June 02, 2026
Provided image/Katalinas Communications
Levittown native Thomas G. Waites went to Juilliard, acted with Al Pacino and appeared in 'The Thing' and 'The Warriors.' The actor is also the frontman for a folk band playing New Hope Winery on June 7.
One of Thomas G. Waites' earliest roles was Fox, one of the gang members fighting their way home in the 1979 cult classic "The Warriors." And while those guys were from Coney Island, Waites has often said his childhood in Levittown helped him get into the mindset of a bruiser.
"It was way different than it is now," the actor, now 71, said. "I watched the race riots outside my picture window. There was a lot of scuffling, and we did have gangs. ... We would get into rumbles, that's what we called them then."
Waites, who admits he was a "terrible fighter," has spent many years away from home. After his drama teacher at Bucks County Community College recommended he audition for Juilliard, he landed a scholarship to the famed New York acting school. Later, he racked up credits in "The Thing," "...And Justice for All" and HBO prison drama "Oz" and started his own acting studio in Manhattan. But he's returning to his old stomping grounds this Sunday to perform as the frontman of his recently formed Americana band Heartbreak Waites. His tour will stop at New Hope Winery.
The concert is the latest artistic pivot for Waites, whose acting career took several hits of his own making. He got kicked out of Juilliard, he says, for being a "difficult" and "really impossible young person." The clashes continued on the set of his second film, "The Warriors." Though he was initially cast in a lead role, his arguments with director Walter Hill over the story's direction spurred the filmmaker to abruptly retool the script. He shifted much of Waites' material over to the character Swan, played by Michael Beck, and wrote in a death scene for Fox. Waites was fired, and, in a fit of anger, demanded his name be taken off the credits.
"I guess my ego got the best of me, and I disturbed the director in a way that I should not have," he said. "I kept pestering him with questions like, 'What happened to the movie we talked about?' And that's really the wrong question to ask a guy who's got 500 extras and a crane shot, and he's behind schedule, he's over budget."
Hill, for his part, feels equally bad about the dust-up. In a 2022 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he admitted he thought "some of it was my fault."
"I’m not proud of this at all," he continued. "I think, had I been a better director, I might have gotten through to him better. But he was, we felt, beginning to be a disruptive force. He’s since apologized. He’s written me a couple letters."
Waites rebounded with a part in the 1979 legal drama "...And Justice for All" alongside Al Pacino. The pair would reunite in 1981 for the off-Broadway production of "American Buffalo," a play that earned both men great reviews. Hot off that success, Waites flew out to Alaska to film John Carpenter's "The Thing." The 1981 horror film, which has also gained a rabid following since its release, follows a group of scientists trapped in Antarctica with a murderous alien that takes the form of earthly creatures. Waites is the radio operator who wears sunglasses at night, Windows.
"I think that (Carpenter) put his finger on the pulse of what's happening today," Waites said. "For example, are you really (you), or are you somebody pretending to be? Some artificial intelligence version of you ... who is really the human?"
The film's ambiguous ending has led to decades of speculation about who is, in fact, the thing. There's only two men left standing — the pilot MacReady (Kurt Russell) and the mechanic Childs (Keith David) — and Carpenter has insisted there is a definitive answer. While Russell has played coy, deferring to his director, Waites has a guess.
"I think Keith is the thing," the actor said. "Kurt Russell is the hero and the hero never dies. So he's got one last opponent to defeat. That's my theory."
Waites continued acting long after "The Thing," including in a Broadway production of "Awake and Sing!" with Frances McDormand and several TV guest roles. But he believes his career stalled in the '80s thanks to his early reputation as a difficult actor and his lead part in the box office bomb "The Clan of the Cave Bear" — a "dreadful movie," in Waites' estimation. The setbacks forced him to rethink his aspirations and attitude.
He got into writing, obtaining a bachelors degree from the New School and entering the University of Iowa's graduate playwright program in the '90s. After a COVID-19 health scare, he decided he wanted to direct a feature film, too. "Target," which he also wrote, debuted in 2023.
"I've put myself in a position where I was constantly stretching, pushing the walls of what I was capable of to whatever extreme was necessary in order to find out who I was," he said.
More recently, his one-man show "Lucky Man: A Warrior's Journey" played off-Broadway, with backing from the Heartbreak Waites. The band was another project born out of the pandemic lockdown. Cooped up in his New York apartment, Waites began writing music for the first time since his '80s foray into punk rock. He showed the songs to his musician friend Tony Daniels, who saw promise. Daniels became the guitarist for the band, with Waites' acting student Cedric Allen Hills on keyboard and fellow actor Annie McGovern on vocals.
The group does not share the dark tone of "The Warriors" and "The Thing." Waites describes their sound as "a lot of '60s-type harmonies" with an emphasis on peace, love and understanding. The music is a response to what he views as an increasingly divided political climate, though it's more uplifting than critical.
"Compassion has become a sign of weakness, and that's all just so wrong, morally and metaphysically," he lamented. "... I can't say enough about the importance or the power of kindness. It's critical. I think it's just so essential.
"Especially if you grow up in a place like Philly, which is a very negative place. The only city to boo Santa Claus."
Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt
| @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice
Have a news tip? Let us know.
