Burton, Tim (1958-…), is an American motion-picture director and screenwriter known for his visual creativity, originality, and black humor. Burton has won praise for both live-action and animated films.
Timothy William Burton was born on Aug. 25, 1958, in Burbank, California. He began his professional film career in the early 1980’s as an animator for the Walt Disney studio. Burton first gained attention for his low-budget comedy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), a zany comedy about a childlike man trying to find his lost bicycle. Burton’s fame grew with his next film, Beetlejuice (1988), a grotesque and farcical ghost story. Burton then directed the big-budget fantasy Batman (1989), based on the popular comic book. The film became a huge international hit. Burton also directed a sequel, Batman Returns (1992). Burton also co-wrote and produced the successful full-length animated feature The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
Burton’s other films of the 1990’s and early 2000’s include Edward Scissorhands (1990), which he also co-wrote; Ed Wood (1994); Mars Attacks! (1996); Sleepy Hollow (1999), based on the short story by the American author Washington Irving ; Planet of the Apes (2001), a remake of the 1968 science-fiction film of the same name; Big Fish (2003); Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), a remake of the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, based on the popular children’s story by the British author Roald Dahl ; the animated mock horror film Corpse Bride (2005); and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), based on the hit Broadway musical.
His later films include Alice in Wonderland (2010), based on the children’s books by the English author Lewis Carroll ; Dark Shadows (2012), based on a popular soap opera about a vampire that aired in the United States from 1966 to 1971; the animated feature Frankenweenie (2012); the biographical drama Big Eyes (2014); Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016), based on the children’s book of the same name by the American author Ransom Riggs ; and Dumbo (2019), a live-action remake of the 1941 animated film about an unusual young elephant. Many of Burton’s films have starred the American actor Johnny Depp . Burton was in a relationship with the British actress Helena Bonham Carter from 2001 to 2014. She has acted in a number of his films.
