Tim Burton - a short biography
Tim Burton is one of the best known directors in American cinema today and has directed and produced some of the most original films ever.
A talented young man
Tim Burton was born on August 25, 1958 in Burbank, California. By the time he was sixteen, he had left home. His favourite activities were drawing cartoons, watching old movies and dreaming. In 1976 he won a scholarship at the California Institute for the Arts and in 1979, though he was only twenty-one, he started working as an animator for the Disney Studios.
Such a great career !
When Disney refused his short film, Frankenweenie, which was considered too scary for children, Burton left the studios. Five years later, he had already reached world fame with big box-office hits such as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988) which is a strange gothic comedy. However, it was Batman, an enormous hit which established Burton as one of the rising stars in the world of cinema. Burton went on piling hits such as this first film with his friend Johnny Depp Edward Scissorshands (1990), and Batman returns (1992). In 2001 he meets the actress Helena Bonham Carter, who is now his partner in life. He also directed successful and very original films like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride (2005), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Tim Burton won a Golden Globe for Best Picture in 2007 for Sweeny Todd.
So many talents !
Tim Burton is not just a director. He has also produced several films such as The Nightmare before Christmas (1993) and Batman Forever (1995). And in 1997 he wrote a book with a very strange title The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and other stories. He has a son called Billy Ray and a daughter called Nell.
Tim Burton is only fifty years old but he has already made more than a dozen very successful and original films. He is one of the wealthiest film maker in the world. Thanks to such creative films, he has a very devoted and enthusiastic fan club.
"One person's crazyness is another person's reality." -Tim Burton
