of the Minutemen) filling in for Dave Alexander, and ''Fun House'' saxophonist Steve Mackay rejoining the lineup. They have toured regularly since 2004. That year, Pop opened Madonna's ''Reinvention'' World Tour in Dublin.

Iggy and The Stooges played the Glastonbury Festival in June 2007. Their set included material from the 2007 album ''The Weirdness'' and classics such as "No Fun and "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Pop also caused controversy in June 2007 when he was interviewed on the BBC's coverage of the Glastonbury Festival. He used the phrase "paki shop", prompting three complaints and an apology from the BBC.

On March 10, 2008 Pop appeared at Madonna's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Together with The Stooges he sang raucous versions of two Madonna hits "Burning Up" and "Ray of Light." Before leaving the stage he looked directly at Madonna, quoting "You make me feel shiny and new, like a virgin, touched for the very first time.", from Madonna's hit song "Like A Virgin". According to guitarist Ron Asheton, Madonna asked The Stooges to perform in her place, as a protest to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for not inducting The Stooges despite six appearances on the nomination ballot. Pop also sang on the "No Fun" cover by Asian Dub Foundation on their 2008 album ''Punkara''.

On January 6, 2009, original Stooges guitarist, and Iggy's self-described best friend Ron Asheton, was found dead from an apparent heart attack. He was 60 years old.

In 2009 James Williamson rejoined the band after 29 years.

On December 15, 2009 it was announced that The Stooges will be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2010. Pop had "about two hours of a strong emotional reaction" to the news.

In March 2010 the Stooges and Iggy Pop were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Recent career

Pop supplied vocals for the 1999 Death in Vegas UK Top-10 single ''Aisha''. The same year he appeared on ''Hashisheen, The End Of Law'', a collaborative effort by Bill Laswell, reading on the tracks ''The Western Lands'' and ''A Quick Trip to Alamut''. He also sang on the tracks ''Rolodex Propaganda'' and ''Enfilade'' by At the Drive-In in 2000.

For New Year's Eve 1997, Iggy was the headliner for the annual Australian three-day concert the Falls Festival. He gave one of the most memorable performances in the history of the festival. A member of the audience got to do the countdown for the new year with Pop as part of a competition to guess Pop's new year's resolution. (It was "To do nothing and make a lot of money!")

In 2005 Pop appeared, along with Madonna, Little Richard, Bootsy Collins, and The Roots' Questlove, in an American TV commercial for the Motorola ROKR phone. In early 2006, Iggy and the Stooges played in Australia and New Zealand for the Big Day Out. They also began work on a new album, ''The Weirdness'', which was recorded by Steve Albini and released in March 2007. In August 2006 Iggy and the Stooges performed at the Lowlands pop festival in the Netherlands, Hodokvas in Slovakia and in the Sziget Festival in Budapest.

Author Paul Trynka completed a biography of Iggy Pop (with his blessing) called ''Open Up and Bleed'', published in early 2007. More recently, Iggy and the Stooges played at Bam Margera's wedding and Pop appeared on the single "Punkrocker" with the Teddybears in a Cadillac television commercial. Pop was also the voice of Lil' Rummy on the Comedy Central cartoon ''Lil' Bush'' and confirmed that he has done voices for ''American Dad'' and ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', which also included The Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (though the game's manual credited Iggy Pop as the artist).

Pop guested on ''Profanation (Preparation for a Coming Darkness)'', the new album by the Bill Laswell-helmed group Praxis, which was released on January 1, 2008.

He fronts (from January 2009) a £25 million TV ad campaign for Swiftcover, using the strapline "Get a Life".

Pop collaborated with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse on the album "Dark Night of the Soul", singing the track ''pain.''

Pop's new solo album, ''Préliminaires'', was released on June 2, 2009. Inspired by a novel by French author Michel Houellebecq (born Michel Thomas) called ''La Possibilité d'une île'' (2005; Trans. as ''The Possibility of an Island'' by Gavin Bowd, 2006), Iggy was approached to provide the soundtrack for a documentary film on Michel and his attempts to make a film from his novel. Iggy's favourite character from Michel's novel is a little white dog named Fox. Iggy describes this new release as a "quieter album with some jazz overtones", the first single off the album, "King of the Dogs", bearing a sound strongly influenced by New Orleans jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. Iggy also admits that it's his response to being "sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music". The album is available on legal download sites, CD, and a Deluxe Boxset is available at only 6000 units worldwide. This boxset contains the ''Préliminaires'' album, a collector "Les Feuilles Mortes" b/w "King Of The Dogs" 7 inch, the cover of which is Iggy's portrait by Marjane Satrapi, and a 38 page booklet of drawings also by Marjane Satrapi.

Iggy sings on "We're All Gonna Die" on Slash's first solo album ''Slash'' which was released in April 2010.

Iggy appeared as a character in the video game Lego Rock Band to sing his song The Passenger and also lent his voice for the in game tutorial.

With reference to the song ''The Passenger, Iggy Pop'' has appeared on NZ television advertising phone networks to show how he can get a band to play together by conference call.

After a March 2010 stage diving accident, Pop claimed he would no longer stage dive. However, he did so on three occasions at a concert in Madrid, Spain on April 30, 2010. And it was much the same in London at the Hammersmith Apollo on May 2, 2010. On July 9, 2010 he again stage dived in Zottegem, Belgium, causing Iggy to bleed from the face.

In June 2010, Iggy Pop appeared at Yonge and Dundas Square in Toronto with the reformed Stooges on the NXNE main stage. The sheer size of the audience closed a central artery of Yonge Street.

In 2011 he teamed up with The Lilies, a collaboration between Sergio Dias of Os Mutantes and French group Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family to record the single 'Why?'.

On April 7, 2011, at age 63, Pop performed "Real Wild Child" on the tenth season of American Idol; the ''Los Angeles Times'' music blog "Pop & Hiss" described Pop as being "still magnetic, still disturbing."

Film career

Pop has had a limited career as an actor. He has appeared in sixteen movies, including ''Sid and Nancy'' (a nonspeaking cameo role), ''The Color of Money'', ''Hardware'' (voice only), ''The Crow: City of Angels'', ''The Rugrats Movie'', ''Snow Day'', ''Coffee and Cigarettes'' (opposite Tom Waits, in the third segment of the film, "Somewhere in California"), ''Cry-Baby'', ''Dead Man'', ''Tank Girl'' and ''Atolladero'', a Spanish science fiction Western. Pop also sings the main theme for ''Atolladero'', he is the voice of The Beast From Another Dimension in the cult animated film ''Rock & Rule'' and also sings its song, "Pain and Suffering".

He has been featured in five television series, including ''Tales from the Crypt'',''The Adventures of Pete & Pete'', where he played Nona's dad in the second and third season, and ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', in which he played Yelgrun in "The Magnificent Ferengi" episode. With The Stooges, he was also featured in an episode of MTV's Bam's Unholy Union as the main band performing at Bam's wedding. Additionally, a portion of the music video for Iggy's ''Butt Town'' was featured on an episode of ''Beavis and Butthead''.

Pop has been profiled in four rockumentaries and has had songs on eighteen soundtracks, including ''Crocodile Dundee 2'', ''Trainspotting'', ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'', ''Haggard'', ''Arizona Dream'', the main theme of ''Repo Man'', "Black Rain" and "Shocker" (1989) and ''Kurt Cobain: About a Son''.

In the movie ''Velvet Goldmine'', Ewan McGregor portrays Curt Wilde, a character loosely based on Iggy Pop. McGregor performs Pop's songs "TV Eye" and "Gimme Danger" in the film.

Pop voiced Lil' Rummy on the Comedy Central show ''Lil' Bush''.

Iggy Pop played himself as the DJ of the fictional rock station Liberty Rock Radio 97.8 in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Pop provided the voice for a character in the English language version of the 2007 animated film ''Persepolis''.

Iggy Pop also voiced a cameo in the ''American Dad!'' episode ''American Dream Factory'' as Jerry, the drummer, in Steve's band.

Iggy makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about Brion Gysin and the Dreamachine entitled 'FLicKeR'.

In 2008, Iggy's music was featured in a movie adaption of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel ''Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance''.

In January 2009, Iggy was signed up as the face of Swiftcover, the UK-based online insurance company. The advert was then banned by the Advertising Standards Authority on April 28, 2009 for being misleading – it implied that Iggy Pop himself had an insurance policy with Swiftcover when at the time the company did not insure musicians.

Iggy Pop featured along side indie starlet Greta Gerwig (Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, Baghead, Nights and Weekends) in the film "Art House" which will world premiere at the Nashville Film Festival in April 2010.

Iggy Pop also featured as a voice talent in the 2004 ATARI video game DRIV3R, which was produced by Reflections Interactive.

In 2010, the Stooges song "Search and Destroy" was featured in the Lost: Final Chapter episode 04, The Substitute.

Iggy's cover of the Richard Berry song ''Louie Louie'' is used during the opening credits of Michael Moore's 2009 film ''Capitalism: A Love Story''

Iggy was also referenced in ''The Venture Brothers'' Episode ''Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I)'' and ''Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part II)'' alongside ''Klaus Nomi'' as the bodyguards to ''The Sovereign'' who is in fact ''David Bowie'', Iggy along with Klaus who defect to ''Phantom Limb'' who then tries to kill David Bowie with a large glowing ball that he can summon at will to kill people on the command "POP!" He was quoted as saying to him before he kills him, "Too long have I been made to play the idiot, now you're going to be MY DOG!"

In the Super Mario Bros. video game series, the character, Iggy Koopa was named after him.

Future biopic

''The Passenger'' was the putative name for a biopic about Pop's early career with the Stooges. The film was to be directed by Nick Gomez, and Elijah Wood was to play Iggy Pop. , the project appears to be shelved.

Pop liked the script but refused to take part in the film. He said:

The script ain't chopped liver... It was a work of art. But subjectively, I don't want to be involved in any way. A producer and the writer sent me a very decent letter, and asked me to write back if I didn't want them to do it... I don't feel negative about it at all.

He also called Wood "a very poised and talented actor".

Classical scholarship

In 1995, an established journal of classical scholarship, ''Classics Ireland'', published Pop's reflections on the applicability of Edward Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' to the modern world in a short article, ''Caesar Lives'', (Vol. 2, 1995). Pop also relates how reading Gibbon while on tour in the Southern United States inspired him to a spontaneous soliloquy he called "Caesar".

Discography

Albums

With The Stooges

1969 – ''The Stooges''

1970 – ''Fun House

1973 – ''Raw Power''

2007 – ''The Weirdness''

With James Williamson

1977 – ''Kill City''

Solo

1977 – ''The Idiot''

1977 – ''Lust for Life''

1979 – ''New Values''

1980 – ''Soldier''

1981 – ''Party''

1982 – ''Zombie Birdhouse''

1986 – ''Blah Blah Blah''

1988 – ''Instinct''

1990 – ''Brick by Brick''

1993 – ''American Caesar''

1996 – ''Naughty Little Doggie''

1999 – ''Avenue B''

2001 – ''Beat 'Em Up''

2003 – ''Skull Ring''

2009 – ''Préliminaires''

2011 – ''Angle of the Dangle''

Personal life

Pop lives in the Cayman Islands. He has one son, Eric Benson. He was married twice: to Wendy Weissberg (for several weeks in 1968, the marriage was annulled shortly thereafter) and to Suchi Asano (1985–1999).

Further Reading/Info

References

External links

Iggy & The Stooges Official Website

http://archives.cbc.ca/arts_entertainment/music/clips/2806/ (Iggy Pop's infamous 1977 interview with Peter Gzowski, from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's archive)

Video of Iggy Pop collaboration with Sergio Dias (Os Mutantes) + Tahiti Boy & the Palmtree Family

Category:1947 births Category:Actors from Michigan Category:American people of Danish descent Category:American musicians of English descent Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American musicians of Norwegian descent Category:Kerrang! Awards winners Category:Living people Category:Virgin Records artists Category:American rock singers Category:American punk rock singers Category:Musicians from Michigan Category:Music of Ann Arbor, Michigan Category:People from Muskegon, Michigan Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Protopunk musicians Category:The Stooges members Category:University of Michigan alumni

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name	Tom Waits
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Alan Waits
born	December 07, 1949Pomona, California, United States
instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar
genre	rock, experimental music
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor, composer
years active	1972–present
label	Asylum Records, Island Records, ANTI-
website	tomwaits.com }}

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including ''Down By Law'' and ''Bram Stoker's Dracula''. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on ''One from the Heart''.

Lyrically, Waits' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places – although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best-known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists: "Jersey Girl", performed by Bruce Springsteen, "Ol' '55", performed by the Eagles, and "Downtown Train", performed by Rod Stewart. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries. He has been nominated for a number of major music awards and has won Grammy Awards for two albums, ''Bone Machine'' and ''Mule Variations''. In 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Waits currently lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and three children.

Origins and musical beginnings

Waits was born at Park Avenue Hospital in Pomona, California to Jesse Frank Waits and Alma Johnson McMurray, both schoolteachers. His father was of Scots-Irish descent and his mother was Norwegian American. After Waits' parents divorced in 1960, he lived with his mother in Whittier, and then moved to National City, in San Diego County, near the Mexico–United States border. Waits, who taught himself how to play the piano on a neighbor's instrument, often took trips to Mexico with his father, who taught Spanish; he would later say that he found his love of music during these trips through a Mexican ballad that was "probably a Ranchera, you know, on the car radio with my dad."

By 1965, while attending Hilltop High School within the Sweetwater Union High School District, Chula Vista, Waits was playing in an R&B;/soul band called The Systems and had begun his first job at Napoleone Pizza House in National City (about which he would later sing on "I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)" from ''Small Change'' and "The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House)" on ''The Heart of Saturday Night''). He later admitted that he was not a fan of the 1960s music scene, stating, "I wasn't thrilled by Blue Cheer, so I found an alternative, even if it was Bing Crosby." Five years later, he was working as a doorman at the Heritage nightclub in San Diego—where artists of every genre performed—when he did his first paid gig for $25. A fan of Bob Dylan, Lord Buckley, Jack Kerouac, Louis Armstrong, Howlin' Wolf, and Charles Bukowski, Waits began developing his own idiosyncratic musical style.

After serving with the United States Coast Guard, he took his newly formed act to Monday nights at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, where musicians would line up all day for the opportunity to perform on stage that night. In 1971, Waits moved to the Echo Park neighborhood of L.A. (at the time, also home to musicians Glenn Frey of the Eagles, J. D. Souther, Jackson Browne, and Frank Zappa) and signed with Herb Cohen at the age of 21. From August to December 1971, Waits made a series of demo recordings for Cohen's Bizarre/Straight label, including many songs for which he would later become known. These early tracks were eventually to be released twenty years later on ''The Early Years, Volume One'' and ''Volume Two''.

1970s

Waits signed to Asylum Records in 1972, and after numerous abortive recording sessions, his first record — the jazzy, folk-tinged ''Closing Time'' — was released in 1973. The album, which was produced and arranged by former Lovin' Spoonful member Jerry Yester, received positive reviews, but Waits did not gain widespread attention until a number of the album's tracks were covered by more prominent artists. Later in 1973, Tim Buckley released the album ''Sefronia'', which contained a cover version of Waits' song "Martha" from ''Closing Time'', the first-ever cover of a Tom Waits song by a known artist. This cover later appeared in the 1995 compilation ''Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits''. The album's opening track, "Ol' '55", was recorded by the Eagles in 1974 for their ''On the Border'' album.

He began touring and opening for such artists as Charlie Rich, Martha and the Vandellas, and Frank Zappa. Waits received increasing critical acclaim and gathered a loyal cult following with his subsequent albums. ''The Heart of Saturday Night'' (1974), featuring the song "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night", revealed Waits's roots as a nightclub performer, with half-spoken and half-crooned ballads often accompanied by a jazz backup band. Waits described the album as:

...a comprehensive study of a number of aspects of this search for the center of Saturday night, which Jack Kerouac relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see.

In 1975, Waits moved to the Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Boulevard and released the double album ''Nighthawks at the Diner'', recorded in a studio with a small audience in order to capture the ambience of a live show. The record exemplifies this phase of his career, including the lengthy spoken interludes between songs that punctuated his live act. That year, he also contributed backing vocals to Bonnie Raitt's "Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes", from her album ''Home Plate''.

By this time, Waits was drinking heavily, and life on the road was starting to take its toll. Waits, looking back at the period, has said,

I was sick through that whole period [...] It was starting to wear on me, all the touring. I'd been traveling quite a bit, living in hotels, eating bad food, drinking a lot — too much. There's a lifestyle that's there before you arrive and you're introduced to it. It's unavoidable.

In reaction to these hardships, Waits recorded ''Small Change'' (1976), which finds him in a much more cynical and pessimistic mood, lyrically, with many songs such as "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening With Pete King)" and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell)". With the album, Waits asserted that he "tried to resolve a few things as far as this cocktail lounge, maudlin, crying-in-your-beer image that I have. There ain't nothin' funny about a drunk [...] I was really starting to believe that there was something amusing and wonderfully American about being a drunk. I ended up telling myself to cut that shit out." The album, which also included long-time fan favorite "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)", featured famed drummer Shelly Manne and was, like his previous albums, heavily influenced by jazz.

''Small Change'', which was accompanied by the double A-side single "Step Right Up"/"The Piano Has Been Drinking", was a critical and commercial success and far outsold any of Waits's previous albums. With it, Waits broke onto ''Billboard'''s Top 100 Albums chart for the first time in his career (a feat Waits would not repeat until 1999 with the release of ''Mule Variations''). This resulted in a much higher public profile, which brought with it interviews and articles in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', and ''Vogue''. Waits put together a regular touring band, The Nocturnal Emissions, which featured Frank Vicari on tenor saxophone, Fitzgerald Jenkins on bass guitar, and Chip White on drums and vibraphone. Tom Waits and the Nocturnal Emissions toured the United States and Europe extensively from October 1976 until May 1977, including a performance of "The Piano Has Been Drinking" on cult BBC2 television music show the ''Old Grey Whistle Test'' in May 1976.

''Foreign Affairs'' (1977) was musically in a similar vein to ''Small Change'', but showed further artistic refinement and exploration into jazz and blues styles. Particularly noteworthy is the long cinematic spoken-word piece, "Potter's Field", set to an orchestral score. The album also features Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on "I Never Talk to Strangers." The album ''Blue Valentine'' (1978) displayed Waits's biggest musical departure to date, with much more focus on electric guitar and keyboards than on previous albums and hardly any strings (with the exception of album-opener "Somewhere" — a cover of Leonard Bernstein's song from ''West Side Story'' — and "Kentucky Avenue") for a darker, more blues-oriented sound. The song "Blue Valentines" was also unique for Waits in that it featured a desolate arrangement of solo electric guitar played by Ray Crawford, accompanied by Waits' vocal. Around this time, Waits had a relationship with Rickie Lee Jones (who appears on the sleeve art of the ''Blue Valentine'' album). In 1978, Waits also appeared in his first film role, in ''Paradise Alley'' as Mumbles the pianist, and contributed the original compositions "(Meet Me in) Paradise Alley" and "Annie's Back in Town" to the film's soundtrack.

''Heartattack and Vine'', Waits's last studio album for Asylum, was released in 1980, featuring a developing sound that included both ballads ("Jersey Girl") and rougher-edged rhythm and blues. The same year, he began a long working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who asked Waits to provide music for his film ''One from the Heart''. For Coppola's film, Waits originally wanted to work with Bette Midler; she was unavailable due to prior engagements, however. Waits ended up working with singer/songwriter Crystal Gayle as his vocal foil for the album.

1980s

In August 1980, Waits married Kathleen Brennan, a screenwriter, whom he had met while working on the set of the Francis Ford Coppola movie ''One from the Heart''. Brennan is regularly credited as co-author of many songs in his later albums, and Waits often cites her as a major influence on his work. She introduced him to the music of Captain Beefheart. Despite having shared a manager with Beefheart in the 1970s, Waits says, "I became more acquainted with him when I got married." Waits would later describe his relationship with Brennan as a paradigm shift in his musical development. After leaving Asylum, the label released the first Tom Waits "Best of" album in 1981, a collection called ''Bounced Checks'', notable for including an alternate, stripped down version of "Jersey Girl" and the otherwise unreleased "Mr. Henry", as well as an alternate master of "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard" and a live performance of "The Piano Has Been Drinking". During this period, Waits appeared in a series of minor movie roles, including a cameo role in ''Wolfen'' (1981) as an inebriated piano player, and his song "Jitterbug Boy" also appeared on the movie's soundtrack. ''One from the Heart'' received its official theatrical release in 1982, with Waits appearing in a cameo as a trumpet player as well as receiving an Oscar nomination for Original Song Score (eventually losing out to ''Victor Victoria'', by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse). This marked the first in a series of collaborations between Waits and Coppola, with Waits appearing in cameos in Coppola's movies ''The Outsiders'' (1983), ''Rumble Fish'' (1983), and ''The Cotton Club'' (1984), and a major role in ''Bram Stoker's Dracula''. Waits also contributed two songs to the documentary ''Streetwise'' (1984), "Rat's Theme" and "Take Care of All My Children".

After leaving Asylum for Island Records, Waits released ''Swordfishtrombones'' in 1983, a record that marked a sharp turn in his musical direction. While Waits had before played either piano or guitar, he now gravitated towards less common instruments, saying, "Your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they've been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don't explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing. I'm learning to break those habits by playing instruments I know absolutely nothing about, like a bassoon or a waterphone." ''Swordfishtrombones'' also introduced instruments such as bagpipes ("Town with No Cheer") and marimba ("Shore Leave") to Waits' repertoire, as well as pump organs, percussion (sometimes reminiscent of the music of Harry Partch), horn sections (often featuring Ralph Carney playing in the style of brass bands or soul music), experimental guitar, and obsolete instruments (many of Waits' albums have featured a damaged, unpredictable Chamberlin, and more recent albums have included the little-used Stroh violin).

His songwriting shifted as well, moving away from the traditional piano-and-strings ballad sound of his 1970s output towards a number of styles largely ignored in pop music, including primal blues, cabaret stylings, rumbas, theatrical approaches in the style of Kurt Weill, tango music, early country music and European folk music as well as the Tin Pan Alley-era songs that influenced his early output. He also recorded a spoken word piece, "Frank's Wild Years", influenced by Ken Nordine's "word jazz" records of the 1950s. Apart from Captain Beefheart and some of Dr. John's early output, there was little precedent in popular music.

Waits's new emphasis on experimenting with various styles and instrumentation continued on 1985's ''Rain Dogs'', a sprawling, 19-song collection which received glowing reviews (the album was ranked #21 on ''Rolling Stone'''s list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 397 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.) Contributions from guitarists Marc Ribot, Robert Quine, and Keith Richards accompanied Waits' move away from piano-based songs, in juxtaposition with an increased emphasis on instruments such as marimba, accordion, double bass, trombone, and banjo. The album also spawned the 12" single "Downtown Train/Tango Till They're Sore/Jockey Full of Bourbon", with Jean Baptiste Mondino filming a promotional music video for "Downtown Train" (which would later become a hit for Rod Stewart), featuring a cameo from boxing legend Jake LaMotta. The album peaked at #188 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart; however, its reputation has come to far outshine low initial sales.

''Franks Wild Years'', a musical play by Waits and Brennan, was staged as an Off-Broadway musical in 1986, directed by Gary Sinise, in a successful run at Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theater. Waits himself played the lead role. Waits developed his acting career with several supporting roles and a lead role in Jim Jarmusch's ''Down by Law'' in 1986, which also featured two of Waits's songs from ''Rain Dogs'' in the soundtrack. In the same year, Waits also contributed vocals to the song "Harlem Shuffle" on The Rolling Stones' album ''Dirty Work''.

In 1987, he released ''Franks Wild Years'' (subtitled "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts"), which included studio versions from Waits' play of the same name. ''Rolling Stone'' summed up the album's myriad styles this way: "Everything from sleazy strip-show blues to cheesy waltzes to supercilious lounge lizardry is given spare, jarring arrangements using various combinations of squawking horns, bashed drums, plucked banjo, snaky double bass, carnival organ and jaunty accordion." Waits also continued to further his acting career with a supporting role as Rudy the Kraut in ''Ironweed'' (an adaptation of William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel) alongside Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, in which Waits performed the song "Big Rock Candy Mountain", as well as a part in Robert Frank's ''Candy Mountain'', in which Waits also performed "Once More Before I Go." In 1988, Waits performed in ''Big Time'', a surreal concert movie and soundtrack which he cowrote with his wife.

In 1989, Waits appeared in his final theatrical stage role to date, appearing as Curly in Thomas Babe's ''Demon Wine'', alongside Bill Pullman, Philip Baker Hall, Carol Kane, and Bud Cort. The play opened at the Los Angeles Theater Center in February 1989 to mixed reviews, although Waits' performance was singled out by a number of critics, including John C. Mahoney, who described it as "mesmerizing." Waits finished the decade with appearances in three movies: as the voice of a radio DJ in Jim Jarmusch's ''Mystery Train''; as Kenny the Hitman in Robert Dornhelm's ''Cold Feet''; and the lead role of Punch & Judy man Silva in ''Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale''. His only musical output of the year consisted of contributing his cover of Phil Phillips' "Sea of Love" to the soundtrack of the Al Pacino movie of the same name and contributing vocals to The Replacements song "Date to Church", which appeared as a B-side to their single "I'll Be You".

1990s

''The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets'' — a theatrical collaboration of Waits, director Robert Wilson, and writer William S. Burroughs — premiered at Hamburg's Thalia Theatre on March 31, 1990. The project was based on a German folktale called ''Der Freischütz'', with Wilson responsible for the design and direction, Burroughs for writing the book, and Waits for music and lyrics, which were heavily influenced by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. In the same year, Waits contributed a cover of Cole Porter's "It's All Right with Me" to ''Red Hot + Blue'', the first in the series of compilation albums from the Red Hot Organization — one of the first major AIDS benefits in the music business — which sold over a million copies worldwide. Jim Jarmusch directed a promotional music video for the song. Waits also collaborated with photographer Sylvia Plachy in the same year; her book ''Sylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour'' includes a short Waits record to accompany the photographs and text.

The following year, Waits was extremely busy working on movie soundtracks, acting, and contributing to a number of music projects by other artists. First, Waits appeared on the Primus album ''Sailing the Seas of Cheese'' as the voice of "Tommy the Cat", which exposed him to a new audience in alternative rock. This was the first of several collaborations between Waits and the group; Frontman Les Claypool would appear on several subsequent Waits releases. The same year saw Waits provide spoken word contributions to ''Devout Catalyst'', an album by one of Waits' greatest influences, Ken Nordine, on the songs "A Thousand Bing Bangs" and "The Movie." Waits also contributed vocals to a duet with singer Bob Forrest on the song "Adios Lounge" on the Thelonious Monster album ''Beautiful Mess''. He also contributed vocals to two songs ("Little Man" and "I'm Not Your Fool Anymore") on jazz tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards' album ''Mississippi Lad''. Edwards was extremely complimentary of Waits' contributions, saying:

Tom Waits is the one who got me my contract with PolyGram. He's wonderful, he's America's best lyricist since Johnny Mercer. He came down to the studio on the ''Mississippi Lad'' album, that's the first one I did for PolyGram, and he sang two of my songs, wouldn't accept any money, just trying to give me the best boost that he could.

The only collection of exclusively Waits-performed material of 1991 appeared when Waits composed and conducted the almost exclusively instrumental music for Jim Jarmusch's 1991 film ''Night on Earth'', which was released as an album the following year. In July 1991, Screamin' Jay Hawkins released the album ''Black Music for White People'', which features covers of two Waits compositions: "Heartattack & Vine" (which later that year was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits' permission, resulting in a lawsuit) and "Ice Cream Man". Waits continued to appear in movie acting roles, the most significant of which was his uncredited cameo as a disabled veteran in Terry Gilliam's ''The Fisher King''. He also appeared alongside Kevin Bacon, John Malkovich, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Steve Rash's ''Queens Logic'', and opposite Tom Berenger and Kathy Bates in Hector Babenco's film ''At Play in the Fields of the Lord'', adapted from Peter Matthiessen's 1965 novel.

''Bone Machine'', Waits's first studio album in five years, was released in 1992. The stark record featured a great deal of percussion and guitar (with little piano or sax), marking another change in Waits' sound. Critic Steve Huey calls it "perhaps Tom Waits's most cohesive album... a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative — and often harrowing — effect... Waits' most affecting and powerful recording, even if it isn't his most accessible." ''Bone Machine'' was awarded a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. On December 19, 1992 ''Alice'', Waits's second theatrical project with Robert Wilson, premiered at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg. Paul Schmidt adapted the text from the works of Lewis Carroll (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass'', in particular), with songs by Waits and Kathleen Brennan presented as intersections with the text rather than as expansions of the story, as would be the case in conventional musical theater. These songs would be recorded by Waits as a studio album 10 years later on ''Alice''. 1992 also saw Waits featuring in Francis Ford Coppola's film ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'', as the possessed lunatic Renfield.

In 1993, he released ''The Black Rider'', which contained studio versions of the songs that Waits had written for the musical of the same name three years previously, with the exceptions of "Chase the Clouds Away" and "In the Morning", which appeared in the theatrical production but not on the studio album. William S. Burroughs also guests on vocals on "'Tain't No Sin". In the same year, Waits lent his vocals to Gavin Bryars' 75-minute reworking of his 1971 classical music piece ''Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet''; appeared in Robert Altman's film version of Raymond Carver's stories ''Short Cuts'' and Jim Jarmusch's ''Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California'', a short black-and-white movie with Iggy Pop; and his third child, Sullivan, was born. In 1997, Waits and Brennan wrote and performed the music for ''Bunny'' the animated short film by 20th Century Fox's Blue Sky Studios, which was awarded Best Animated Short Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 1995, Holly Cole released ''Temptation'', a tribute album consisting entirely of Waits covers.

Another Waits cover was released in 1996, as Meat Loaf covered ''Martha'' for his concept album ''Welcome to the Neighborhood''.

In 1998, after Island Records released the compilation ''Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years'', Waits left the label for Epitaph, whose president, Andy Kaulkin, said the label was "...blown away that Tom would even consider us. We are huge fans." Waits himself was full of praise for the label, saying "Epitaph is rare for being owned and operated by musicians. They have good taste and a load of enthusiasm, plus they're nice people. And they gave me a brand-new Cadillac, of course."

Waits's first album on his new label, ''Mule Variations'', was issued in 1999. ''Billboard'' described the album as musically melding "backwoods blues, skewed gospel, and unruly art stomp into a sublime piece of junkyard sound sculpture." The album was Waits' first release to feature a turntablist. The album won a Grammy in 2000; as an indicator of how difficult it is to classify Waits's music, he was nominated simultaneously for Best Contemporary Folk Album (which he won) and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance (for the song "Hold On"), both different from the genre for which he won his previous Grammy. The album was also his highest-charting album in the U.S. to date, reaching #30.

The same year, Waits made a foray into producing music for other artists, teaming up with his old friend Chuck E. Weiss to coproduce (with his wife, Kathleen Brennan) ''Extremely Cool'', as well as appearing on the record as a guest vocalist and guitarist. He also contributed a cover of Skip Spence's "Books of Moses" to ''More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album'', a collection of covers of the singer's songs on Birdman Records. The same year, Waits appeared in the comedy ''Mystery Men''.

2000s

John Hammond's ''Wicked Grin'', a collection of Waits cover songs, was released in 2001. Waits appears on most songs, playing guitar, piano, and/or offering backing vocals. The album also includes the traditional hymn "I Know I've Been Changed", performed as a duet by Hammond and Waits.

Tori Amos included a cover of the song "Time", from ''Rain Dogs'' on her 2001 album ''Strange Little Girls''. In 2002, Waits simultaneously released two albums, ''Alice'' and ''Blood Money''. Both collections had been written almost 10 years previously and were based on theatrical collaborations with Robert Wilson; the former a musical play about Lewis Carroll, and the latter an interpretation of Georg Büchner's play fragment ''Woyzeck''. Both albums revisit the tango, Tin Pan Alley, and spoken-word influences of ''Swordfishtrombones'', while the lyrics are both profoundly cynical and melancholic, exemplified by "Misery is the River of the World" and "Everything Goes to Hell." "Diamond in Your Mind", which Waits wrote for Wilson's ''Woyzeck'', did not appear on ''Blood Money''; however, it did emerge on Solomon Burke's album ''Don't Give Up on Me'' of the same year. While Waits has played the song live a number of times, an official version would not be released until 2007. The same year, Waits contributed a version of "The Return of Jackie and Judy" by The Ramones to the compilation album ''We're a Happy Family - A Tribute to Ramones'', which was released in 2003 on Columbia Records. That same year, Waits was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. Waits was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards.

Waits released ''Real Gone'', his first nontheatrical studio album since ''Mule Variations'', in 2004. It is Waits's only album to date to feature absolutely no piano on any of its tracks. Waits beatboxes on the opening track, "Top of the Hill", and most of the album's songs begin with Waits's "vocal percussion" improvisations. It is also more rock-oriented, with less blues influence than he has previously demonstrated. The same year, Waits contributed backing vocals to the track "Go Tell It on the Mountain" on the Grammy Award (Best Traditional Gospel Album)-winning album of the same name by The Blind Boys of Alabama. He also contributed a version of Daniel Johnston's "King Kong" to the tribute album ''The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered'', released on Gammon Records.

At this time, Waits made a return to acting after a five-year break, marked at first by the re-release of his 1993 Jim Jarmusch-directed short ''Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California'', costarring Iggy Pop, compiled in ''Coffee and Cigarettes''. In 2005, Waits appeared in the Tony Scott film ''Domino'' as a soothsayer. In the same year, Waits appeared as himself in Roberto Benigni's romantic comedy ''La Tigre e la Neve'', set in occupied Baghdad during the Iraq War. In the movie, Waits appears in a dream scene as himself, singing the ballad "You Can Never Hold Back Spring" and accompanying himself at the piano.

A 54-song three-disc box set of rarities, unreleased tracks, and brand-new compositions called ''Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards'' was released in November 2006. The three discs are subdivided relating to their content: "Brawlers" features Waits's more upbeat rock and blues songs; "Bawlers", his ballads and love songs; and "Bastards", songs that fit in neither category, including a number of spoken-word tracks. A video for the song "Lie to Me" was produced as a promotion for the collection. ''Orphans'' also continues Waits's newfound interest in politics with "Road to Peace", a song about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The album is also notable for containing a number of covers of songs by other artists, including The Ramones ("The Return of Jackie and Judy" and "Danny Says"), Daniel Johnston ("King Kong"), Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht ("What Keeps Mankind Alive"), and Leadbelly ("Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" and "Goodnight Irene"), as well as renditions of works by poets and authors admired by Waits, such as Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac and a previously released duet with Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse entitled "Dog Door". Waits' albums ''Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards'' and ''Alice'' are both included in metacritic.com's list of the "Top 200: Best-Reviewed Albums" since 2000 at #10 and #20, respectively (as of November 2009). The same years, Waits appeared on Sparklehorse's album ''Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain'', playing piano on the track "Morning Hollow."

Five different versions of Waits's song "Way Down in the Hole" have been used as the opening theme songs for the HBO television show ''The Wire''. Waits's own version, from ''Frank's Wild Years'', was used for season two. The other versions used for the series were performed by, in season order, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Neville Brothers, "DoMaJe" and Steve Earle.

Waits made a number of high-profile television and concert appearances between 2006 and 2010. In November 2006, Waits appeared on ''The Daily Show'' and performed "The Day After Tomorrow." This was significant for his having been only the third performing guest on the show, the first being Tenacious D and the second The White Stripes. On May 4, 2007, Waits performed "Lucinda" and "Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" from ''Orphans'' on the last show of a week ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' spent in San Francisco. There was a short interview after the last performance. Waits also played in the Bridge School Benefit on October 27–28, 2007 with Kronos Quartet.

On July 10, 2007, Waits released the download-only digital single "Diamond In Your Mind". The version of the song was recorded with Kronos Quartet, with Greg Cohen, Philip Glass, and The Dalai Lama at the benefit concert "Healing The Divide: A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation" at Avery Fisher Hall, recorded on September 21, 2003.

Waits's song "Trampled Rose" (from ''Real Gone'') appeared on the critically acclaimed album ''Raising Sand'', a collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Waits also provided guest vocals on the song "Pray" by fellow ANTI- artists The Book of Knots on their album ''Traineater''.

He played the role of Kneller in the film ''Wristcutters: A Love Story'', which opened in November 2007.

On January 22, 2008, Waits made a rare live appearance in Los Angeles, performing at a benefit for Bet Tzedek Legal Services—The House of Justice, a nonprofit poverty law center.

On May 7, 2008, Waits announced the Glitter and Doom Tour starting in June 2008, touring cities in the southern United States and subsequently announced a series of dates in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. Waits was awarded the key to the city of El Paso, Texas during a concert on June 20, 2008. In his generally positive review of the opening show of the tour, ''The Wall Street Journal'' critic Jim Fusilli described Waits' music thus: }}

On May 20, 2008 Scarlett Johansson's debut album, entitled ''Anywhere I Lay My Head'', featured covers of ten Tom Waits songs. Waits made an appearance on the album ''The Spirit of Apollo'' by alternative hip hop project N.A.S.A., on the track "Spacious Thoughts."

Waits wrote the following introduction for the Tompkins Square compilation ''People Take Warning – Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913–1938'':

In late 2009, Terry Gilliam's film ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' was released, with Waits in the role of Mr. Nick. Production began in December 2007 in London. Star Heath Ledger's death in January 2008 cast doubt on the film's future, but the production was salvaged with the addition of new actors playing his character in scenes he did not complete.

2010s

Waits played the role of "The Engineer" in the film ''The Book of Eli'', opposite Denzel Washington, which opened in January 2010.

He is currently working on a new stage musical with director and long-time collaborator Robert Wilson and playwright Martin McDonagh.

In early 2011, Tom Waits completed a set of 23 poems entitled ''Seeds on Hard Ground'', which were inspired by Michael O'Brien's portraits of the homeless in his upcoming book, ''Hard Ground'', which will include the poems alongside the portraits. In anticipation of the book release, Waits and Anti- printed limited edition chapbooks of the poems to raise money for Redwood Empire Food Bank, a homeless referral and family support service in Sonoma County, California. As of January 26, 2011, four editions, each limited to a thousand copies costing $24.99US each, sold out, raising $90,000 for the food bank.

It was announced on February 9, 2011, that Waits was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Neil Young. The ceremony was held at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday, March 14, 2011, at 8:30pm EST. Waits accepted the award with his customary humor, stating, "They say I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with... like it's a bad thing."

On February 24, 2011, it was announced via Waits' official website that he has begun work on his next studio album.

Waits said through his website that on August 23 he would "set the record straight" in regards to rumors of a new release. On August 23, the title of the new album was revealed to be ''Bad as Me'', and a new single, also titled "Bad as Me," started being offered via Amazon.com and other sites.

Record companies

Waits has often switched to smaller independent record companies over the years; he signed to Asylum Records before they were bought out by Elektra Records and Warner Bros. During his time with Island Records, that label expanded from a small company to a music industry giant. He then signed to Anti Records, a division of Epitaph Records.

Lawsuits

Waits has steadfastly refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials and has joked about other artists who do (commenting "If Michael Jackson wants to work for Pepsi, why doesn't he just get himself a suit and an office in their headquarters and be done with it?"). He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers who used his material without permission. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently, the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally, naked and purring on the hood of a new car", he said in a statement, referring to the Mercury Cougar. "I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor."

Waits filed his first lawsuit in 1988 against Frito-Lay. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an award of $2.375-million in his favor (''Waits v. Frito-Lay'', 978 F. 2d 1093 (9th Cir. 1992)). Frito-Lay had approached Waits to use one of his songs in an advertisement. Waits declined the offer, and Frito-Lay hired a Waits soundalike to sing a jingle similar to ''Small Change'''s "Step Right Up", which is, ironically, a song Waits has called "an indictment of advertising". Waits won the lawsuit, becoming one of the first artists to successfully sue a company for using an impersonator without permission.

In 1993, Levi's used Screamin' Jay Hawkins' version of Waits' "Heartattack and Vine" in a commercial. Waits sued, and Levi's agreed to cease all use of the song and offered a full page apology in ''Billboard''. Waits found himself in a situation similar to his earlier one with Frito Lay in 2000 when Audi approached him, asking to use "Innocent When You Dream" (from ''Franks Wild Years'') for a commercial broadcast in Spain. Waits declined, but the commercial ultimately featured music very similar to that song. Waits undertook legal action, and a Spanish court recognized that there had been a violation of Waits's moral rights in addition to the infringement of copyright. The production company, Tandem Campany Guasch, was ordered to pay compensation to Waits through his Spanish publisher. Waits was later quoted as jokingly saying the company got the name of the song wrong, thinking it was called "Innocent When You Scheme".

In 2005, Waits sued Adam Opel AG, claiming that, after having failed to sign him to sing in their Scandinavian commercials, they had hired a sound-alike singer. In 2007, the suit was settled, and Waits gave the sum to charity.

Waits has also filed a lawsuit unrelated to his music. He was arrested in 1977 outside Duke's Tropicana Coffee Shop in Los Angeles. Waits and a friend were trying to stop some men from bullying other patrons. The men were plainclothes police, and Waits and his friend were taken into custody and charged with disturbing the peace. The jury found Waits not guilty; he took the police department to court and was awarded $7,500 compensation.

Discography and filmography

Tours

1973: ''Closing Time'' touring

1974–1975: ''The Heart of Saturday Night'' touring

1975–1976: ''Small Change'' touring

1977: ''Foreign Affairs'' touring

1978–1979: ''Blue Valentine'' touring

1980–1982: ''Heartattack and Vine'' touring

1985: ''Rain Dogs'' touring

1987: ''Big Time'' touring

1999: ''Get Behind the Mule Tour''

2004: ''Real Gone Tour''

2006: ''The Orphans Tour''

2008: ''Glitter and Doom Tour''

Further reading

References

External links

Discography at the Tom Waits Library

Interview with Amanda Petrusich, Pitchfork Media, November 27, 2006

Interview with Jon Stewart, ''The Daily Show'', November 28, 2006

Tom Waits at NPR Music, contains interviews

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:American composers Category:American film actors Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American musicians of Norwegian descent Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:American rock singers Category:American blues singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Eels (band) members Category:English-language singers Category:Epitaph Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Chula Vista, California Category:People from Pomona, California Category:People from the San Fernando Valley Category:People from Sonoma County, California Category:Singers from California Category:Songwriters from California Category:Writers from California Category:Sebastopol, California Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Echo Park, Los Angeles

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