Levi (Dog)

Tim Burton has a dog named Levi that’s a Jack Russell terrier. Burton says Levi serves as an inspiration for his work.

Pepe (Dog)

As a kid, Tim Burton had a rescue dog named Pepe, who was the inspiration for the animated dog Sparky (pictured here) from his 2012 film Frankenweenie. Burton told Reuters, “The dog was not meant to live very long because of a disease he had, but he ended up living quite a long time,” “So you have this strong connection, and then you think: ‘Well, how long is this going to last?’ You don’t really understand those concepts of death at the time.”

Tim Burton

Birthday

August 25, 1958 (65)

Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, writer and artist. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and Frankenweenie (2012). Burton also directed the superhero films Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), the sci-fi film Planet of the Apes (2001), the fantasy-drama Big Fish (2003), the musical adventure film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and the fantasy films Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016).

Burton has often worked with actors Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter (his former domestic partner), three times with actress Winona Ryder, and composer Danny Elfman (who has composed scores for all but three of the films Burton has directed). He wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997 by British publishing house Faber and Faber, and a compilation of his drawings, sketches, and other artwork, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009. A follow-up to that book, entitled The Napkin Art of Tim Burton: Things You Think About in a Bar, containing sketches made by Burton on napkins at bars and restaurants he visited, was released in 2015. His accolades include nominations for two Academy Awards and three BAFTA Awards, and wins for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.