David Byrne: Biography

David Byrne, a true renaissance man, has been the leader of an intellectual new wave rock-band Talking Heads, an actor, a filmmaker, screenwriter, and composer of musical scores. Born in Dumbarton, Scotland, he was raised in Baltimore after moving to the U.S. at the age of seven. As a young man, he studied photography, performance and video production at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Maryland Institute College of Art. In 1984, he and the Talking Heads were the subject of Jonathan Demme's concert film Stop Making Sense. He then tried filmmaking with his off-beat satire of Texas life True Stories (1986). Some of Byrne's quirky songs have appeared in feature films as well. In 1987, he and co-composers Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su won Academy Awards for their musical score for Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide