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Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman was born in Texas, Amarillo on May 29th, 1953, (his birthname is Daniel Elfman). His parents, Milton and Blossom Elfman are known for writing books for children and the TV movie ‘I think I’m having a baby’, with Jennifer j Lee and Helen Hunt.

He started working in 1980 with his brother director Richard Elfman on the movie ‘Forbidden Zone’. He also formed a group under name ‘The Mystic knights of Oingo Boingo’, which performed the score that Elfman wrote for ‘Forbidden Zone’. Oingo Boingo remained known by that name and continued working as a regular group until they disbanded in 1995.

Danny Elfman met Tim Burton in 1985, and agreed to score the music for ‘Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure’. That was Elfman’s first time to compose and Burton’s to direct for a big-budget movie. Elfman invited his Oingo Boingo co-member and friend Steve Bartek to orchestrate for this feature. ‘Pee-Wee’ was a success and also a start of the friendship between Tim Burton and Elfman.

In ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’, Elfman composed the score, wrote the songs and sang as Jack Skellington, the leading role. Other than Burton, Elfman also worked with many other directors, including Emilio Estevez, Brian DePalma, Warren Beatty and the Hughes brothers, however collaboration with Tim Burton has been the most significant as it left a trademark on his career. They are to these days working as a team and Elfman has scored the music for every movie that Burton has directed, except the one for ‘Ed Wood’. For his theme for ‘Batman’ in 1989, Danny Elfman was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Danny Elfman about Batman Returns

Both Burton and Elfman started some dark and gothic trends with their Batman and other film collaborations, which became fashionable but over time some other influences also came into view in both the visual and musical sense. Elfman's score for ‘Hulk’ still has many elements of his original style, but it is also evident that he has included some ideas from Hans Zimmer and scores for Don Davis' Matrix.

His work for TV shows his ability to grab one’s attention and quickly sets the mood for what is to come. The best example is the theme for ‘The Simpsons’ as well as the recently created theme for ‘Desperate Housewives’. In 2005 both Burton and Elfman returned to form with the release of ‘Corpse Bride’ and ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

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