Age: 73
male
Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s. 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. Elfman 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, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, and Alice in Wonderland, as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Van Sant's Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk. 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. Among his honours are four Oscar nominations, three 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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Danny Elfman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
In 1935, drifter Henry Stauf commits murder, a descent into darkness. Haunted by a vision, he carves a doll, bartering it for survival. Visions of toys continue, and Stauf becomes a successful toymaker. He builds a mansion, fulfilling another vision. However, children with his toys fall ill, die. Stauf vanishes into his mansion. Present day, "Ego" awakens in the deserted mansion. Ghostly visions reveal a night after the deaths: six guests arrive, invited by Stauf. His puzzles instruct them to bring an uninvited guest, a boy named Tad. Elinor and Hamilton seek to help Tad, while others hunt him for a reward. Stauf's machinations turn the guests against each other. Julia, the last survivor, finds Tad, but Stauf, a grotesque creature, awaits. He needs Tad's soul to complete a pact with an evil force. Julia dies, Tad trapped. Ego, the spirit of Tad, relives this eternally, a purgatory. Now, he can intervene. He helps Tad escape. Stauf, denied the soul, is consumed by the evil entity. Grateful, Tad thanks Ego, who steps into a sphere of light and vanishes.
