Editing Danny Elfman (section)

==Early life==
Elfman was born on May 29, 1953, in [[Los Angeles, California]]<ref name="monger" /> to a [[Jewish]] family of [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian]] descent.<ref name="AV Club"/><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thejc.com/node/28977 |title=Interview: Danny Elfman |work=The Jewish Chronicle |date=March 4, 2010 |access-date=August 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310025305/http://www.thejc.com/node/28977|archive-date=March 10, 2010}}</ref> He is a son of [[Blossom Elfman]] (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a teacher. He is the brother of actor, musician, and journalist [[Richard Elfman]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/34/Danny-Elfman.html|title=Danny Elfman profile|publisher=Film Reference|access-date=January 2, 2011}}</ref> Elfman was raised in an affluent, racially-mixed community in [[Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles|Baldwin Hills, California]], where he spent much of his time at the local movie theater discovering classic [[Science fiction film|sci-fi]], fantasy and horror films and first noticed the music of such film composers as [[Bernard Herrmann]] and [[Franz Waxman]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=M. Glionna|first1=John|title=Danny Elfman Pinged from Oingo Boingo Front Man to Prolific Movie Score Writer. Now This Oddball May Pong into Directing His Own Scripts.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-18-tm-28420-story.html|access-date=December 26, 2016|work=Los Angeles Times|date=April 18, 1999}}</ref> Elfman has admitted to fabricating stories about his past out of boredom, including a false birthplace of [[Amarillo, Texas]], and parents in the [[United States Air Force]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://kcscfm.com/programming/interviews/interview_details.asp |title=Interview with Danny Elfman |date=July 20, 2001 |last=Hendrickson |first=Barbara |website=[[KUCO (FM)|KCSC FM]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030401035304/https://kcscfm.com/programming/interviews/interview_details.asp |archive-date=April 1, 2003 |access-date=April 18, 2022}}</ref>

In his early school days, Elfman exhibited an aptitude for science with almost no interest in music, and was even rejected from elementary school orchestra "for having no propensity for music."<ref name=bond2015>{{cite book |last=Bond |first=Jeff |title=Danse Macabre: 25 years of Danny Elfman and Tim Burton |publisher=[[Warner Records|Warner Bros.]] | id=5251722 |date=October 2015 |pages=12–259 }}</ref>{{rp|15}} This would change when he switched high schools in the late 1960s and fell in with a musical crowd, who introduced him to early [[jazz]] and the work of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky]] and his [[20th-century music|20th-century]] contemporaries.<ref name="bond2015" />{{rp|17}} Elfman attended [[University High School (Los Angeles)|University High School]] in Los Angeles before dropping out.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/qampa-danny-elfman-117492/ | title=Q&A: Danny Elfman | website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] | date=August 14, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-06-08/danny-elfman-solo-album-tim-burton | title=After 30 years as Hollywood's coolest film composer, Danny Elfman still has something to prove | website=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=June 8, 2021 }}</ref>

Elfman left school to follow his brother Richard to France, where he performed violin with [[Jérôme Savary]]'s Le Grand Magic Circus, an [[avant-garde]] musical theater group.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buzzine.com/2008/05/oingo-boingo |title=Oingo Boingo – The Complete History |publisher=Buzzine |date=May 7, 2009 |access-date=January 2, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116044422/http://www.buzzine.com/2008/05/oingo-boingo |archive-date=January 16, 2010 }}</ref> He then embarked on a ten-month, self-guided tour through Africa, [[Street performance|busking]] and collecting a range of West African percussion instruments until a series of illnesses forced him to return home.<ref name="carruthers2015">{{cite news |last=Carruthers |first=Fiona |date=August 2, 2015 |title=How Danny Elfman got his inspiration for the Simpsons theme tune |url=https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/management/how-danny-elfman-got-his-inspiration-for-the-simpsons-theme-tune-20150721-gih706 |work=[[The Australian Financial Review]] |location=Sydney |access-date=October 13, 2019 |quote=I took a year off to travel Africa when I was 18. On my 19th birthday I crossed into Nigeria... I spent time in Mali, Ghana, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya... I have all my drums from India, Africa, plus my gamelan (percussive music set) from Bali...}}</ref> At this time, Richard was forming a new musical theater group in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite web|title=Composed No. 2 – Danny Elfman|url=http://cinetropolis.net/composed-2-danny-elfman/|website=Cinetropolis|date=August 26, 2013|access-date=January 6, 2017|archive-date=December 30, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230173327/http://cinetropolis.net/composed-2-danny-elfman/|url-status=dead}}</ref>