Leaving home at age 18 to work as a model in Texas and NYC Ellen Burstyn (nee Edna Rae Gillooly) went through several stage names and an assortment of odd jobs before landing a regular gig as a dancer on “The Jackie Gleason Show” in the late 1950s (billed as Erica Dean). In 1957, she changed her stage name to Ellen McRae for her Broadway debut in “Fair Game” and continued to work under that moniker for over a decade, during which she found constant employment in TV appearances and minor film roles. In 1970, Burstyn began to gain attention for her screen work as Henry Miller’s errant wife in Joseph Strick’s “Tropic of Cancer”, and as the title character’s disenchanted spouse in “Alex in Wonderland”. The following year, now using the name by which she has come to be known, Burstyn garnered critical praise and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for her breakthrough performance as a frustrated wife and ambitious mother in Peter Bogdanovich’s “The Last Picture Show” (1971). “The Exorcist” (1973) won her a second nomination (this time as Best Actress) for her fully believable performance as a resilient, middle-aged actress who refuses to yield against impossible odds to her daughter’s demons, anchoring the film and acting as a counterpoint to the more fantastical elements of the plot. She finally won a Best Actress Oscar for her superb performance as an itinerant housewife turned waitress/singer supporting herself and her 12-year-old son in the poignant “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1975). She recreated her Tony-winning stage triumph in the film adaptation of “Same Time, Next Year” (1978), and was affecting as a woman blessed with healing powers in the little-seen “Resurrection” (1980), both of which earned her additional Best Actress Academy Award nominations.
Burstyn spent the better part of the 1980s dividing her time between running the Actors Studio and establishing a notable and acclaimed television presence. She was exceptional as the accused in the telefilm “The People vs. Jean Harris” (NBC, 1981) and quite moving as a mother dealing with the suicide of her child in “Surviving” (ABC, 1985). For a change of pace, Burstyn headlined her own comedy series “The Ellen Burstyn Show” (ABC, 1986-87) playing a best-selling author sharing her home with her mother, daughter and grandson. She offered tour-de-force portrayals of a woman whose neighbors and best friends are suspected of being spies in “Pack of Lies” (CBS, 1987) and as Rebecca DeMornay’s taxi-driving mother in “Getting Out” (1994).
The 90s saw Burstyn return to the screen in supporting roles, usually as grandmotherly types as in “When a Man Loves a Woman” (1994), “How to Make an American Quilt” (1995) and “The Spitfire Grill” (1996). She was quietly moving as a mother coming to terms with her son’s battle against AIDS in the underrated ensemble comedy-drama “Playing by Heart” (1998). In 2000, Burstyn had little to do as Mark Wahlberg’s mother in “The Yards” but she offered a stunning portrayal of a aging woman who becomes addicted to diet pills in Darren Aronofsky’s relentless “Requiem for a Dream”. That film courted controversy and earned an NC-17 rating for its drug and sex content but it also served as a showcase for the actress’ peerless work. Later that same year, Burstyn returned to series TV work as the mother of young woman who returns home to resume her college studies in lieu of marriage in the CBS drama “That’s Life”.
- Also Credited As:
Edna Rae, Edna Rae Gillooly, Ellen McRae, Erica Dean, Keri Flynn
- Born:
on 12/07/32 in Detroit, Michigan
- Job Titles:
Actor, Dancer, Fashion coordinator, Model, Short order cook, Soda jerk
Family
- Brother: has one
- Father: John Austin Gillooly.
- Mother: Correine Gillooly.
- Son: Jefferson Burstyn. adopted; born c. 1962; married
Significant Others
- Husband: Neil Burstyn. married in 1960; divorced in 1971
- Husband: Paul Roberts. second husband; married in 1957; divorced in 1959
- Husband: William C Alexander. married in 1950; divorced in 1955
- Companion: William Friedkin. worked together on “The Exorcist” (1973); Burstyn claims they had an affair after filming was completed which Freidkin has denied
Education
- Actors Studio, New York, New York, 1968
- Cass Technical High School, Detroit, Michigan
- Directing Workshop for Women, American Film Institute, Los Angeles, California
Milestones
- — Cast opposite Edward Norton and Bruce Dern in “Down in the Valley” (lensed 2003)
- — Will star in the CBS movie “Canal Street Brothel” about a family of women who ran a bordello out of their New Orleans home (lensed 2004)
- — Will star with Jon Voight in the ABC movie “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” (lensed 2004)
- 1956 Debut as a TV regular as a dancer on “The Jackie Gleason Show” (CBS); billed as Erica Dean
- 1957 Broadway debut in “Fair Game”
- 1963 Had lead in TV series pilot “The Big Brain” (CBS)
- 1964 Feature acting debut in “Goodbye, Charlie”; billed as Ellen McRae
- 1964 Moved to NYC
- 1965 Played Doctor Kate Bartok on NBC daytime drama “The Doctors”; credited as Ellen McRae
- 1967 Joined the Actors Studio
- 1970 Changed billing to Ellen Burstyn for “Alex in Wonderland”
- 1971 Breakthrough screen performance, as Lois Farrow in “The Last Picture Show”; nominated for Best Supporting Actress Oscar
- 1972 Co-starred with Jack Nicholson in “The King of Marvin Gardens”, giving a memorably stirring performance as an aging beauty
- 1973 Played the mother of a possessed young girl in “The Exorcist”; earned second Oscar nomination, this time as Best Actress
- 1974 Starred in and produced “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”; hired then relatively unknown director Martin Scorsese to direct; won an Oscar and a BAFTA Award for her lead performance
- 1975 Starred on Broadway with Charles Grodin in “Same Time, Next Year”; won a Tony Award
- 1978 Reprised role in the film version of “Same Time, Next Year” opposite Alan Alda; earned fourth Oscar nomination
- 1980 Gave an Oscar-nominated performance in “Resurrection”
- 1980 Stage directing debut, “Judgement”
- 1981 Earned Emmy nomination for her work in the fact-based NBC miniseries “The People vs. Jean Harris”
- 1982 Named first female President of Actor’s Equity Association (resigned in 1985)
- 1985 With Marsha Mason, starred as mothers whose teenage children fulfill a suicide pact in “Surviving” (ABC)
- 1986 Starred in the fact-based TV-movies “Into Thin Air” (CBS) and “Act of Vengeance” (HBO)
- 1987 Starred in “Pack of Lies”, a CBS TV-movie adaptation of Hugh Whitmore’s hit play about a London couple who allow British intelligence to use their home to spy on their longtime friends and neighbors; earned second Emmy nomination
- 1989 Succeeded Pauline Collins as the titular heroine in the one-person show “Shirley Valentine”
- 1991 Played the titular woman on the run from authorities with her grandchild in “Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love” (CBS)
- 1992 Acted in the short-lived Broadway production “Shimada”
- 1992 Featured in “Grand Isle”, TNT’s TV-movie adaptation of Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”
- 1993 Played a widow in “The Cemetary Club”
- 1995 Featured in “How to Make an American Quilt”, portraying the grandmother of Finn (Winona Ryder) and one of the women who share their coming-of-age stories with the aimless bride-to-be while crafting the titular gift
- 1995 Starred on Broadway as Sister Grace in “Sacrilege”
- 1996 Played the owner of “The Spitfire Grill”, a restaurant that serves as a troubled young woman’s ticket to a new life
- 1998 Featured in the ensemble comedy-drama “Playing by Heart”, playing a woman who is coming to terms with the severity of her grown son’s batlle with AIDS
- 1998 Played the mysterious subject of a town legend in the CBS TV-movie “The Patron Saint of Liars”, directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal
- 1999 Co-starred as the matriarch of a troubled family in the CBS TV-movie “Night Ride Home”
- 2000 Was a regular on the series “That’s Life”, playing the meddling mother of the central character (Heather Paige Kent), a suburban Jersey girl who gives up her plans for married life to resume college studies
- 2000 Featured in the independent drama “The Yards”, starring Mark Wahlberg as a young man caught up in the New York crime underworld
- 2000 Played a woman addicted to diet pills who fantasizes about competing on a game show in “Requiem For a Dream”, directed by Darren Aronofsky; received Best Actress Oscar nomination
- 2000 Starred as a strong-willed Southern widow paired with a snarky rebellious teen (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) in “Walking Across Egypt”
- 2002 Portrayed an elder Viviane ‘Vivi’ Abbott Walker in “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” based on the novel by Rebecca Wells
- 2005 Cast in Showtime’s “Our Fathers,” an adaptation of David France’s epic book about the sex scandals in the Roman Catholic Church
- Acted in commercials using the name Keri Flynn
- Appeared in own comedy series, “The Ellen Burstyn Show” (ABC)
- Lived in L.A.
- Starred in the ABC western series “Iron Horse”, playing a frieght line operator in this railroad-themed drama; credited as Ellen McRae
- Starred on Broadway in “84 Charing Cross Road”
- Succeeded Lee Strasberg as co-artistic director (with Al Pacino, who served 1982-1984) of the Actors Studio
- Worked as a model in Texas and NYC
