Danny Elfman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Danny Elfman
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Elfman at the premiere for Next Exit at the Village East by Angelika in 2022
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Daniel Robert Elfman
May 29, 1953 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1971–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Geri Eisenmenger
(divorced) |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives | Richard Elfman (brother) Bodhi Elfman (nephew) |
| Musical career | |
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Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American composer, singer, and musician. He is famous for creating music for over 100 movies. He also writes songs and sings.
Elfman first became well-known as the lead singer and songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. After starting to compose for films in 1985, he gained international fame. He has written music for movies, TV shows, stage plays, and concert halls.
He often works with directors like Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, and Gus Van Sant. He has created music for almost 20 of Tim Burton's films. These include Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Alice in Wonderland. He also scored Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. For Gus Van Sant, he composed music for Good Will Hunting and Milk.
Elfman wrote music for all the Men in Black movies. He also created the songs and score for the animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas. You might know his famous theme songs for TV shows like The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.
He has won many awards for his music. These include three Emmy Awards, a Grammy, and seven Saturn Awards. He also received the Disney Legend Award in 2015.
Contents
Early life
Danny Elfman was born in Los Angeles, California, on May 29, 1953. His mother, Blossom Elfman, was a writer and teacher. His brother, Richard Elfman, is also an actor and musician. Danny grew up in a diverse neighborhood in Baldwin Hills.
As a child, he loved going to the local movie theater. He discovered classic sci-fi, fantasy, and horror movies there. He also noticed the music of film composers like Bernard Herrmann. Elfman was good at science in school. He had little interest in music at first. He was even turned away from the elementary school orchestra.
This changed when he went to a different high school in the late 1960s. He met other students who loved music. They introduced him to early jazz and the works of Igor Stravinsky. Elfman later left University High School before finishing.
After leaving school, Elfman went to France with his brother Richard. He played the violin in an avant-garde musical theater group. Then, he traveled through Africa for ten months. He played music on the streets and collected African percussion instruments. He returned home after getting sick.
Career
Oingo Boingo
After returning from Africa, Danny Elfman's brother Richard asked him to join his street theater group. It was called The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Elfman became the musical director. His job was to arrange 1920s and 1930s jazz and big band music. He adapted songs by artists like Cab Calloway for the group.
The Mystic Knights had up to 15 performers. They played many instruments. Elfman also created new songs and helped build unique instruments. These included a gamelan made from aluminum and a "junkyard orchestra." The group performed on the street, in theaters, and later in nightclubs.
In 1976, Richard left the group to make films. He produced a movie called Forbidden Zone, based on the Mystic Knights' shows. Elfman composed the songs and his first score for this movie. He also appeared in the film as the character Satan.
Before Forbidden Zone was released, Elfman took over the Mystic Knights. He became the lead singer and songwriter in 1976. In 1979, he made the group smaller, with eight members. They started recording and touring as a ska-influenced new wave band. The group's name changed to Oingo Boingo.
Their most successful album was Dead Man's Party in 1985. It included the hit song "Weird Science" from the movie. The band also performed their song "Dead Man's Party" in the 1986 movie Back to School. Elfman also composed the score for that film.
Elfman changed the band's sound to more guitar-oriented rock in the late 1980s. This style continued until their last album, Boingo, in 1994. Elfman decided to stop Oingo Boingo in 1995. He had permanent hearing damage from playing live music. The band played five sold-out final concerts. The last one was on Halloween night.
On October 31, 2015, Elfman performed "Dead Man's Party" with an orchestra. This was at a live concert of The Nightmare Before Christmas score. He told the audience it was exactly 20 years since Oingo Boingo retired.
Film scoring
Tim Burton and Paul Reubens were fans of Oingo Boingo. They asked Elfman to write the score for their first movie, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, in 1985. Elfman was nervous because he hadn't formally studied music. He also had never scored a big movie before. But Burton liked his demo music. With help from Oingo Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek, Elfman finished the score. It honored composers like Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann. Elfman said hearing his music played by a full orchestra was thrilling.
After Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Elfman scored many comedies. These included Back to School and Burton's Beetlejuice. He also composed for the Bill Murray film Scrooged. He created a synth score for the crime drama Wisdom. He also made big band, blues-inspired music for Midnight Run.
In 1989, Elfman's score for Burton's Batman was very important. It won a Grammy. This score changed his style to dark, complex orchestral music. He continued this style in films like Dick Tracy and Darkman.
With Batman, Elfman started a long partnership with Tim Burton. He has scored almost all of Burton's major films. Some highlights are Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Batman Returns (1992). Others include Sleepy Hollow (1999) and Big Fish (2003).
In 1993, Elfman wrote the score and ten songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas. This was a stop motion animated film produced by Burton. Elfman also sang for the main character, Jack Skellington. He voiced other characters too. In 2005, he scored and wrote songs for Burton's Corpse Bride. He also voiced the character Bonejangles. That same year, he scored Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He wrote songs and sang the Oompa-Loompa vocals for that film.
Besides Burton, Elfman has worked with many other directors. These include Sam Raimi, Gus Van Sant, and Peter Jackson. His scores for Men in Black, Good Will Hunting, Milk, and Big Fish were nominated for Academy Awards.
Since the mid-1990s, Elfman has composed for many different types of movies. He has done thrillers like The Girl on the Train. He has also scored dramas like Hitchcock. He worked on indie films like Silver Linings Playbook. For family movies, he scored Charlotte's Web and Frankenweenie. He also composed for horror comedy films like Mars Attacks!.
Elfman has worked on many film series. He scored four Men in Black films. He also composed for three Fifty Shades movies. In 1996, he scored the first Mission: Impossible film. He used themes from the original TV show and added his own music.
He scored Raimi's Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). His Spider-Man theme was even used in the MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home. Elfman also worked on Marvel Cinematic Universe films. He provided music for Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015. He also scored Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in 2022. For this film, he used themes from other Marvel projects and classical music.
In the 2010s, Elfman worked on many sequels and reboots. He often combined existing musical themes with his own new music. Examples include Justice League, The Grinch, and Dumbo. In 2016, Elfman was featured in the documentary Score. He talked about movie music with over 50 other film composers.
Concert music
Elfman's first original concert piece was Serenada Schizophrana. It was first performed in 2005 at Carnegie Hall. Other concert works include his first Violin Concerto "Eleven Eleven" in 2017. He also wrote a Piano Quartet in 2018 and a Percussion Quartet in 2019.
In 2022, three more of his concert works were performed for the first time. These included a Cello Concerto and a Percussion Concerto. His piece Wunderkammer toured the UK. It ended with a performance at London's Royal Albert Hall.
His Suite for Chamber Orchestra premiered in 2023. It was performed by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Stage music
In 2008, Elfman composed music for his first ballet. It was called Rabbit and Rogue by Twyla Tharp. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House. He also wrote music for Cirque Du Soleil's Iris in 2011. In 2019, he created music for the Broadway show Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus.
In October 2013, Elfman returned to the stage to sing. He performed songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas. This was part of a concert called Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton. The concert featured music from 15 Tim Burton films. It has toured around the world. Since 2015, Elfman has often sung at the Hollywood Bowl Halloween concert. He performs the Nightmare Before Christmas score live with the film.
Elfman performed at Coachella in April 2022. His concert was called Danny Elfman: From Boingo to Batman to Big Mess to Beyond!. It included his film and TV music, and songs from his solo album Big Mess. He also performed new versions of Oingo Boingo songs. The concert was expanded for two shows at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2022.
Television and other projects
Elfman has also written theme songs for TV shows. These include The Simpsons, Tales from the Crypt, and Desperate Housewives. The Desperate Housewives theme won him an Emmy Award. He also adapted his themes for the animated Batman and Beetlejuice shows. He composed for episodes of Amazing Stories and Pee-wee's Playhouse. He also wrote themes for the Netflix series Wednesday.
He has composed music for animated short films. He also created background music for art exhibitions. In the 1990s, Elfman composed music for commercials. These included ads for Nike and Nissan. In 2013, he composed music and sang for the Hong Kong Disneyland ride Mystic Manor.
In 2019, Elfman released an online course called "Making Music out of Chaos." In 2020, he scored a video for Joe Biden's presidential campaign. In 2021, Disney Branded Television announced Elfman would compose music and songs for a new animated series. He will also be an executive producer for the show.
Solo
In October 2020, Elfman released the song "Happy". He then released five more songs every month. These included "Sorry" and "Love in the Time of COVID". He also reworked an Oingo Boingo song, "Insects." This led to his double album Big Mess in June 2021. It had 18 original songs. This was his first solo album since 1984.
In August 2021, Elfman released a remix of "True" with Trent Reznor. A year later, he released Bigger Messier. This album had 23 remixes of songs from Big Mess. Other artists like Iggy Pop contributed to it.
Influences and style
Elfman says his main influences are composers from Hollywood's Golden Age. These include Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner. He also likes 20th-century classical composers like Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky. He is also influenced by jazz and minimalist composers.
He has used different styles in his scores. For Forbidden Zone, he was influenced by Erik Satie. For Pee-wee's Big Adventure, he looked to Nino Rota. His score for Dick Tracy was influenced by George Gershwin.
Elfman considers Bernard Herrmann his biggest influence. He said that hearing Herrmann's score for The Day the Earth Stood Still made him realize how powerful film music can be. You can hear hints of Herrmann's music in Elfman's Pee-wee's Big Adventure. His Batman score also has subtle nods to Herrmann's work.
Elfman is known for big orchestral music. But his compositions use many different styles. These include rock and blues (Midnight Run), big band and jazz (Dick Tracy), and operetta (The Nightmare Before Christmas). He has also used funk (Dead Presidents), folk rock (Silver Linings Playbook), and minimalism (Good Will Hunting).
He often uses traditional instruments in his scores. For example, he used African percussion for Instinct. He used the oud for The Kingdom, which was set in Saudi Arabia.
When working on films with existing music, Elfman often adds his own themes. He also uses the original themes. For Mission: Impossible, he used themes from the TV series. For Justice League, he used John Williams' Superman theme and his own Batman theme.
The songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride were influenced by Kurt Weill. For Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton asked for influences from Bollywood and ABBA. Elfman's pop music and Oingo Boingo songs were influenced by bands like the Specials and Devo.
Methods
Film music
When Elfman scores a film, he usually gets ideas by watching a rough version of the movie. Sometimes, he visits the film set. For example, he wrote his theme for Batman on a plane after visiting the set. He prefers not to work from just a script. But for The Nightmare Before Christmas, he had to write ten songs before filming began.
Once a rough cut of the film is ready, Elfman meets with the director. They decide where to put music in the film. They also discuss the emotions and overall mood of each scene. Elfman then spends a few weeks creating themes and sounds.
After the filmmakers approve his initial ideas, Elfman starts composing the music cue by cue. He writes about 60 to 120 minutes of music. He focuses on the tone of each scene and the film's rhythm. Action scenes usually take him the most time because of the complex timing.
Early in his career, he wrote his scores by hand. But since the mid-1990s, he mostly composes using computers. Before recording, he makes demo versions of each music cue. He uses a synthesizer to mock up orchestral and choral parts. This helps him get approval from the director. Once approved, he gives a detailed sketch to his lead orchestrator, Steve Bartek. Bartek then breaks down the music for different sections of the orchestra.
Elfman also often records his own percussion and guitar playing. He layers these with the live orchestra. More than half of some scores feature his own performances.
To record the score, Elfman rents a studio and hires a conductor and orchestra. He watches the recording from the control booth. This allows him to work with the director and engineers. The final recording is given to the film's sound team. They mix it with dialogue and sound effects. Elfman usually creates a separate mix of selected music for a soundtrack album. He has produced almost 100 such albums.
Sometimes, deadlines are tight. Or if the film is heavily edited after the score is done, Elfman might hire other composers. They adapt his existing music for smaller parts. He has also shared music writing credit on some projects.
Elfman has only worked closely with another artist once. This was with Siouxsie and the Banshees on the song "Face to Face" for Batman Returns in 1992. They worked long-distance, sending the track back and forth.
Concert music
For his first concert work, Serenada Schizophrana, Elfman wrote many short improvisational pieces. Then, some of these pieces grew into six separate movements. He felt they were connected in an abstract way.
For his violin concerto Eleven Eleven, Elfman worked with the violinist Sandy Cameron. She was the person the piece was written for.
Vocals
Elfman often includes singing in his film scores. He uses women's and children's choirs in films like Edward Scissorhands and Alice in Wonderland. He also uses solo voices or vocal effects in movies like Beetlejuice and Men in Black II. In his Batman score, he used made-up, Latin-sounding words for a choir.
Elfman also adds his own voice to his music. He mixes his singing with his percussion and guitar. You can hear his vocals in Silver Linings Playbook and the Hong Kong Disneyland ride Mystic Manor. He sang for characters in The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. He also sings the "Day-O" call at the start of the Beetlejuice theme.
For Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Elfman set Roald Dahl's words for the Oompa-Loompa characters to music. He created four different songs. Elfman sang all the Oompa Loompa voices himself. He layered and mixed his vocals to create their harmonies.
Lyrics
Elfman usually writes the lyrics for the songs he composes for movies. His songs often follow structures from older musical theater and pop music. Since his songs help tell the story and develop characters, the lyrics reflect the film's plot and imagery. They also show the characters' inner feelings.
He wrote the lyrics and music for ten songs in The Nightmare Before Christmas. He worked with Tim Burton on each song before the film even had a script. These include "This Is Halloween" and "What's This?". Elfman sang four songs for the main character, Jack Skellington.
Elfman composed five songs for Burton's Corpse Bride. He co-wrote some lyrics with screenwriter John August. He also sang "Remains of the Day" as the character Bonejangles.
He wrote the lyrics for "Lullaby" from Charlotte's Web. He also wrote and sang "The Little Things" from Wanted. Elfman co-wrote lyrics for "Twice the Love" from Big Fish and "Wonka's Welcome Song" for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Elfman wrote all the lyrics for Oingo Boingo's original songs from 1979 to 1994. He also earns money from the famous two-word opening phrase in his The Simpsons theme song.
Personal life
Danny Elfman has two daughters, Lola and Mali, from his first marriage. Mali is a film producer and actress. They worked together on her 2011 film Do Not Disturb.
On November 29, 2003, Elfman married actress Bridget Fonda. They have a son named Oliver. In 1998, Elfman scored A Simple Plan, which starred Fonda. He is also the uncle of actor Bodhi Elfman. Bodhi is married to actress Jenna Elfman.
Elfman has been an atheist since he was about 11 or 12 years old. He has described himself as a "cynic-ologist."
He has expressed his political views. In the 1980s, he said his attitude was to question things around him. But he also wanted to remember how lucky people are. He said his songs for Oingo Boingo encouraged people to "question, resist, challenge." In 2008, Elfman supported Barack Obama. For the 2020 Democratic National Convention, he scored a video for Joe Biden.
During his time with Oingo Boingo, Elfman developed significant hearing damage. This was due to the loud noise from performing in a rock band. He decided to leave the band because he was afraid of making his condition worse. He said he could no longer sit in a loud restaurant. However, he found performing with orchestras more manageable. He has returned several times to sing as Jack Skellington in live concerts.
List of compositions
Awards and nominations
| Award | Wins | Nominations |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
|
24 | 24 |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
|
0 | 4 |
| 3 | 5 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 1 | 11 | |
|
0 | 1 |
| 1 | 6 | |
| 7 | 16 | |
|
1 | 2 |
|
0 | 2 |
| Totals | ||
| Awards won | 39 | |
| Nominations | 105 | |
American Film Institute
Elfman's scores for Batman and Edward Scissorhands were nominated for AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.
Discography
Elfman has produced over 100 albums. These include recordings of his film scores and Oingo Boingo albums.
Appearances in film and television
Images for kids
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Elfman in 2010
See also
- Music of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
- Batman music
