Tim Burton

Born: 25 August 1958
Where: Burbank, California

The director and producer is one of the few genuine mavericks to work in Hollywood, with a skewed worldview totally out of kilter with the usual formulaic fare.

Off-the-wall highlights include his dark take on the Batman legend, his biopic of hopeless director Ed Wood and the touchingly creepy Edward Scissorhands.

At 10, he designed an anti-litter poster that won top prize in local California refuse company contest, and Burton's artwork adorned Burbank's rubbish trucks for that year.

He later attended the California Institute of the Arts where he studied animation on a fellowship from Disney, who gave him his first job.

He started off by working on mainstream Disney films, such as the Fox And The Hound in 1981 and The Black Cauldron in 1985, but Disney also gave him the freedom to work on his own projects.

He went to work on the six-minute animated black-and-white Gothic Vincent Price tribute, Vincent, and the 27-minute live-action Frankenweenie (an inventive twist on the Frankenstein story).

Paul Reubens decided Burton was the perfect person to direct his feature debut, Pee-wee's Big Adventure.

His first two films had been black and white, so it was a real outing for him to try to recreate the surreal and colourful comic-book world.

Burton's next project was Beetlejuice, with Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder - a huge box office hit - and then the expensive but successful Batman, in 1989.

By this time, Burton was well-established as one of Hollywood's most respected young directors and, in the same year, he founded Tim Burton Productions.

Edward Scissorhands was another cult hit and his first feature producing credit, which led to Batman Returns - darker than the original, a reflection of the creative freedom Burton had won.

Ed Wood was another critically acclaimed directing coup, the 1994 movie winning Martin Landau a Best Supporting Oscar.

In 1996 sci-fi spoof Mars Attacks!, starring Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close and Michael J Fox, was inexplicably mauled by the critics and audiences stayed away.

Burton was back on surer commercial ground with the gothic horror story Sleepy Hollow, starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.

However, his 'reimagining' of Planet Of The Apes was a disappointingly formulaic affair, with his visual flair seemingly deserting him.

He was back on form with fantasy drama Big Fish, starring Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney, and has paired up again with Johnny Depp for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

Fiancee Helena Bonham Carter gave birth to their first child, a boy Billy, in 2003.