He worked as an animator, storyboard artist, graphic designer, art director, and concept artist on films such as The Fox and the Hound (1981), Tron (1982), and The Black Cauldron (1985). Stalk of the Celery Monster attracted the attention of Walt Disney Productions' animation division, which offered Burton an animator's apprenticeship at the studio. As a student at CalArts, Burton made the shorts Stalk of the Celery Monster and King and Octopus. After graduating from Burbank High School, Burton attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, Santa Clarita, to study character animation. His future work would be heavily influenced by the works of such childhood heroes as Dr. Burton was an introspective person and found pleasure in artwork, painting, drawing, and watching movies. He played on the water polo team at Burbank High.

Burton attended Burbank High School but was not a particularly good student. As a preteen, Burton would make short films in his backyard at 2101 North Evergreen Street using crude stop motion animation techniques or shooting on 8 mm film without sound (one of his oldest known juvenile films is The Island of Doctor Agor, which he made when he was 13 years old). His accolades include nominations for two Academy Awards and three BAFTA Awards, and wins for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.īurton was born on August 25, 1958, in Burbank, California, the son of Jean Burton ( née Erickson, 1933–2002), later the owner of a cat-themed gift shop, and William 'Bill' Burton (1930–2000), a former minor league baseball player who was working for the Burbank Parks and Recreation Department. A follow-up to that book, entitled The Napkin Art of Tim Burton: Things You Think About in a Bar, containing sketches made by Burton on napkins at bars and restaurants he visited, was released in 2015. Burton also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997 by British publishing house Faber and Faber, and a compilation of his drawings, sketches, and other artwork, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009. Burton also directed the superhero films Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), the sci-fi film Planet of the Apes (2001), the fantasy-drama Big Fish (2003), the musical adventure film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and the fantasy films Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).īurton has often worked with actors Winona Ryder, Johnny Depp, Lisa Marie (former girlfriend), Helena Bonham Carter (his former domestic partner) and composer Danny Elfman, who made scores for all but three of Burton's films. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and Dark Shadows (2012). Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and artist.

Tim burton