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Citation : Bibliography: (taken from numerous sources and expanded)


Daniel Richard Elfman was born on May 29th, 1953 in Amarillo, Texas. His parents were Blossom and Milton Elfman. His father was a teacher. Blossom, his mother, was a novelist. She won an Emmy for her writing in a TV movie.


Elfman spent his childhood in Los Angeles. When he turned 18, he moved with his brother, Richard, to France. There, he joined a theater group and became acquainted with the many different instruments of the orchestra. After spending a few years in France, he moved to Africa. He moved back to the U.S. after contracting malaria. He still considers his time in Africa a great benefit to himself.


In 1980, Elfman worked with his brother, director Richard Elfman, on the film Forbidden Zone. He formed a group known as "The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo." They performed the score that Elfman wrote for Forbidden Zone. Oingo Boingo, as it became known, blossomed into a permanent group and drew a large cult following (in 1995, however, they broke up).


In 1985 Elfman met Tim Burton, who asked Elfman to score the music for Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. This was Tim's first time directing and Elfman's first time composing for a big-budget film. Elfman called in his friend and fellow Oingo Boingo member, Steve Bartek, to orchestrate for him and Pee-Wee was a success. Thus began the friendship between Elfman and Burton. Elfman first became known by soundtrack fans in general with his funky, light-hearted score for Beetlejuice. Combined with Harry Belafonte's songs, the album was an enormous cult success.


Today, they are still working together as a team. Elfman has scored the music for every single movie that Tim has directed, with the exception of Ed Wood. He won his only Grammy in 1989 for his theme to Batman. Elfman considers Batman to be one of his best scores, and believes that it should receive far more recognition. He has never been nominated for an academy award. Elfman, along with his fans, believe that the Academy doesn't like him because of the fact that he is completely self-taught. He keeps his distance from the rest of the composer community, which he considers "elitist."


Perhaps his most emotional score to date, Edward Scissorhands (1990) has become widely recognized as a truly unique score. The track "The Grand Finale" is considered one of the best single tracks of the 1990's. In 1993, Elfman wrote another singularly slow, romantic, and dark score: Sommersby. Arguably his best work, this score was a sleeper hit and is yet unknown to many soundtrack fans.


The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) was a project where Elfman wrote the songs, composed the score, and sang the leading role as Jack Skellington in the movie. Besides Tim Burton, Elfman has worked with many other directors such as Brian DePalma, Emilo Estevez, Warren Beatty (who Elfman says is "insane" to work with), and the Hughes brothers. In 1996, he composed the score to Freeway which was directed by one of his high school friends. In return for his services, Elfman asked to be paid only a dollar.


Danny Elfman is one of the few artists that have established themselves as both a composer and a rocker. He has drawn a large following of fans who find his works to be fresh and innovative. Although he is looked down upon by many of his colleaques, he still continues to be one of the most popular and sought-after film composers in the film industry.


Elfman composed an incredible amount of material in 1996. Extreme Measures, The Frighteners, and Mission: Impossible were followed by perhaps the strangest Burton/Elfman collaboration, Mars Attacks!. In 1997, he scores another alien thriller, Men in Black. Elfman is also slated to score the Burton production of Superman.