TIM BURTON - FAMOUS BIPOLAR FILM PRODUCER
Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Timothy William Burton was born in Burbank, California on August 25, 1958. Burton is a writer, film producer, film director and artist. He is noted for the distinctive dark themes employed in his movies. His most recent movie is rated the highest grossing film of 2010 as well as the sixth highest-grossing film of all time. He has a compilation of artworks to his credit. Burton also published The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories, a book of poems.
He has so far directed 16 films and produced 10 by 2009. He was the president of 2010 edition of the annual Cannes and Film Festival, held in May 2010 in Cannes, France.
Burton started his filmmaking career at an early age when he would employ crude animation methods or shoot them without sound. Upon graduating from Burbank High School, he went to the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied character animation. Burton took up a job at Walt Disney Productions’ animation studio, working on The Fox and the Hound as a concept artist. His artistic taste however did not match with the Disney style, so he longed to leave. He shot Vincent, his first, short, monochrome film. Though he has not released his work on a large scale yet, he attracted a lot of attention from the film industry.
Burton went into full fledge film production from this point. He produced and directed many movies like Alice in Wonderland, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, one of the famous ones is the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, another is Corpse Bride, Ed Wood, James and the Giant Peach, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow and many more. He also owns a collection of artworks.
Burton was believed to have suffered bipolar disorder. During his work at Disney, he virtually hated what he did, which resulted in an unpleasant situation for him. He is reported as saying he slept fourteen hours a day; ten at home and four at work. This excessive sleeping is called hypersomnia, a symptom of depression. He also adopted an erratic lifestyle, he was either in a closet or under his desk to avoid dealing with anybody. During this period, he had poor relationships with his co-workers. He hardly spoke to anyone at work.
Burton is seen as having a strong personality, holding his beliefs and values dearly. He refused to adapt to the design styles at Disney, but kept to his own. Additionally, Burton bowed out of the ‘The Last Temptation’ project out of respect for Scorsese. Burton was also achievement-oriented, working from the very beginning to the top of his career. He put in all the effort to make his work as excellent as possible, wining the admiration of many of his fans.
Burton married a German-born artist. Their marriage lasted for only two years and Burton left to leave with Lisa Marie, a German model and actress. He left Lisa for Helena Bonham Carter, an actress. Lisa in response, auctioned all of Burton’s belongings he left behind. Burton has two children with Helena.