Elfman was raised in a racially mixed affluent community in Baldwin Hills, California, where he spent much of his time at the local cinema discovering classic sci-fi, fantasy and horror films and first noticed the music of such film composers as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman. He is a son of Blossom Elfman (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a teacher, and the brother of actor, musician, and journalist Richard Elfman. Early life Įlfman was born on May 29, 1953, in Los Angeles, California, to a Jewish family of Polish-Jewish and Russian-Jewish descent. Īmong his honors are four Oscar nominations, two Emmy Awards, a Grammy, seven Saturn Awards for Best Music, the 2002 Richard Kirk Award, the 2015 Disney Legend Award, the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2017, and the Society of Composers & Lyricists Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. He wrote music for all of the Men in Black and Fifty Shades of Grey franchise films, the songs and score for Henry Selick's animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the themes for the popular television series Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons. Since scoring his first studio film in 1985, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores, as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall.Įlfman has frequently worked with directors Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, and Gus Van Sant, contributing music to nearly 20 Burton projects, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, and Wednesday as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Van Sant's Academy Award–winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk. He came to prominence as the singer-songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and percussionist.

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