Ellen Burstyn
Birthdate: Dec 7, 1932
Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan, USA
Ellen Burstyn (birthname: Ellen Rae Gillooly) has enjoyed one of the longest and most distinguished American acting careers since the 1960s and is one of the few actors to win an Oscar, a Tony, and two Emmys. After acting on Broadway and gathering credits in several TV series in the 1960s, including Dr. Kildaire, Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, Gunsmoke, and The Big Valley, Burstyn began to work more in features, including Jack Hill’s Pit Stop (1969), Paul Mazursky’s Alex in Wonderland (1970) and Joseph Strick’s version of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer (1970).
Ellen Burstyn had her breakthrough—including her first Oscar nomination—in a supporting role in writer-director Peter Bogdanovich’s 1950s drama, The Last Picture Show (1971), one of the early ‘70s great critical and commercial surprise hits, co-starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd, and grossing $29 million globally. This began a run of notable films and performances for Burstyn through the 1970s, continuing with her first co-starring role in Bob Rafelson’s fine drama, The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), opposite Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern.
Burstyn’s screen presence became massively more visible with her performance as possessed Linda Blair’s mother, Chris MacNeil, in the William Friedkin-directed version of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1973), which many consider to be still the scariest movie ever made, co-starring, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, and Jack MacGowran, and which was the first horror movie nominated for the Best Picture Oscar (as well as nine others, including a win for Blatty for Best Screenplay), and which grossed a spectacular $428 million on a $12 million budget.
Ellen Burstyn followed this success with an even greater artistic one, as Alice in one of her most stirring (and her only Oscar-winning) performances in Martin Scorsese’s superb drama, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), with Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd, Alfred Lutter, Harvey Keitel, and Jodie Foster, earning $21 million on a $1.8 million budget after premiering at the Cannes film festival.
Burstyn reunited with director/co-writer/producer Paul Mazursky for Harry & Tonto (1974), with Art Carney, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Larry Hagman, Chief Dan George, and Melanie Mayron. In her first international film production, Burstyn worked with the great French filmmaker Alain Resnais on his first English-language movie, Providence (1977), co-starring Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, David Warner, and Elaine Stritch, which received rave reviews everywhere except in the U.S. Ellen Burstyn continued her work with European filmmakers with writer-director Jules Dassin’s Greek-Swiss co-production, A Dream of Passion (1978), co-starring with Melina Mercouri, and premiering at the Cannes film festival.
In a much lighter vein, Burstyn (reprising her Broadway role) co-starred with Alan Alda and earned her second Best Actress Oscar nomination for director Robert Mulligan’s film version of Bernard Slade’s play, Same Time, Next Year (1978). Burstyn gained her third Best Actress Oscar nomination for her lead role in Resurrection (1980), directed by Daniel Petrie and written by Lewis John Carlino, and co-starring Sam Shepard, Richard Farnsworth, and Eva La Gallienne, who won the National Board of Review award for best supporting actress.
After co-starring with Tom Skerritt and Gordon Pinsent in director Allan King’s Canadian film version of Olive Frederickson’s Silence of the North (1981), Burstyn took a break from features until appearing with Robert Mitchum, Rock Hudson, Fabio Testi, and Donald Pleasance in The Ambassador (1984), the Golan-Globus extremely loose version of Elmore Leonard’s novel, 52 Pick Up.
Ellen Burstyn continued her fine career by co-starring with Gene Hackman, Ann-Margret, Amy Madigan, Ally Sheedy, and Brian Dennehy in producer-director Bud Yorkin’s drama, Twice in a Lifetime (1985), followed by Burstyn delivering her first voice performance in documentary filmmaker Bill Couturié’s Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987), with the voice cast of Tom Berenger, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Robin Williams, Willem Dafoe, and Robert Downey Jr., and which won a documentary special jury prize at the Sundance film festival followed by an international premiere at the Cannes film festival.
As a lead, Burstyn reunited with filmmaker-producer Menachem Golan for his poorly received war drama, Hanna’s War (1988), with Maruschka Detmers, Anthony Andrews, Donald Pleasance, and David Warner, and then Burstyn took on what became a long string of primarily supporting roles, with the Joel Schumacher-directed Dying Young (1991) co-starring Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott.
The Luis Mandoki-directed romantic drama, When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), with Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan; the Jocelyn Moorhouse-Jane Anderson version of Whitney Otto’s How to Make an American Quilt (1995), with Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, Alfre Woodard, Maya Angelou, Kate Capshaw, Samantha Mathis, and Rip Torn; under debuting Melanie Mayron’s direction in The Baby-Sitters Club (1995), with Schuyler Fisk and Rachael Leigh Cook; in the Peter Yates-directed comedy-drama, Roommates (1995), starring Peter Falk, D.B. Sweeney, and Julianne Moore; and writer-director Jonas and Josh Pate’s mystery, Deceiver (1997), with Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Michael Rooker, Rosanna Arquette, and Renée Zellweger.
During this period, Burstyn’s few starring roles included: the comedy, The Cemetery Club (1993), under Bill Duke’s direction and with Olympia Dukakis, Diane Ladd, Danny Aiello, Lainie Kazan, and Christina Ricci; director-writer Lee David Zlotoff’s drama, The Spitfire Grill (1996), with Marcia Gay Harden, Alison Elliott, and Will Patton, and which won Sundance’s audience award; Burstyn was co-star in the ensemble of director/writer/producer Willard Carroll’s comedy-drama, Playing by Heart (1998), alongside Gillian Anderson, Sean Connery, Anthony Edwards, Angelina Jolie, Jay Mohr, Ryan Phillippe, Dennis Quaid, Gena Rowlands, Jon Stewart, and Madeleine Stowe; and the little-seen films You Can Thank Me Later (1998) and Walking Across Egypt (1999).
Ellen Burstyn experienced a major career revival as co-star opposite Jared Leto in director/co-writer Darren Aronofsky’s version of Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requiem for a Dream (2000), which brought her yet another Best Actress Oscar nomination, after premiering at the Cannes film festival. Burstyn then played a fine supporting role in filmmaker James Gray’s excellent drama, The Yards (2000), starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway, and James Caan.
Burstyn starred in writer-director Callie Khouri’s hit ensemble comedy-drama based on the Rebecca Wells best-seller, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), with Ashley Judd, Sandra Bullock, James Garner, and Maggie Smith, grossing $74 million on a $27 million budget. Director-writer-producer David Jacobson cast Ellen Burstyn in a supporting role in the crime drama, Down in the Valley (2005), with Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse, and Rory Culkin, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival.
Burstyn reunited with filmmaker Aronofsky for his lavish sci-fi/fantasy romance, The Fountain (2006), opposite Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Then Burstyn joined writer-director Neil LaBute for his poorly received horror remake, The Wicker Man (2006), with Nicolas Cage, Frances Conroy, Molly Parker, and Leelee Sobieski. Burstyn then starred in another of her Canadian film productions, director-writer Kari Skogland’s The Stone Angel (2007), with Cole Hauser, Dylan Baker, Elliot Page, and Wings Hauser.
Burstyn co-starred with Martin Landau in writer-director Nicholas Fackler’s romance, Lovely, Still (2008), with Adam Scott and Elizabeth Banks, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, followed by the very different role of Barbara Bush in Oliver Stone’s movie depicting the life and Presidency of George W. Bush, W. (2008), starring Josh Brolin (as W.), James Cromwell, Banks, Scott Glenn, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, and Richard Dreyfuss. After a supporting role in the little-seen According to Greta (2009), starring Hilary Duff and Melissa Duff, Burstyn played support in the Jodie Markell-directed The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008), written by Tennessee Williams (from his re-discovered 1957 screenplay), and starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Evans, and Ann-Margret, and premiering at the Toronto film festival.
Ellen Burstyn took on mostly supporting roles in several little-seen movies in the second decade of the new century, with such movies as The Mighty Macs (2010); Main Street (2010), with Colin Firth and written by Horton Foote; Sam Levinson’s feature directorial debut, Another Happy Day (2011), with Ellen Barkin, Kate Bosworth, and Thomas Haden-Church; Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2011); Wish You Well (2013); and Rachid Bouchareb’s French-U.S. drama, Two Men in Town (2014), with Forest Whitaker and Harvey Keitel.
Burstyn joined producer-director Ivan Reitman for his final film, Draft Day (2014), starring Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Chadwick Boseman, Denis Leary, Frank Langella, Sam Elliott, and (in his final role) NFL legend Jim Brown. Filmmaker Christopher Nolan cast Ellen Burstyn in one of her first major films of the 21st century, Interstellar (2014), starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Bill Irwin, and Michael Caine, and grossing a cosmic $715 million globally.
Burstyn took on one of her animated voice roles in the English-language dubbed version of Studio Ghibli’s animated feature directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s When Marnie Was There (2014), with fellow actors Hailee Steinfeld, Kiernan Shipka, Vanessa Williams, Geena Davis, John C. Reilly, and Kathy Bates. Burstyn joined cast members Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Kathy Baker, and Harrison Ford for the Lionsgate-released fantasy drama, The Age of Adaline (2015), which earned a healthy $65.7 million gross.
Burstyn’s next lead role was in Todd Solondtz’s comedy, Wiener-Dog (2016), released by IFC/Amazon and featuring Kieran Culkin, Julie Delpy, Danny DeVito, Greta Gerwig, and Tracy Letts, and which premiered at the Sundance film festival. Burstyn was both an executive producer and co-star (along with Nick Offerman) of writer-director Peter Livolsi’s comedy-drama, The House of Tomorrow (2017), which co-starred Asa Butterfield, Alex Wolff, Maude Apatow, Michaela Watkins, and Fred Armisen.
Ellen Burstyn continued her remarkably busy stream of acting work with a supporting role in the drama, Nostalgia (2018), directed and co-produced by Mark Pellington and written by Alex Ross Perry and Pellington (on story), with Jon Hamm, Catherine Keener, John Ortiz, Nick Offerman, James LeGros, and Bruce Dern, and premiering at the Palm Springs film festival. Burstyn worked again with an American independent filmmaker—in this case, director/co-writer/producer Noah Hawley—in Lucy in the Sky (2019), released by Fox Searchlight (to disastrous box-office results) and co-starring Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, and Colman Domingo.
Ellen Burstyn earned considerable acclaim for her performance in the drama, Pieces of a Woman (2020), adapted by director Kornél Mundruczó and writer/playwright Kata Wéber from their co-written play, and starring Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Molly Parker, Sarah Snook, and Benny Safdie, with Kirby winning the best actress Volpi Cup at the Venice film festival. Burstyn then reunited with James Caan (in his final filmed performance) in their co-starring roles in the rom-com, Queen Bees (2021), co-starring Ann-Margret, Christopher Lloyd, Jane Curtin, and Loretta Devine.
With Swedish writer-director Niclas Larsson, Burstyn joined castmates Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Taylor Russell, Lara Flynn Boyle, and F. Murray Abraham in the surrealist English-language drama, Mother, Couch (2023), premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and the San Sebastian film festival.
Burstyn then revived her emblematic role as Chris MacNeil in the Blumhouse/Morgan Creek/Universal reboot of the Exorcist franchise with the first in a planned trilogy from director/co-writer David Gordon Green, The Exorcist: Believer (2023), with Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, and Ann Dowd. Burstyn made her directorial debut and starred in the comedy, Bathing Flo (date to be announced), co-starring Lauren Lake (who co-wrote the screenplay with Danny Sherman and Daniel Brocklehurst).
Personal Details
Ellen Burstyn was born and raised in Detroit by parents Correine and John Gilloly, who divorced when she was a child. Her mother and stepfather then raised Burstyn. Burstyn has two brothers, Steve and Jack. As a student at the prep school, Cass Technical High School, Burstyn specialized in fashion illustration. Although she was active in her school in student council, as her drama club president, and as a cheerleader, Burstyn dropped out of school with failing grades.
Burstyn worked as a fashion model, dancer, and acrobat until she moved to New York, where she broke into television as a performer named Erica Dean. She soon took the name Ellen McRae as an actor, when she debuted on Broadway in 1957. Burstyn was married to William Alexander from 1950 to 1957 when the couple divorced. Burstyn then married Paul Roberts in 1958, and divorced him in 1961; the couple has one child. Burstyn’s third marriage was to writer-actor Neil Burstyn (formerly Neil Nephew) in 1964, which ended in 1972; both couple members changed their last names to Burstyn, and Ellen Burstyn kept this name after her divorce from Neil. Burstyn’s height is 5’ 6”. Burstyn’s estimated net worth is $20 million.
Filmography
actor
Previous (8)
- 2024 | Mother CouchasMother
Mother Couch
Three children are brought together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store.
- 2021 | Queen BeesasHelen Wilson
Queen Bees
After reluctantly agreeing to move in to a senior's home, a woman encounters a clique of mean-spirited women and an amorous widower.
- 2019 | Lucy in the SkyasNana Holbrook
Lucy in the Sky
Astronaut Lucy Cola returns to Earth after a transcendent experience during a mission to space, and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too small.
- 2019 | The House of TomorrowasJosephine Prendergast
The House of Tomorrow
The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.
- 2018 | Nostalgia (2018)asHelen
Nostalgia (2018)
A mosaic of stories about love and loss, exploring our relationship to the objects, artifacts, and memories that shape our lives.
- 2015 | The Age of AdalineasFlemming
The Age of Adaline
A young woman, born at the turn of the 20th century, is rendered ageless after an accident. After many solitary years, she meets a man who complicates the eternal life she has settled into.
- 2014 | InterstellarasMurph (Older)
Interstellar
When Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans.
- 1973 | The ExorcistasChris MacNeil
The Exorcist
When a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
Some Facts About Ellen Burstyn
Injuries: Ellen Burstyn suffered a permanent spinal injury during the shooting of The Exorcist when a harness jerked her during a physical scene. Her injury is preserved in the movie’s final cut.
Scary Ex: Burstyn’s third husband, actor-writer Neil Burstyn, became violent and developed schizophrenia, leading to the couple’s divorce, followed by Neil stalking and terrorizing Ellen for years before he committed suicide in 1978.
