What is the name of Tim Burton's first wife?

Tim Burton’s first wife was Lena Gieseke, a German artist he married in 1987.

Gieseke and Burton divorced in 1991, before Burton’s later long-term relationships with actress Lisa Marie and Helena Bonham Carter. Because those relationships were more visible in entertainment coverage, quiz-takers sometimes mistake one of them for Burton’s first marriage.

Gieseke is also associated with visual art and computer-generated imagery. Burton’s marriage to her belongs to the period just before his breakthrough as a major Hollywood director with films such as Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman (1989). His personal relationships are often discussed alongside his recurring creative collaborators, but not every prominent Burton partner was a spouse.

The answer is not Winona Ryder, who starred in several Burton films, nor Lisa Marie, who dated him after his divorce. Helena Bonham Carter became Burton’s partner in 2001, a decade after his marriage to Gieseke ended.