Sachyn · CC BY-SA 3.0

Danny Elfman went from fronting the new wave band Oingo Boingo to becoming one of film's most prolific composers, scoring nearly 20 Tim Burton projects — including Batman, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, for which he also wrote the songs — since his first film score in 1985. He also composed the themes for The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives and scored Good Will Hunting and Milk for Gus Van Sant, earning four Oscar nominations along the way.