Patti Smith
Biography
Patti Smith is an American singer, poet and writer who helped shape the New York punk scene by setting poetry against rock music. Raised in New Jersey, she started out in the early 1970s as a poet and performance artist, and her first public poetry performance came in 1971 with Lenny Kaye on guitar. The pair later formed the Patti Smith Group, whose debut album Horses appeared in 1975. Because the Night, which she wrote with Bruce Springsteen, made number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. Her memoir Just Kids took the National Book Award in 2010, and she entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 and shared the Polar Music Prize in 2011. She appeared as herself in Terrence Malick's Song to Song (2017) and in the documentary Patti Smith: Dream of Life (2008), and made her television acting debut in a 2011 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
79years old
Turns 80 on December 30in 78 days
- Born Chicago
- Star sign: CapricornThe sign runs December 22 to January 19
- Also credited as Patricia Lee Smith and Pattie Smith
Movie Career
- Films
- 13
- Career span
- 20 years2003 to 2023
Genres
- Documentary85%, 11 films
- Music31%, 4 films
- Biography23%, 3 films
- Drama15%, 2 films
- Comedy8%, 1 film
Photos
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First role
Smith first acted on television when she was 64, in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The episode was titled "Icarus" and aired in 2011.
First role
Smith's first public poetry performance was on February 10, 1971, opening for Gerard Malanga with Lenny Kaye on electric guitar.
A role that slipped away
Blue Öyster Cult briefly considered Smith as a possible lead singer. She also wrote lyrics for several of their songs, among them "Debbie Denise", "Baby Ice Dog", "Career of Evil", "Fire of Unknown Origin" and "Shooting Shark".
A first
Smith curated the Meltdown festival in London on June 25, 2005. There she gave her first full live performance of the album Horses, playing every song on it.
Patti Smith movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
- Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese2019 Biography, Documentary, Historyas The Punk Poet
IMDb rating 7.58.8K votes
- Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe2007as Himself
IMDb rating 7.0302 votes
- Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of 'Inside Llewyn Davis'2013as Himself
IMDb rating 8.1661 votes
Most often with
Six actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Sam Shepard's page
Bruce Springsteen's page
Allen Ginsberg's page
Joan Baez's page
Paul Simon's page
Robert Mapplethorpe's page
Awards
Ten awards and honors from 2005 to 2026.
| Year | Award | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other honors | |||
| 2026 | Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts | Won | |
| 2022 | Officer of the Legion of Honour | Won | |
| 2022 | Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize | Won | |
| 2019 | Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts | Won | |
| 2019 | Honorary doctor of the University of Padua | Honorary | |
| 2017 | Honorary doctorate from the University of Parma | Honorary | |
| 2011 | Polar Music Prize | Won | |
| 2010 | National Book Award for Nonfiction | Won | |
| 2007 | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | Won | |
| 2005 | Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres | Won | |
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.