“Sometimes I have to take a young violinist, string her up between two mike stands, and make an example of her. It’s very cruel. But very effective.”

- Danny Elfman

Daniel Robert Elfman was born on May 29, 1953 in Amarillo, Texas. He grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles. His father (Milton Elfman) was a teacher and his mother (Claire (Blossom) Elfman) was a novelist.

At the age of 18, Elfman went to Paris where he joined his older brother Richard, working with an avant-garde street theater group, “Le Grand Magic Circus”. After spending a couple of years in France, Elfman went on to spend a year traveling through West Africa. There he encountered African popular music. After contracting malaria, he returned to California.

In 1980, Danny and his brother Richard worked on the film “Forbidden Zone”; Richard directed it and Danny wrote the score. A group called “The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo” (with Danny as musical director) was formed. They performed Danny’s score for “Forbidden Zone”. It was Elfman’s first film scoring project. “The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo” officially disbanded on the completion of the filming for “Forbidden Zone”, however, the musicians, including Elfman, reformed under the name “Oingo Boingo”. In 1995, “Oingo Boingo” disbanded.

Director Tim Burton was a fan of “Oingo Boingo”, and he asked Elfman to write the score for “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985). Elfman asked his friend and fellow ”Oingo Boingo” member Steve Bartek to orchestrate the score. “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” was the beginning of a long time collaboration between composer Danny Elfman and director Tim Burton. Elfman scored all of Tim Burton’s films with the exception of “Ed Wood”. Sam Raimi and Gus Van Sant are also directors Elfman is always pleased to work with because of the freedom they allow him as a composer.

In 1989, Elfman composed the music for Tim Burton’s “Batman”. This was his breakthrough score, and Elfman considers “Batman” to be one of his very best scores. “The Batman Theme” (for which he won his only Grammy Award) is without a doubt a classic, and one of the most memorable film themes ever composed.

Besides “Batman”, Elfman composed many other great filmscores, such as “Beetlejuice” (1988), “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) and “Sleepy Hollow” (1999). With scores like “Sommersby” (1993), “Black Beauty” (1994) and “Dolores Claiborne” (1994), he proves he’s very good at writing emotional, romantic, beautiful epic scores.
Elfman received three Oscar nominations: two in 1997 for “Men In Black” and “Good Will Hunting”, and one in 2003 for “Big Fish”.

Elfman still continues to write great filmscores. His scores for “Spider-Man”, “Big Fish”, and “Spider-Man 2” are amongst his recent successes.
Danny Elfman lives and works in Los Angeles, and is married to actress Bridget Fonda.