Danny Elfman

Danny Elfman Headshot

Composer • Musician

Birth Date: May 29, 1953

Age: 70 years old

Birth Place: Los Angeles, California

Spouses: Bridget Fonda

Because he hailed from the annals of rock music and was never a classically trained musician, Danny Elfman struggled to gain acceptance among his peers on the road to becoming one of Hollywood's most prolific and respected film composers. Elfman began his career in the late-1970s as the singer-songwriter of the acclaimed rock band Oingo Boingo, which developed a significant following in Southern California, but failed to reach national prominence. Unable to quell occasional rumors that others had written his own scores, he found success to be the best revenge, particularly in his long-running collaboration with director Tim Burton. In fact, Elfman worked with the director on most of his films, including "Batman" (1989), "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) and "Big Fish" (2003) - the latter of which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Though he often cited Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Bartok as his favorite classical composers, Elfman felt greater affinity to classic Hollywood composers Bernard Herrmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklos Rozsa and Franz Waxman, whose influence were heard in his scores for "Men in Black" (1997) and "A Simple Plan" (1998). By the time he composed his Oscar-nominated score for "Milk" (2008), Elfman had gained the respect of his critics while becoming one the top echelon composers working in Hollywood.

Born on May 29, 1953 in Los Angeles, CA, Elfman was raised by his father, Milton, a teacher, and his mother, Blossom, a noted author of children's books and a screenwriter. Elfman spent a lot of time in his youth going to movies and learning music from film composer Bernard Herrmann, whom he considered to be his mentor despite never having met with him or even studied with anyone else. After his parents moved from Baldwin Hills to Brentwood, Elfman attended University High School in Los Angeles, but he dropped out and moved to Paris where his brother, Richard, was living. While in France, he played his violin in the streets and joined Le Gran Magic Circus, an avant-garde musical theater group. Elfman then spent an entire year wandering about western Africa with little contact with his family. It was on this quiet, lonely sojourn that he discovered African pop called Highlife - a mix of reggae and salsa with horns - that proved to be influential on his later style. Meanwhile, Elfman reunited with Richard in Los Angeles, where the brothers assembled the bizarrely-named Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a musical troupe that was a semi-theatrical band that offered both improvisational music and dramatic performances.

In 1976, Elfman stepped forward to become the band's primary songwriter and lead vocalist after Richard began moving towards filmmaking. Two years later, the Mystical Knights broke up and Elfman reformed the band as simply Oingo Boingo, a high-energy polyrhythmic band with frenzied horns that burned up the Los Angeles club scene throughout the 1980s. Though wildly popular in Southern California, Oingo Boingo failed to catch on nationally to the same extent. Meanwhile, he began composing film scores with "Forbidden Zone" (1980), a weird mess of a movie that only appealed to fans of Elfman's band. Five years later, Elfman began a long and fruitful creative collaboration with director Tim Burton on "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" (1985), for which he composed a zany fun house score. After writing the memorable title song for "Weird Science" (1985) with Oingo Boingo, Elfman reunited with Burton to compose the music for "Beetlejuice" (1988) and "Big Top Pee-Wee" (1988), both of which allowed him to hone his skills for creating impish, antic and even lush symphonic scores that added a wrinkle of wry wit, dark grandeur and twisted sentimentality. By the time he composed the score to "Batman" (1989), the relationship between Elfman and Burton was forever solidified.

Elfman continued to work with some of Hollywood's top directors, including Sam Raimi, who hired him to compose the score for his superhero action flick, "Darkman" (1990), and Warren Betty on "Dick Tracy" (1990). But because he was an untrained composer and the lead singer of a rock band, Elfman was not embraced by the industry's film and television composing community, some of whom he referred to as being elite. In fact, around the time "Batman" was released, Elfman was criticized in Keyboard Magazine for his lack of musical education. He was even accused of using ghost composers for the film; an accusation he deftly countered in an open letter that ran in the same publication. Meanwhile, Elfman continued working with Burton, scoring the music for "Edward Scissorhands" (1990) and "Batman Returns" (1992). In addition to his collaboration with Burton, Elfman was noted for composing the theme for "The Simpsons" (Fox, 1989- ) and working with Todd Rundgren on the music underscoring the antics of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" (CBS, 1986-1991).

Despite being shunned by his contemporaries, by the mid-1990s, Elfman was a highly sought composer by filmmakers looking for something less ordinary. He had a good year in 1993, scoring the features "Sommersby," Sam Raimi's "Army of Darkness," for which he wrote the "March of the Dead" theme, and "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas," a rather personal and demanding project that had him providing input on the story and script, composing lyrics and music for 10 songs, and providing the singing voice for the protagonist Jack Skellington. Elfman's prolific output expanded in the mid- to late-1990s, which included the lovely underscore to "Black Beauty" (1994), as well as the appropriately understated, but nonetheless thrilling music for "Delores Claiborne" (1995). Also that year, Elfman announced that Oingo Boingo was dissolving after having been dropped by their record company and undergoing a lineup shuffle. The band performed their final concert on Halloween - one of their staple shows - in 1995 and amicably parted ways. A decade later, Elfman was asked about a possible reunion, which he dismissed out of hand, citing irreversible hearing loss as being one of the causes of Oingo Boingo's breakup. Though it was the end of an era, Elfman continued to thrive, once again working with Burton on the campy sci-fi spoof, "Mars Attacks!" (1996).

After collaborating with director Brian De Palma on the score for "Mission: Impossible" (1996), Elfman was finally welcomed into the Hollywood mainstream with his work on "Good Will Hunting" (1997), which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score, and "Men in Black" (1997), which earned an Academy Award nod for Best Musical or Comedy Score. Because of Elfman's ability to create haunting and offbeat scores, he became a favorite of directors who made films of a similar vein, including Sam Raimi, who hired the composer a third time to write the music for "A Simple Plan" (1998). Not only did Elfman help Raimi build the tension between three friends torn apart after finding $4 million in a crashed plane, but he met actress Bridget Fonda, whom he eventually married in 2003. While Elfman's highest profile work was in features, he made numerous contributions to the small screen over the years, including writing the theme music to such animated series as "The Adventures of Batman & Robin" (Fox, 1992-99) and "Dilbert" (UPN, 1998-2000), many episodes of the horror anthology series "Tales From the Crypt" (HBO, 1989-1996), and the main title theme for the hit comedic drama, "Desperate Housewives" (ABC, 2004-12).

But films allowed Elfman the widest canvas and the most recognition. Following in the footsteps of idol Bernard Herrmann, Elfman recreated the music for Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho" (1998), then reunited with Burton on the eerie, Gustav Mahler-like score for "Sleepy Hollow" (1999). As the new millennium approached and came into being, Elfman found himself accepting more mainstream studio projects; doors that largely seemed closed before his two Oscar nominations in 1997. He scored such movies as "Never Been Kissed" (1999), starring Drew Barrymore, the coming-of-age drama "Anywhere But Here" (1999) with Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman, the romantic thriller "Proof of Life" (2000) and "The Family Man" (2000), starring Nicolas Cage as an investment broker who learns that having a wonderful family is more important than money. Following a brief detour into low-budget documentaries to write songs for "Condo Painting" (2000), a look at the life and work of painter George Condo, Elfman worked with jack-of-all-trades Robert Rodriguez on "Spy Kids" (2000), then embarked on his eight collaboration with Tim Burton for "Planet of the Apes" (2001).

In 2002, Elfman had a banner year, teaming with Sam Raimi on the blockbuster comic book adaptation for "Spider-Man," scoring the sequel "Men in Black II," creating the haunting music for the Hannibal Lecter thriller "Red Dragon," and writing two original instrumental pieces for the award-winning musical, "Chicago." After working again with Raimi on the music for "The Hulk" (2003), Elfman earned his third Oscar nomination for his umpteenth collaboration with Tim Burton on the whimsical fantasy, "Big Fish" (2003). Elfman stayed with Burton for his next two films, "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" (2005) and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005), then composed all the music for the Jack Black sports comedy "Nacho Libre" (2006). Now one of the most productive and respected composers in the business, Elfman worked on some of Hollywood's biggest movies, including "Charlotte's Web" (2006), "Spider-Man 3" (2007) and "Meet the Robinsons" (2007). Elfman earned his fourth career Academy Award nod for his music in "Milk" (2008), Gus Van Sant's compelling biopic about slain San Francisco politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk (Sean Penn). Continuing his exemplary work, Elfman scored "Alice in Wonderland" (2010) for director Tim Burton, which led to a Grammy nomination for Best Score Soundtrack and a Golden Globe nod for Best Original Score - Motion Picture.

Credits

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Original Music
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2024

Carnage Collection: Vicious Violence & Vengeance

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2023

Bloody Bridget

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2023

An Audience With Adele

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2022

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of MadnessStream

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2022
73%

White NoiseStream

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2022
64%

Hollywood in Vienna: A Tribute to Danny Elfman

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2021

CBS Mornings

Guest
News
2021

Danny Elfman & Trent Reznor: True

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2021

Danny Elfman: True

Music Performer
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2021

DolittleStream

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2020
15%

Le Voyage du Docteur Dolittle

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2020

Le voyage du docteur Dolittle

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2020

Dolittle

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2020

DumboStream

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2019
46%

Men in Black: InternationalStream

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2019
23%

Aliens, Clowns & Geeks

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2019

Hollywood In Vienna: Fairytales And Danny Elfman

Composer
Show
2018

Fifty Shades FreedStream

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2018
11%

The GrinchStream

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2018
59%

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on FootStream

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2018
77%

Der Grinch

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2018

Grinchen - sv.tal

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2018

Le Grinch

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2018

The Grinch

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2018

De Grinch

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2018

De Grinch

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2018

WE LOVE SPRINGFIELD - Das große Simpsons-Voting 2017

Composer
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2017

Fifty Shades DarkerStream

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2017
11%

Justice LeagueStream

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2017
39%

Tulip Fever

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2017

The CircleStream

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2017
16%

78/52

Self
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2017

Before I WakeStream

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2016
66%

Alice Through the Looking Glass

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2016

The Girl on the TrainStream

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2016
44%

Score: A Film Music Documentary

Self
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2016

Alice de l'autre côté du miroir

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2016

Fifty Shades of GreyStream

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2015
25%

Avengers: Age of UltronStream

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2015
76%

The End of the Tour

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2015

GoosebumpsStream

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2015
78%

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

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2014

Big EyesStream

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2014
72%

Herr Peabody och Sherman - sv.tal

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2014

Die Abenteuer von Mr. Peabody & Sherman 3D

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2014

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

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2014

M. Peabody et Sherman : les voyages dans le temps

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2014

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

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2014

American HustleStream

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2013
92%

The Unknown KnownStream

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2013
81%

Epic: El mundo secreto

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2013

Epic - Verborgenes Königreich

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2013

Epic - Skogens hemliga rike - sv.tal

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2013

Epic : La bataille du royaume secret

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2013

Oz the Great and PowerfulStream

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2013
56%

Epic

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2013

Frankenweenie: An IMAX 3D Experience

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2012

Frankenweenie

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2012

Men in Black 3Stream

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2012
67%

Dark ShadowsStream

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2012
35%

Frankenweenie

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2012

Silver Linings PlaybookStream

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2012
92%

Promised Land

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2012

HitchcockStream

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2012
60%

Restless

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2011

Real SteelStream

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2011
60%

Alice i Underlandet

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2010

The Wolfman

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2010

アリス・イン・ワンダーランド

Music Score
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2010

Alice in WonderlandStream

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2010
51%

The Next Three DaysStream

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2010
50%

Do Not Disturb

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2010

NotoriousStream

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2009
53%

Numéro 9

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2009

9Stream

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2009
57%

Terminator SalvationStream

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2009
33%

Taking Woodstock

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2009

Hellboy II: The Golden ArmyStream

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2008
86%

WantedStream

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2008
71%

Standard Operating Procedure

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2008

MilkStream

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2008
93%

Proud Iza

Actor
Cat
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2008

Triff die Robinsons

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2007

Familjen Robinson - sv.tal

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2007

Meet the RobinsonsStream

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2007
67%

The Kingdom

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2007

Bienvenue chez les Robinson

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2007

Charlotte's WebStream

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2006
79%

Nacho LibreStream

Original Music
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2006
40%

Charlotte's Web

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2006

Kalle och Chokladfabriken

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2005

Les noces funèbres

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2005

Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryStream

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2005
83%

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

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2005

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Voice
Bonejangles
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2005

Spider-Man 2Stream

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2004
93%

HulkStream

Composer
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2003
63%

Men in Black IIStream

Composer
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2002
38%

Spider-ManStream

Composer
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2002
90%

Red Dragon

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2002

Planet of the ApesStream

Original Music
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2001
44%

NovocaineStream

Music Theme
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2001
38%

Proof of Life

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2000

The Family ManStream

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2000
53%

Instinct

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1999

Anywhere But HereStream

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1999
63%

Sleepy HollowStream

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1999
69%

A Simple PlanStream

Original Music
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1998
90%

A Civil ActionStream

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1998
63%

Men in BlackStream

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1997
91%

FlubberStream

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1997
23%

Good Will HuntingStream

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1997
97%

Freeway

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1996

Mission: ImpossibleStream

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1996
66%

The Frighteners

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1996

Bordello of BloodStream

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1996
14%

Mars Attacks!Stream

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1996
56%

Dolores ClaiborneStream

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1995
85%

To Die ForStream

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1995
89%

Dead PresidentsStream

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1995
49%

Black Beauty

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1994

The Nightmare Before ChristmasStream

Associate Producer
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1993
95%

The Nightmare Before ChristmasStream

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1993
95%

The Nightmare Before ChristmasStream

Voice
Jack Skellington/Barrel
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1993
95%

L'Étrange Noël de monsieur Jack

Associate Producer
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1993

L'Étrange Noël de monsieur Jack

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1993

Nightmare Before Christmas

Associate Producer
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1993

Nightmare Before Christmas

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1993

The Nightmare before Christmas

Associate Producer
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1993

Batman ReturnsStream

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1992
81%

Article 99

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1992

Buffy the Vampire SlayerStream

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1992
36%

Army of DarknessStream

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1992
68%

NightbreedStream

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1990
51%

Darkman

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1990

Edward ScissorhandsStream

Original Music
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1990
89%

BatmanStream

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1989
76%

Ghostbusters IIStream

Non-Original Music
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1989
55%

BeetlejuiceStream

Music
Movie
1988

Big Top Pee-weeStream

Original Music
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1988
38%

ScroogedStream

Original Music
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1988
70%

Back to SchoolStream

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1986
87%

Something WildStream

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1986
91%

Pee-wee's Big AdventureStream

Original Music
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1985
88%

Beverly Hills CopStream

Original Music
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1984
83%

Forbidden Zone

Original Music
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1980

Good Morning America

Guest
News
1975

News aboutDanny Elfman