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Richard Elfman

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Richard Elfman
Born (1949-03-06) March 6, 1949 (age 75)
Watts, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other namesAristide Sumatra
Mahatma Kane Sumatra
Occupations
  • Actor
  • director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
  • author
  • publisher
  • journalist
  • musician
Years active1968–present
Spouse(s)Marie-Pascale Elfman (1973–1987)
Anastasia Elfman (2012–present)
Children3, including Bodhi Elfman
MotherBlossom Elfman
RelativesDanny Elfman (brother)
Websitehttps://www.richardelfman.com

Richard Elfman (born March 6, 1949) is an American actor, musician, director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author and magazine publisher.

Early life

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His younger brother is musician and film composer Danny Elfman, with whom Richard would found the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art troupe that would later morph into Oingo Boingo, an eclectic band that was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.[1]

When Richard was four, his family moved to the Crenshaw district, where Elfman excelled as a track champion at Dorsey High School, subsequently becoming an amateur middleweight boxer.[1] Elfman dropped out of college and opened clothing stores adjacent UC Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley.[2] He moved to Paris in the early 1970s to perform in theater as well as to record music in London.[2] Presently, Elfman lives in the Hollywood Hills.[3]

Career

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Theatre

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While in Paris, Elfman was a member of Jérôme Savary's musical theater company, Le Grand Magic Circus, which toured Europe extensively and performed the show Zartan for a year's run at the 800-seat Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris.[2][4] The company also performed at London's Roundhouse under the auspices of Savary's mentor, Peter Brook of the Royal Shakespeare Company.[5] It was during the Magic Circus' summer tour that Richard's brother Danny received his first professional job as a violinist with the company, performing as an opening act alongside Richard on percussion.[6]

Shortly after his stint with the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, Elfman acted in and directed a stage production of Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, which won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Production.[7]

Elfman made a film titled, Bloody Bridget in 2024, a horror musical.[8]

Music

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In 1972, Elfman returned to Los Angeles and formed his own troupe, the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, where he served as its creative director and percussionist.[1][2] Elfman retrospectively described the Mystic Knights as a "commedia dell'arte ensemble", featuring upwards of fifteen musicians playing as many as thirty instruments, performing only recreated pieces of music from the 1920s through the 1940s as well as avant-garde originals composed by Elfman's brother Danny.[6][2] The Mystic Knights performed steadily throughout the 1970s and gained a following in Los Angeles, which helped lead to a 1976 appearance on The Gong Show, where the group won the first place prize, and an uncredited cameo in the 1977 film I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.[1][9] Elfman left the Mystic Knights in 1979 to pursue a career in filmmaking, after which Danny assumed creative control of the band, eventually shortening the name to "Oingo Boingo" and transforming it into an 8-piece rock band, which found success throughout the 1980s and 1990s.[2][10]

Film

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Elfman's first directing project was the cult musical film Forbidden Zone, which was shot over a period of three years and released in 1982.[1][11] The film itself was a surreal black and white film version of the Mystic Knights' theatrical show starring its band members and friends; notably, Danny Elfman appears onscreen as Satan, singing a modified version of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher", while Richard also appears, singing the 1920s song "The Yiddishe Charleston".[1][9] In March 2010, Elfman premiered a colorized version of Forbidden Zone at New York's Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with a Tim Burton exhibition, while a stage musical adaptation, Forbidden Zone: Live in the 6th Dimension, ran at the Sacred Fools Theater Company in Los Angeles from May to June 2010.[12] [13]

Owing to its cult following, Forbidden Zone still screens in numerous cities and Elfman often performs in a live 20-minute pre-show composed of local artists, involving music, video clips and burlesque choreographed by Anastasia Elfman. Facilities allowing, Elfman, an accomplished grill-master, throws a barbecue after the show.[14][15][16] More recently, theaters have also begun performing "shadow cast" screenings of Forbidden Zone similar to those made famous by The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), in which fans who are dressed in character perform in sync alongside the film. Elfman sometimes participates by playing characters in these live performances.[14][3][17]

Elfman also directed the 1994 horror film Shrunken Heads for Full Moon Entertainment—footage and scenery of which was later reused for sequences in the 1996 Full Moon feature Zarkorr! The Invader[18]—and the 1998 horror comedy Modern Vampires, both of which were written by Forbidden Zone writer and former Mystic Knights member Matthew Bright. In a 2009 interview, Elfman revealed he had also done various pseudonymous film work under the names "Aristide Sumatra" and "Mahatma Kane Sumatra", including the 1994 Mimi Lesseos martial arts film Streets of Rage.[19]

Writing, publishing and mixed media

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Elfman became a writer for Buzzine magazine, eventually becoming its film editor and then editor-in-chief.[20]

His first novel, The Schlimazel of Sebreim, a vampire tale, was published by Encyclopocalypse Publications in 2023.[21] Elfman has two more novels slated for publication in 2024.[22]

Elfman is presently engaged to write and develop animation projects for FilmHenge and The Apiary group.[23]

Personal life

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His family is Jewish.[24]

Filmography

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As director

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Year Film Notes
1980 Forbidden Zone Also producer, co-writer and composer

Not distributed until 1982

1981 "Little Girls" Oingo Boingo music videos
1982 "Private Life"
1983 "Nothing Bad Ever Happens"
1994 Shrunken Heads
Streets of Rage Also co-writer (as Aristide Sumatra)
1996 Bone Chillers Four episodes of children's horror series
1998 Modern Vampires Also co-producer
2003 Date or Disaster Short film; also writer and producer
2008 28 Days to Vegas Feature documentary; also producer
2009 30 Days to Vegas Feature documentary; also producer (as Mahatma Kane Sumatra)
2019 Aliens, Clowns & Geeks Intergalactic war between clowns and aliens
2020 Intro to Forbidden Zone: Director's Cut
2020 Forbidden Zone 2 Musical comedy that takes place in a fantasy world
2024 Bloody Bridget Musical comedy horror

As actor

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Year Film Role Notes
1977 I Never Promised You a Rose Garden Drumming Demon Appearing as member of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo
1980 Forbidden Zone Masseuse/Prisoner
1994 Shrunken Heads Preacher on Bus
1997 George of the Jungle Bongo Drummer at Dance Studio As Aristide Sumatra
1998 Modern Vampires Cop with Doughnut
2002 Scarecrow Sheriff Patterson/Hewitt As Aristide Sumatra
2003 Date or Disaster Cop with Donut
2004 Demons at the Door Monkey Demon As Aristide Sumatra
2012 The Geologist The Geologist Short film
2019 Aliens, Clowns & Geeks Clown Bippy
2020 Stupid Cupid Patient TV movie
2020 Sorority of the Damned Reynold Harmony Sorority house horror film
2022 The Once and Future Smash Himself Feature film mockumentary

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Grow, Kory (November 6, 2015). "Inside Danny Elfman's Twisted Cult Film 'Forbidden Zone'". Rolling Stone.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Beaudoin, Jean (October 29, 2015). "Richard Elfman on Growing Up Absurd". PopMatters. Archived from the original on July 19, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Wolff, Sander Roscoe (December 18, 2012). "Forbidden Zone Shadowcast Gets Christmas Reboot". Long Beach Post.
  4. ^ Wolff, Sander Roscoe. "Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone Friday". Long Beach Post. Archived from the original on June 24, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  5. ^ Schnee, Stephen (October 21, 2015). "Richard Elfman: An Exclusive interview with the Forbidden Zone director!". Discussions Magazine.
  6. ^ a b Elfman, Richard (November 11, 2011). "Oingo Boingo: The Complete History". Buzzine. Archived from the original on November 12, 2011.
  7. ^ "Fog! Chats with Richard Elfman About His Indiegogo For Forbidden Zone 2!!!". May 9, 2014.
  8. ^ "'Bloody Bridget' Review – A Delightfully Campy DIY Horror Film from Richard Elfman". May 23, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Sokol, Tony (July 11, 2016). "Forbidden Zone Is The Most Colorful Black And White Movie Ever Made". Den of Geek.
  10. ^ "Oingo Boingo – Biography". Allmusic.
  11. ^ Digiovanna, James (March 31, 2005). "Intestinal Fortitude". Tucson Weekly. Retrieved June 6, 2007.
  12. ^ "Tim Burton Sidebar: Waking Sleeping Beauty and Forbidden Zone". Museum of Modern Art. moma.org. 2010. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
  13. ^ "Forbidden Zone: Live in the 6th Dimension". Sacred Fools Theater Company. fz6d.com. 2010. Archived from the original on July 14, 2010. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
  14. ^ a b Vega, Priscilla (June 19, 2012). "Richard Elfman Talks Forbidden Zone, to Screen this Week at Long Beach Cinematheque!". OC Weekly.
  15. ^ Turner, Gustavo (March 20, 2016). "Revisiting Oingo Boingo–Scored Underground Cult Classic "Forbidden Zone" at Cinefamily". LA Weekly.
  16. ^ Savlov, Marc (October 24, 2015). "Return to the Forbidden Zone". The Austin Chronicle.
  17. ^ Vega, Priscilla (June 26, 2012). "Fans Got Lost At the "Forbidden Zone" Shadow Cast Screening in Long Beach's Art Theatre". OC Weekly.
  18. ^ Mitchell, Charles P. (2001). A Guide to Apocalyptic Cinema. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-313-31527-5.
  19. ^ McDermott, Hal (July 27, 2009). "Our LA limey interviews Richard Elfman in ze Forbidden Zone!". Quiet Earth.
  20. ^ "Our Staff". Buzzine. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  21. ^ James, Jonathan (October 18, 2023). "Horror Highlights: Love You Mama, Witchy, Godzilla Minus One, The Schlimazel of Sebreim". Daily Dead.
  22. ^ Sokol, Tony (May 16, 2023). "Cult Director Richard Elfman Sinks His Teeth into Vampires Again with Bloody Bridget". Den of Geek.
  23. ^ Earl, William (December 21, 2023). "FilmHedge Sets First-Look Financing Pact with Apiary Animation and Design Firm". Variety.
  24. ^ "Interview: Danny Elfman". The Jewish Chronicle. March 4, 2010. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
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