Biography
Tommy Gnosis (played by actor Michael Pitt) is a central character in John Cameron Mitchell's film, Hedwig And The Angry Inch. The film follows a person on a journey toward self-discovery and acceptance, but with better hair and fashion sense than many of us!
Hedwig and the Angry Inch tells the tale of Hansel Schmidt, a girly-boy growing up with his mother in East Berlin, who longs for the freedom and excitement that pulses beyond the Berlin Wall. Hansel meets an American GI named Luther who offers to marry him so that they can live in America together, but first Hansel must make a sacrifice. Hansel's mother (Hedwig Schmidt) donates her passport and her name to the cause, and arranges a sex change operation for Hansel; however, the sex change operation is botched and Hansel - now Hedwig - is left with a one-inch mound of flesh. An angry inch.
Soon after settling down with Luther in a trailer park, Luther leaves Hedwig for a new young boy, and Hedwig is now alone, trying to make a go of the life she is in. She takes odd jobs ("mostly the jobs we call blow"), music and babysitting gigs to pay the bills… and enjoys a relationship with one of her charges, Tommy Speck. Tommy sees one of Hedwig's performances and he is hooked! They start writing music together; Hedwig pens Tommy's stage name, Tommy Gnosis (Greek for "knowledge"), and with her direction, his talent and image begin to emerge. Their relationship intensifies and Tommy panics over the looming Inch; enraged by his reaction, Hedwig throws him out of her trailer, and out of her life.
As Tommy Gnosis' music career takes off on wings made up of Hedwig's music, Hedwig and the Angry Inch begin a tour playing small gigs at near-empty eateries that just happen to be in close proximity to Tommy's stadium shows. Hedwig is determined to take back everything that Tommy has stolen from her… her songs, her heart and her soul. Little does Hedwig know that her journey will lead her to where she will discover that the elusive other half is much closer than she ever realized…
Written & directed by John Cameron Mitchell (who also stars as Hedwig), the film features a kick-ass soundtrack by composer/lyricist Stephen Trask. Trask also plays The Angry Inch guitarist Skzsp and provides vocals on tracks sung by Tommy Gnosis.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
