Danny Elfman
Daniel "Danny" Robert Elfman (* 29. May 1953 in Los Angeles , California ) is an American composer of film music and son of the writer Blossom Elfman. He was best known for his work for director Tim Burton , including Edward Scissorhands , The Nightmare Before Christmas , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Batman and Alice in Wonderland . He also composed the theme song for the hit series The Simpsons . Danny Elfman is married to actress Bridget Fonda .
Life
Elfman came from a Jewish family. His creative career began in the early 1970s when he joined the theatrical music group "Grand Magic Circus" as a violinist, in which his older brother Richard played congas. He later became part of the avant-garde music group "The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo", which Richard founded in 1972. In this troupe, Danny showed his musical skills as a lead singer, trombonist, and on various percussion instruments such as the balafon . For Richard's 1978 film Forbidden Zone , the Mystic Knights created the first soundtrack to achieve cult status in the United States. Also in 1978 Richard handed over the reins of the band to Danny, who one year later formed the eight-member rock band Oingo Boingo from the more than 15-strong line-up of the Mystic Knights . He played with Oingo Boingo for the next 17 years before he decided to break up the band in 1995 because, according to Elfman, "the time was right".
His first commercial soundtrack for Tim Burton's film Pee-Wees Crazy Adventure marked the start of a long-term collaboration for both of them, which includes all of Burton's feature film projects except for Ed Wood and Sweeney Todd : Pee-Wee's crazy adventure , Beetlejuice , The Nightmare Before Christmas , Sleepy Hollow , Batman , Mars Attacks! , Edward Scissorhands , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , Big Fish and Corpse Bride - corpse wedding . Elfman's typically playful style accompanied Burton's often morbid fairy tales mostly with large orchestrated scores with additional use of organ, xylophone, glockenspiel and characteristic boys' choir. Chanel used the famous Edward Scissorhands film theme in 1998 for a successful advertising campaign ("Red Riding Hood") directed by Luc Besson .
Elfman's voice is also often found on his soundtracks, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas (as Jack Skellington), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (as Oompa Loompas) or Corpse Bride - Wedding with a Corpse (as Bonejangles). His compositions for Big Fish , Good Will Hunting , Men in Black and Milk have been nominated for an Oscar . Since 1980 he has also composed the music for more than 100 film and television projects. The theme songs from The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives are particularly popular ; for the latter he received the 2006 Emmy Award in the Outstanding Title Music category . In 2005 his music for the ballet Serenada Schizophrana was released , which was incorporated into the score for Standard Operating Procedure and served as music for the film Deep Sea 3D .
After his long-term collaboration with director Sam Raimi , for whom he composed the scores for Spider-Man and its first sequel, among other things , he accused him of not giving him enough time to complete Spider-Man 2 . Elfman emphasized in interviews that he was "deeply disappointed" with Raimi. He also declined to re-write the music for the movie Spider-Man 3 , which was released in theaters on May 1, 2007 . His role was taken on by Christopher Young , who had already contributed to the completion of the score for Spider-Man 2 . However, it was later revealed that Young was cooperating with Elfman and only creating the themes for the new characters in the film, while Elfman's "old" themes were still used. In 2010, Danny Elfman was on the jury of the 67th Venice International Film Festival . In 2010 it was also announced that its latest soundtrack, Alice in Wonderland , had been nominated for a Grammy .
He has been married to actress Bridget Fonda since November 29, 2003 . They have one son (* 2005). Elfman is the uncle of actor Bodhi Elfman . He has been married to Jenna Elfman , known as Dharma from the television series Dharma & Greg , since 1995 .
Discography
Soundtracks
Danny Elfman created complete soundtracks for the following films:
- 1982: Forbidden Zone
- 1985: Pee-Wee's crazy adventure (Pee-wee's Big Adventure)
- 1986: Alfred Hitchcock shows ( Alfred Hitchcock Presents , TV series, episode 1x19 The Jar )
- 1986: Do it again, Dad (Back to School)
- 1986: Wisdom - Dynamite and Cool Blood (Wisdom)
- 1987: Summer School
- 1988: The Ghosts I Called ... (Scrooged)
- 1988: Midnight Run - Five Days to Midnight (Midnight Run)
- 1988: Hot to Trot (Hot to Trot)
- 1988: Big Top Pee Wee
- 1988: Beetlejuice
- 1989: Batman
- 1990: Darkman
- 1990: Dick Tracy
- 1990: Edward Scissorhands (Edward Scissorhands)
- 1990: Cabal (Nightbreed)
- 1991: Article 99
- 1991 Pure Luck (Pure Luck)
- 1992: Batman Returns (Batman Returns)
- 1993: The Nightmare Before Christmas (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
- 1993: Sommersby
- 1993: Army of Darkness (Army of Darkness)
- 1994: Black Beauty
- 1994: Dolores (Dolores Claiborne)
- 1994: Shrunken Heads
- 1995: Dead Presidents
- 1995: To Die For
- 1996: Freeway
- 1996: The Frighteners
- 1996: Extreme ... by all means (Extreme Measures)
- 1996: Mars Attacks!
- 1996: Mission: Impossible
- 1997: Flubber
- 1997: Good Will Hunting
- 1997: Men in Black
- 1998: A Simple Plan (A Simple Plan)
- 1998: Civil Procedure (A Civil Action)
- 1998: Psycho (composition: Bernard Herrmann)
- 1998: Modern Vampyres
- 1999: Sleepy Hollow
- 1999: Anywhere but Here (Anywhere But Here)
- 1999: Instinct (Instinct)
- 2000: Family Man
- 2000: Signs of Life - Proof of Life (Proof of Life)
- 2001: Planet of the Apes
- 2001: Spy Kids
- 2002: Red Dragon (Red Dragon)
- 2002: Men in Black II
- 2002: Chicago
- 2002: Spider-Man
- 2003: Big Fish
- 2003: Hulk
- 2004: Spider-Man 2
- 2005: Corpse Bride (Tim Burton's Corpse Bride)
- 2005: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- 2005: The Sixth Element
- 2006: Nacho Libre
- 2006: Wilbur the Pig and Friends (Charlotte's Web)
- 2006: Miracles of the Deep 3D (Deep Sea 3D)
- 2007: Operation: Kingdom (The Kingdom)
- 2007: Meet the Robinsons (Meet the Robinsons)
- 2008: Standard Procedure (Standard Operating Procedure)
- 2008: Wanted
- 2008: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
- 2008: Milk
- 2009: Terminator: The Redemption (Terminator Salvation)
- 2009: Notorious BIG
- 2009: Taking Woodstock
- 2009: # 9 (9)
- 2010: Wolfman (The Wolfman)
- 2010: Alice in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland)
- 2010: 72 hours - The Next Three Days (The Next Three Days)
- 2011: Real Steel
- 2012: Dark Shadows
- 2012: Men in Black 3
- 2012: Silver Linings (Silver Linings Playbook)
- 2012: Frankenweenie
- 2012: Hitchcock
- 2012: Promised Land
- 2013: The Fantastic World of Oz (Oz the Great and Powerful)
- 2013: Epic - Hidden Kingdom (Epic)
- 2013: American Hustle
- 2014: The Adventures of Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Mr. Peabody & Sherman)
- 2014: Big Eyes
- 2015: Fifty Shades of Gray
- 2015: Avengers: Age of Ultron
- 2015: goosebumps (Goosebumps)
- 2016: Alice in Wonderland: Behind the Mirrors (Alice Through the Looking Glass)
- 2016: Girl on the Train (The Girl on the Train)
- 2017: Fifty Shades of Gray (Fifty Shades Darker)
- 2017: The Circle
- 2017: tulips fever (Tulip Fever)
- 2017: Justice League
- 2018: Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot
- 2018: Fifty Shades of Gray - Freed Lust (Fifty Shades Freed)
- 2019: Dumbo
- 2019: Men in Black: International
- 2020: The fantastic journey of Dr. Dolittle (Dolittle)
Title music
|
Cinema Only title music or additional soundtracks
Video games |
watch TV
Compilations The following compilations were released on CD, containing a selection of his best film scores.
Danny Elfman also worked on an album with Disney, which was never implemented in a film.
|
Awards
| price | Nominations | Awards | Movie | Award |
| Oscar | Best film score |
Good Will Hunting Men in Black Big Fish Milk |
1998 1998 2004 2009 |
|
| Saturn Award | Best music |
Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music |
Scissorhanded Beetlejuice Edward The Nightmare Before Christmas Dolores The Frighteners Mars Attacks! Men in Black Sleepy Hollow Spider-Man Hulk Spider-Man 2 Charlie and the Frankenweenie Chocolate Factory |
1990 1992 1994 1996 1997 1997 1998 2000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2012 |
| British Academy Film Award | Best film score | Chicago | 2003 | |
| BMI TV Music Award | Best music |
Best music Best music Best music |
The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons Desperate Housewives |
1996 1998 2003 2005 |
| BMI Film Music Award | Best music | Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music Best Music |
Do it again, Dad The ghosts I called ... Beetlejuice Batman Dick Tracy Batman Returns Mission: Impossible Men in Black Good Will Hunting Flubber Sleepy Hollow Family Man Planet of the Apes Spider-Man Men in Black II Chicago Hulk Spider-Man 2 |
1987 1989 1989 1990 1991 1993 1997 1998 1998 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2003 2003 2004 2005 2006 |
Web links
- Danny Elfman in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Music For A Darkened People (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Burlingame, Jon: Danny Elfman Looks Back at Tim Burton's Cinematic Adventures in Melody. variety.com , accessed July 20, 2020 .
- ^ Oingo Boingo: The Complete History. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011 ; accessed on February 8, 2015 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Elfman, Danny |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Elfman, Daniel Robert (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film music composer and member of the band Oingo Boingo |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 29, 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles , California , United States |