In addition to contributing scores to over 100 feature films and themes to television series, Danny Elfman has made a number of appearances in film and on television, typically as himself, in a singing role or as the lead singer of Oingo Boingo. For a full list of Elfman's compositions and discographies, see the List of compositions by Danny Elfman page, his film and concert music discography page and the Oingo Boingo discography page.
| Year | Film/Show | Role | Director | Studio/Distributor | Notes / Accolades |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | "The Gong Show" | Himself (uncredited) | Chuck Barris (Host/Producer) | Performed trombone with The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo; the group won the episode scoring 24 points out of 30[1] | |
| 1977 | I Never Promised You a Rose Garden | Drummer (uncredited) | Shout! Factory | Drummer, uncredited | |
| Hot Tomorrows | Singer | American Film Institute | Appeared with The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo performing the song "St. James Infirmary Blues"[2] | ||
| 1981 | Urgh! A Music War | Himself | Derek Burbidge | Lorimar | As lead singer/songwriter of Oingo Boingo[3] |
| Longshot (aka Long Shot Kids) | Greentree Productions | As lead singer/songwriter of Oingo Boingo[4] | |||
| 1982 | Forbidden Zone | Fantoma | |||
| 1984 | Good Morning, Mr. Orwell | Himself | WNET TV, NYC / Centre Pompidou, Paris | As lead singer/songwriter for Oingo Boingo[5] | |
| 1986 | Back to School | As lead singer/songwriter for Oingo Boingo[6] | |||
| 1993 | The Nightmare Before Christmas | Jack Skellington (singing voice), Barrel, Clown with the Tear Away Face (voices) | In addition writing and producing the score and ten original songs, Elfman provided the singing voice of main character Jack Skellington, among others[7] | ||
| 1996 | Farewell: Live from the Universal Amphitheatre, Halloween 1995 | Himself | Danny Elfman, Steve Bartek, Ellen Engel (producers) | Appears as lead singer of Oingo Boingo in live concert recording of their final shows as a band Released on VHS concurrent with the album and in 2001 on DVD; currently out-of-print Includes ten minutes of footage of Elfman performing with The Mystic Knight of the Oingo Boingo in the 1970s | |
| 1997 | Flubber | Walt Disney Pictures, Great Oaks | |||
| 2000 | The Gift | Tommy Lee Ballard | Paramount Classics | ||
| 2005 | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Oompa-Loompas (voices, uncredited) | In addition to composing the film's score and songs, Elfman provided the singing voices for all Oompa Loompa characters.[8] | ||
| Corpse Bride | Bonejangles (voice) | ||||
| 2006 | The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson | Himself | Tim Mancinelli, Brian McAloon | CBS Television Studios | Appears as the second guest on December 19, season three, episode 64[9] Discusses early career, scoring Charlotte's Web and his brother Richard, who gave Ferguson his first film role |
| 2008 | Proud Iza | Narrator (voice) | Anna Condo | Fern Films | In addition to providing narration, Elfman's music from Standard Operating Procedure was used for this short film[10] |
| 2010 | DemiUrge Emesis | Self produced by Voltaire | Part of Voltaire's stop motion short film series "Chimerascope" featuring voice-overs by music icons including Deborah Harry, Richard Butler and Gerard Way[11] | ||
| 2015 | Live from Lincoln Center Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton | Himself | Andrew Carl Wilk, Jim Fagan | Performed songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas[12] Won Outstanding Music Direction at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards,[13] Elfman's second Emmy Award | |
| 2016 | Score | Appeared among over 50 film composers[14] discussing the craft of writing music for movies and influential figures in the business[15] | |||
| 2019 | The Imagineering Story | Appears in episode 5, "A Carousel of Progress", to discuss his compositions for Hong Kong Disneyland's Mystic Manor[16] | |||
| 2020 | Prop Culture | Jason C. Henry | Episode: "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" | ||