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Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman (born May 29, 1953, in Amarillo, Texas) is a Jewish-American pop musician, composer and writer of film scores. His compositions are notable for their very operatic and intense style, already distinct by the time of his early work, Forbidden Zone.

The fiercely creative Elfman got his start in the 1970's playing in two theater troupes started by his older brother Richard - Le Grande Magic Circus, and then The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. After eight years in the Mistic Knights as a singer, composer, guitarist, and trombonist, Danny Elfman pared the troupe down to a rock band, just as Richard Elfman was making Forbidden Zone, which captured the group in the middle of its tranformation to Oingo Boingo. Elfman's vocal range and manic stage presence led Oingo Boingo to a long series of recordings and a strong cult following.

Building on his experience scoring music for theater and independent film, Elfman's career took another big step when he composed the soundtrack for Pee-wee's Big Adventure, his first big budget project. This also began his long association with the film director Tim Burton, as Danny Elfman has scored many of his films, including Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks!, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Elfman's musical signature in these films helps create the fantasy and gothic style typical of Burton's films, using instrumentation such as the pipe organ and choral ensemble.

As a film composer, Elfman is recognizably influenced by Nino Rota, Bernard Herrmann, and Carl Stalling.

Burton and Elfman also collaborated on the modern film musical The Nightmare Before Christmas, for which Elfman contributed the singing voice of the main character, as well as writing the lyrics and composing the songs and score. Elfman also provided all of the singing voices for the Oompa Loompas played by Deep Roy in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

He has also scored many other films including Back to School, Chicago, Dick Tracy, Freeway, Good Will Hunting, Hulk, Midnight Run, both movies in the Men in Black series, Mission: Impossible, The Family Man, and Sam Raimi's Darkman, Army of Darkness, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.

Elfman has also composed theme music for several television series, including The Simpsons, Sledge Hammer!, Tales from the Crypt, Dilbert, and the opening theme for Desperate Housewives, as well as the Xbox console game Fable. The song "This is Halloween" from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas also appeared in Kingdom Hearts. His songs in the movie have been remixed by different artists for The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.

On November 29, 2003, Elfman married Bridget Fonda. They have one son, Oliver, born in January, 2005.

See Also

• List of noted film producer and composer collaborations

External links

• Danny Elfman at the SoundtrackINFO project
• Danny Elfman at the Internet Movie Database
• SoundtrackNet entry for Danny Elfman
• Danny Elfman's Music For A Darkened People
• Batman Cinema: Bat-Composers and pop artists - Danny Elfman

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