In 1981, Italian director Marco Ferreri created Tales of Ordinary Madness, which was based on several of Bukowski's short stories collected in The Most Beautiful Woman in Town.
[5] In 1995 actor Sean Penn (a good friend of Bukowski's) directed his second feature film, an independent piece named The Crossing Guard starring Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright, and David Morse.
Bono, lead singer of the commercially and critically acclaimed Irish rock band U2, credits Bukowski with a part in his love for American literature, saying "Here was a guy who was like 'Look, I have no time for metaphors.
[12] Even their subject matter is similar in structure and content as both Waits and Bukowski write about dark places, sadness, drifters and loneliness.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers mention Bukowski in their song "Mellowship Slinky in B Major" off their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
The Dogs D'Amour, a rock band from London, England, reference Charles Bukowski and his misadventures in a track called "Bullet Proof Poet" off their third studio album A Graveyard Full of Empty Bottles.
Dave Alvin has a song named "Burning in Water Drowning in Flame" off his 1993 album Museum of the Heart that also references the writer.
The show's main character Hank Moody, played by actor David Duchovny, is an author based in Los Angeles who subscribes to the same kind of lifestyle that Bukowski became known for.
[15] In the ninth episode of the first season, Moody's girlfriend can be seen reading Sifting Through the Madness For The World, The Line, The Way: New Poems,[16] a collection of Bukowski's posthumously-published work.
Barflies was created by Scottish-specific theatre group Grid Iron and it centers on Bukowski's literary alter ego and main protagonist, Henry Chinaski.