Biography

Tim Burton has created some of the most outstanding dark, strange and stimulating creative visions in filmmaking history, including Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, and Sleepy Hollow. His dark and evocative dreams come to life on film revealing an imagination lush with originality and atmosphere. He has an ingenious talent for creating haunting landscapes that come alive with an intensity and beauty rarely seen. His characters are inventive and inspiring and yet often on the edge of society.
Tim Burton began his life in Burbank, California, a suburban town where many a movie and television studios can be found. He was born on the 25th August 1958 the son of Bill and Jean Burton he has one brother called Daniel.



Tim was a very contemplative boy and very quiet, yet he did have a passion for movies. When he was a teenager he would go to the strange triple showings at his local Cinema with movies called "Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde" and "Destroy all Monsters". Tim Burton adored monster movies and was never afraid of them.


However the real interest for Tim was the movies starring the renowned actor Vincent Price. If you have not seen any Vincent Price movies I can tell you that they do have a special atmosphere to them, Vincent had an incredible screen presence in all of his movies especially in the director "Roger Corman's" Edgar Allen Poe adaptations.Tim Burton began to experiment with his imagination as a young boy making Super 8 Movies including one called "The Island of Doctor Agor" and a wolf movie amongst others.


In 1976 Burton won a scholarship for the California Institute of the Arts, a college founded by Walt Disney. He decided that animation was what he wanted to do and in 1979 he began working, as an animator on the studio's "The Fox and the Hound". Burton struggled with the work he was given; drawing a sweet fox for many years he became very downhearted. This was not what he had aspirations for when he joined Disney.


However, whilst working there he continued to do his own unique drawings and sketches, which soon captured the attention of some people at Disney who recognized in his work a rare and unusual talent. Before long he completed the writing and drawings for the animation "Vincent" and was given the opportunity to make the five-minute film.


He went on to do the animation "Hansel and Gretel" and his own "Frankenweenie", a twenty-five minute long re-making of the film Frankenstein by James Whale with the monster as a dog.
Tim Burton's first movie was "Pee-Wee's big adventure starring Pee Wee Herman, he went on to direct the movie "Batman" starring Michael Keaton and produce the animated masterpiece "The Nightmare before Christmas" his most recent movie to date is "Planet of the Apes".