"Richard Elfman (born March 6, 1949) is an American actor, musician, director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author and magazine publisher."
"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]"
"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]"
"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]"
"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]"
Matthew Bright!
(Matthew Bright as Squeezit Henderson)
(Matthew Bright as Rene Henderson)
"Matthew Bright (born June 8, 1952) is a former film director, writer and actor."
"His first credits were as writer and actor in Richard Elfman's 1980 film Forbidden Zone, portraying the twins Squeezit and René Henderson. The film includes his two sado-masochistic characters living in a garbage can, spit on, raped and tortured in an alternate dimension's kingdom and decapitated by Satan (played by Bright's real-life friend, composer Danny Elfman).[1]"
"Bright wrote and directed the 1996 exploitation film Freeway and its 1999 direct-to-video sequel.[2][3]"
"In his last work, Tiptoes, Bright's original 150-minute cut was reduced to 90 minutes by his producers without his consent, leading to him vocally criticizing the producers on stage.[citation needed] Following this 2003 production's negative reception, he has not directed any further films."
Hervé Villechaize!
(Villechaize in 1977)
"Hervé Jean-Pierre Villechaize (French: [ɛʁve vilʃɛz]; April 23, 1943 – September 4, 1993) was a French actor and painter. He is best known for his roles as the evil henchman Nick Nack in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun and as Mr. Roarke's assistant, Tattoo, on the American television series Fantasy Island that he played from 1977 to 1983. On Fantasy Island, his shout of "De plane! De plane!" became one of the show's signature phrases.[1] He died by suicide in 1993."
"Villechaize was born in Nazi-occupied Paris on April 23, 1943,[2] to Evelyn, an Anglo-Italian socialite who was an ambulance driver during World War II and André Villechaize, a surgeon in Toulon.[3] Villechaize also had German ancestry.[4][5] The youngest of four sons,[5] Villechaize was born with dwarfism, likely due to an endocrine disorder, which his surgeon father tried unsuccessfully to cure in several institutions.[6] In later years, he insisted on being called a "midget" rather than a "dwarf",[5] which annoyed his acting contemporary with a similar condition, Billy Barty, who was an activist who found that term derogatory.[7] Villechaize was bullied at school for his condition and found solace in painting. In 1959, at age 16, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts to study art. In 1961, he became the youngest artist ever to have his work displayed in the Museum of Paris.[8][9]"
"In 1964, Villechaize left France for the United States.[10] He settled in a Bohemian section of New York City, and taught himself English by watching television.[9]"
"Villechaize initially worked as an artist, painter, and photographer. He began acting in Off-Broadway productions, including Werner Liepolt's The Young Master Dante and a play by Sam Shepard, and he also modelled for photos for National Lampoon before moving on to film.[citation needed]"
"His first film appearance was in Chappaqua (1966). His second film was Edward Summer's Item 72-D: The Adventures of Spa and Fon, filmed in 1969.[11] This was followed by several films, including The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971); Christopher Speeth and Werner Liepolt's Malatesta's Carnival of Blood (1973); Crazy Joe (1974); and Oliver Stone's first film, Seizure (1974). He was asked to play a role in Alejandro Jodorowsky's film Dune, which had originally begun pre-production in 1971, but was later cancelled."
"Villechaize's big break was being cast in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), by which time he had become so poor that he was living in his car in Los Angeles. Prior to being signed by Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli, he made ends meet by working as a rat catcher's assistant near his South Central home. From what his co-star Christopher Lee saw, The Man with the Golden Gun filming was possibly the happiest time of Villechaize's life; Lee likened it to honey in the sandwich between an insecure past and an uncertain future."
"In the 1970s, Villechaize performed Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street as a pair of legs peeping out from Oscar's trash can, for scenes that required Oscar to be mobile. These appearances began in the third season, and included the 1978 Hawaii episodes."
"In 1980, Cleveland International Records released a single by the Children of the World, featuring Villechaize as vocalist: "Why", with B-side "When a Child Is Born".[12]"
"Though popular with the public, Villechaize proved a difficult actor on Fantasy Island, where he continually propositioned women and quarreled with the producers. He was eventually fired after demanding a salary on par with that of his co-star Ricardo Montalbán.[13] For its final season from '83-'84, Villechaize was replaced by Christopher Hewett, best known for his lead role in the sitcom Mr. Belvedere."
"Villechaize also starred in the movie Forbidden Zone (1980), and appeared in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), and episodes of Diff'rent Strokes and Taxi. He later played the title role in the "Rumpelstiltskin" episode of Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. In the 1980s, he became popular in Spain due to his impersonations of Prime Minister Felipe González on the television show Viaje con nosotros (Travel with Us), with showman Javier Gurruchaga. His final appearance was a cameo as himself in an episode of The Ben Stiller Show."
Susan Tyrell!
(Publicity still for Camino Real, 1970)
"Susan Tyrrell (born Susan Jillian Creamer; March 18, 1945 – June 16, 2012) was an American character actress. Tyrrell's career began in theater in New York City in the 1960s in Broadway and off Broadway productions. Her first film was Shoot Out (1971). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Oma in John Huston's Fat City (1972). In 1978, Tyrrell received the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Andy Warhol's Bad (1977). Her New York Times obituary described her as "a whiskey-voiced character actress (with) talent for playing the downtrodden, outré, and grotesque."[1]"
"Tyrrell was born in San Francisco, California, to a British mother, Gillian (née Tyrrell; 1913–2012),[2] and an American father, John Belding Creamer. Her mother was a socialite and member of the diplomatic corps in China and the Philippines during the 1930s and 1940s. Her father John was an agent with the William Morris Agency who represented Leo Carrillo, Loretta Young, Ed Wynn, and Carole Lombard.[citation needed]"
"Tyrrell spent her childhood in New Canaan, Connecticut. She was a poor student and as a teenager became estranged from her mother.[3] Through her father's connections, Tyrrell was employed in the theatrical production of Time Out for Ginger (1963) starring Art Carney in New York City.[4][5] Her father also persuaded Look magazine to follow her as she toured with the show, but he died shortly afterwards.[3]"
"Tyrrell made her Broadway debut in 1965 as a replacement performer in the comedy Cactus Flower.[3] In 1968, as a member of the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center, she was in the cast of King Lear and revivals of The Time of Your Life (1969) and Camino Real (1970). Off-Broadway, Tyrrell appeared in the 1967 premiere of Lanford Wilson's The Rimers of Eldritch and a 1979 production of Father's Day (play) at The American Place Theatre.[3]"
"Tyrrell's television debut was in Mr. Novak (1964) and her film debut was in Shoot Out (1971). Tyrrell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Oma in John Huston's Fat City (1972). In 1976, she played a psychotic character in I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. In 1978, she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Bad.[citation needed]"
"Later, Tyrrell starred as Queen Doris in the indie Forbidden Zone (1980). She sang the film's song, "Witch's Egg". A year later, she portrayed Vera in Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981). From 1981 to 1982, Tyrrell starred as Gretchen Feester, in the ABC's short-lived situation comedy series Open All Night. She then had a starring role in the exploitation horror film Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)."
"In 1983, Tyrrell played Solly in the sexploitation film Angel and its 1984 sequel, Avenging Angel. Then followed roles in the adventure film Flesh+Blood, the Vincent Price anthology horror film From a Whisper to a Scream (1987), the animated feature film The Chipmunk Adventure (1987), and Big Top Pee-wee (the 1988 sequel to 1985's Pee-wee's Big Adventure). Tyrrell took a supporting role in John Waters' Cry-Baby (1990)."
"In 1992, she guest starred on an episode of Wings "Marriage Italian Style" and she performed her own one-woman show, Susan Tyrrell: My Rotten Life, a Bitter Operetta.[3] In the late 1990s, Tyrrell had roles in the Tales from the Crypt episode "Comes the Dawn" (1995), the animated series Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), and the psychological thriller film Buddy Boy (1999)."
"In the 2000s, Tyrrell appeared in Bob Dylan's Masked and Anonymous (2003) and The Devil's Due at Midnight (2004). Her final appearance was in the 2012 independent film Kid-Thing."
Danny Elfman!
(Elfman at the premiere for Next Exit at the Village East by Angelika in 2022)
"Daniel Robert Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American film composer, singer, songwriter, and musician. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the new wave band Oingo Boingo in the early 1980s.[3] Since scoring his first studio film in 1985, Elfman has garnered international recognition for composing over 100 feature film scores,[4] as well as compositions for television, stage productions, and the concert hall."
"Elfman has frequently worked with directors Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, and Gus Van Sant, contributing music to nearly 20 Burton projects, including Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Mars Attacks!, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish and Alice in Wonderland,[5] as well as scoring Raimi's Darkman, A Simple Plan, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,[6] and Van Sant's Academy Award-winning films Good Will Hunting and Milk.[7] He wrote music for all of the Men in Black and Fifty Shades of Grey franchise films, the songs and score for Henry Selick's animated musical The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the themes for the popular television series Desperate Housewives and The Simpsons.[8]"
"Among his honors are four Oscar nominations,[4] three Emmy Awards,[9] a Grammy,[10] seven Saturn Awards for Best Music, the 2002 Richard Kirk Award,[11] the 2015 Disney Legend Award,[12] the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award in 2017,[13] and the Society of Composers & Lyricists Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.[14"
"After returning to Los Angeles from Africa in the early 1970s, Elfman was asked by his brother Richard to serve as musical director of his street theatre performance art troupe The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.[20]:22 Elfman was tasked with adapting and arranging 1920s and 1930s jazz and big band music by artists such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and Josephine Baker for the ensemble, which consisted of up to 15 performers playing upwards of 30 instruments.[26] He also composed original pieces and helped build instruments unique for the group, including an aluminum gamelan, the 'Schlitz celeste' made from tuned beer cans, and a "junkyard orchestra" built from car parts and trash cans.[27]"
"The Mystic Knights performed on the street and in theaters, and later in nightclubs throughout Los Angeles until Richard left in 1976 to pursue filmmaking.[20]:15[]
As a send-off to the group's original concept, Richard produced the film Forbidden Zone based on the Mystic Knights' stage performances. Elfman composed the songs and his first score for the film, and appeared as the character Satan, who performs a reworked version of Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher."[28]"
"Before the release of Forbidden Zone, Elfman took over the Mystic Knights as lead singer-songwriter in 1976. In 1979, he pared the group down to eight players to record and tour as a ska-influenced new wave band. That summer, the group's name would change to Oingo Boingo.[29][2] Their biggest success among eight studio albums penned by Elfman was 1985's Dead Man's Party,[30] featuring the hit song "Weird Science" from the movie of the same name.[3] The band also appeared performing their single "Dead Man's Party" in the 1986 movie Back to School,[31] for which Elfman also composed the score. Elfman shifted the band to a more guitar-oriented rock sound in the late 1980s,[32] which continued through their last album Boingo in 1994."
"Citing permanent hearing damage from performing live and conflicts with his film-scoring career,[20]:137 Elfman retired Oingo Boingo in 1995 with a series of five sold-out final concerts at the Universal Amphitheatre ending on Halloween night.[33][34] On October 31, 2015, Elfman and Oingo Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek performed the song "Dead Man's Party" with an orchestra as an encore to a live-to-film concert of The Nightmare Before Christmas score at the Hollywood Bowl. Elfman told the audience the performance was "20 years to the day" of Oingo Boingo's retirement.[35]"
Viva!
(Susan Hoffman, aka Viva (left) with Susan Bottomly, 1968)
Janet Susan Mary Hoffmann (born August 23, 1938), known professionally as Viva, is an American actress, writer and former Warhol superstar.[1]
Viva began her career in entertainment as a model and painter. She retired from both professions, claiming that she believed painting to be a dead medium, and describing her time as a model as "...a period of my life I would rather forget."[4] She was given the name Viva by Andy Warhol before the release of her first film but later used her married last name (Auder). She appeared in several of Warhol's films and was a frequent guest at the Factory.[1]
Viva appeared in many of Warhol's films. The first, Tub Girls, consists of Viva lying in a bathtub with various people of both sexes, including Brigid Berlin and Rosen McGrath.[5] She appeared in Bike Boy, a film about a motorcyclist trying to find himself;[6] and The Nude Restaurant, in which she played a waitress, opposite Taylor Mead.[7]
By far, Viva's most controversial role was in Blue Movie (1969), a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn that helped inaugurate the "porno chic" phenomenon in modern American culture.[8][9][10][11][12] Viva starred opposite Louis Waldon. The film consists of improvised dialogue between Viva and Waldon about a multitude of topics, including the Vietnam War, President Richard Nixon, and various mundane tasks. These conversations are interrupted by the main event of the film, in which Viva and Waldon perform sexual acts in front of the camera. The film was seized by New York City Police for obscenity, and the theater manager, projectionist and ticket-seller at the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre arrested for possession of obscene materials.[9]
Joe Spinell!
(Spinell on the set of The Godfather)
Joe Spinell (born Joseph Spagnuolo; October 28, 1936 – January 13, 1989) was an American character actor who appeared in films in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as various stage productions on and off Broadway.[1] He played supporting roles in film including The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), Rocky (1976), Rocky II (1979), Taxi Driver (1976), Sorcerer (1977) and Cruising (1980).
Until Spinell's death in 1989, his career ranged from bit to major supporting roles. Spinell played lead roles in horror films, sharing the screen with actress Caroline Munro in the first two: the psychological slasher film Maniac (1980), the horror comedy The Last Horror Film (1982), and the slasher film The Undertaker (1988), which was released posthumously.
Because of his large, heavyset frame and imposing looks, Spinell was often cast as criminals, thugs, or corrupt police officers. As a teenager and young adult, Spinell starred in various stage plays, both on and off Broadway.[4]
In 1981, Spinell had a supporting role in the Sylvester Stallone action film Nighthawks,[21] and Richard Elfman's Forbidden Zone.
The Kipper Kids!
The Kipper Kids: von Haselberg (left) and Routh (right)
The Kipper Kids were a duo composed of Martin Rochus Sebastian von Haselberg (born 20 January 1949) and Brian Routh (1948–2018), two artists known for the extreme and often comedic performance art they made together in the 1970s and after. Von Haselberg lives and works in New York, and Routh most recently lived in Leicester, England. From 1971, the duo were also known as Harry and Harry Kipper.
While attending East 15 Acting School, Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh invented a character they called Harry Kipper. Upon being expelled from the school on the claim of "too experimental", they began working as a touring act. They were originally called Harry and Alf Kipper and had two distinctly different characters. Later, they dropped the name Alf and decided to call each other Harry and make their characters identical.[1]
From 1971 to 1975, most of their performances took place in Europe.[1] In 1974, David Ross, later director of the Whitney Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, saw them in performance at Gallerie Rudolf Zwirner in Cologne and invited them to do some shows in California.[2] The Kipper Kids moved to Los Angeles in 1975 and became associated with the early years of punk.[3]
In 1982, they stopped actively collaborating. Their final performance together was at the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, in 2003. [citation needed] They reunited as The Kipper Kids in 2018 to perform the song "Mah Nà Mah Nà" for the album Dr. Demento: Covered in Punk.
