Ellen Burstyn was born on Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7,1932 and is an American actress.
70 Facts About Ellen Burstyn
2.
Ellen Burstyn followed this with Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in the title role.
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Ellen Burstyn appeared in numerous television films and gained further recognition from her performance in the films Resurrection, How to Make an American Quilt, and Requiem for a Dream.
4.
Ellen Burstyn was born Edna Rae Gillooly on December 7,1932 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Correine Marie and John Austin Gillooly.
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Ellen Burstyn has described her ancestry as "Irish, French, Pennsylvania Dutch, a little Canadian Indian".
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Ellen Burstyn has an older brother, Jack, and a younger brother, Steve.
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Ellen Burstyn's parents divorced when she was young, and she and her brothers lived with their mother and stepfather.
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Ellen Burstyn attended Cass Technical High School, a university-preparatory school that allowed students to choose a specific field of study.
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Ellen Burstyn dropped out of high school during her senior year after failing her classes.
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Ellen Burstyn later moved to Dallas, where she continued modeling and worked in other fashion jobs before moving to New York City.
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From 1955 to 1956, Ellen Burstyn appeared as an "away we go" dancing girl on The Jackie Gleason Show under the name Erica Dean.
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Ellen Burstyn debuted on Broadway in 1957 and joined Lee Strasberg's The Actors Studio in New York City in 1967.
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Ellen Burstyn next appeared in the drama The King of Marvin Gardens in 1972, with Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, and Scatman Crothers.
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In 1972, Ellen Burstyn was keen on playing the lead role as Chris MacNeil in the supernatural horror, The Exorcist.
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The film studio were initially reluctant to cast her, but when no other actors were put forward, Ellen Burstyn was chosen for the part.
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Ellen Burstyn's co-stars were Max von Sydow, Lee J Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Jason Miller and Linda Blair.
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Ellen Burstyn injured her coccyx, which led to permanent injury to her spine.
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Ellen Burstyn followed up with a small role in the comedy-drama, Harry and Tonto in 1974.
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Ellen Burstyn was drawn to the script because of the character's resemblance to her own life.
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Ellen Burstyn was inspired by the works of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, who found that women were searching to "redefine their roles in society".
21.
Ellen Burstyn was offered to direct but turned it down to concentrate on her performance, but selected then-newcomer Scorsese as director and recalled the collaboration as "one of the best experiences I've ever had".
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Ellen Burstyn had supporting roles in Providence and A Dream of Passion.
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Also in 1978, Ellen Burstyn starred in Same Time, Next Year opposite Alan Alda, a romantic-comedy about two people, married to others, who meet for a romantic tryst once a year for two decades.
24.
Ellen Burstyn hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live, a late-night sketch comedy and variety show, in December 1980.
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That year, Ellen Burstyn starred in the drama Resurrection, a story about a woman who possesses strange powers after a surviving an automobile crash.
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Ellen Burstyn was nominated again for Best Actress in the Academy Awards and Best Actress in the Golden Globes.
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Ellen Burstyn was nominated for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film in the Golden Globes for her portrayal of the murderer, Jean Harris.
28.
Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie.
29.
In 1981, Ellen Burstyn recorded "The Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife" for Ben Bagley's album Kurt Weill Revisited, Vol.
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Ellen Burstyn followed up the mid-1980s with a number of roles in television films, including The Ambassador, Surviving, Into Thin Air, Act of Vengeance, Something in Common and a 1987 adaptation of the play Pack of Lies, which was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, including another for Ellen Burstyn as Outstanding Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie.
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In 1986, Burstyn starred in an ABC television sitcom, The Ellen Burstyn Show, with co-stars Megan Mullally as her daughter and Elaine Stritch as her mother.
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In 1990, Ellen Burstyn won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre.
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In 1995, Ellen Burstyn portrayed Judith in the comedy-drama Roommates.
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Also that year, Ellen Burstyn appeared in How to Make an American Quilt, based on the 1991 novel of the same name by Whitney Otto, which tells the stories of several generations of women who are part of the same quilting circle.
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In 1998, Ellen Burstyn appeared in Playing By Heart, with co-stars including Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie, a story of eleven ordinary people in Los Angeles who are connected in different ways.
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Ellen Burstyn next found supporting roles in The Spitfire Grill, about a woman starting a new life after being released from prison, and Deceiver, a murder crime drama.
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Ellen Burstyn initially rejected the part, objecting to the depressive nature of the story.
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However, Ellen Burstyn changed her mind after seeing Aronofsky's previous work.
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Ellen Burstyn had to wear fat suits and lose about 10-pounds to showcase her character's weight-loss.
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Peter Travers of Rolling Stone writes, "Ellen Burstyn gives an award-caliber performance that is as raw and riveting as the movie that contains it".
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Ellen Burstyn was nominated for Best Actress in the 2001 Academy Awards.
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From 2000 to 2002, Ellen Burstyn starred in the CBS television series That's Life.
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Ellen Burstyn appeared in several more films, including Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Brush with Fate and The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
44.
Ellen Burstyn starred in the Broadway production of Martin Tahse's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, based upon the novel of the same title by Allan Gurganus.
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Ellen Burstyn provided a supporting role as the mother of two sons in the 2006 romantic drama The Elephant King.
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In 2006, Ellen Burstyn appeared in the epic drama The Fountain, her second collaboration with Darren Aronofsky.
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In 2006, Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie for the role of Former Tarnower Steady in HBO's Mrs Harris, another biopic about Jean Harris.
48.
Ellen Burstyn appeared in the thriller The Wicker Man, a remake of the 1973 British film of the same name, which was a commercial flop and negatively received by critics.
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Slant magazine was critical of the cast performances, writing that Ellen Burstyn "feigns arrogant malevolence".
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Ellen Burstyn followed up with parts in Lovely, Still and The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.
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Ellen Burstyn returned to the stage in March 2008, in the off-Broadway production of Stephen Adly Guirgis's The Little Flower of East Orange, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman in a co-production by LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater.
52.
Ellen Burstyn won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Mini-Series.
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Ellen Burstyn portrayed the grandmother of Lou in Wish You Well.
54.
In 2015, Ellen Burstyn played Flemming, the daughter of Blake Lively's immortal character in The Age of Adaline.
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In 2016, Ellen Burstyn guest starred in five episodes of the critically acclaimed political thriller House of Cards.
56.
Ellen Burstyn was credited on a succession of low-budget films, including Custody, The House of Tomorrow, All I Wish, and Nostalgia.
57.
Ellen Burstyn starred in Jennifer Fox's mystery drama The Tale, which premiered on HBO on May 26,2018.
58.
In 2019, Ellen Burstyn played musicologist Katherine Brandt in an acclaimed Australian production of Moises Kaufman's play 33 Variations at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre.
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In 2020, Ellen Burstyn appeared in Kornel Mundruczo's drama, Pieces of a Woman to great acclaim.
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Ellen Burstyn received several award nominations for her performance including a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and a London Critics Circle Film Award.
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In 2014, Ellen Burstyn indicated she was working on directing a feature film, Bathing Flo.
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Ellen Burstyn married Bill Alexander in 1950 and divorced in 1957.
63.
Ellen Burstyn described Neil Burstyn as "charming and funny and bright and talented and eccentric", but schizophrenia made him violent and he eventually left her.
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Ellen Burstyn attempted to reconcile but they divorced in 1972.
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Ellen Burstyn was raised Catholic, but now affiliates herself with all religious faiths.
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Ellen Burstyn is a supporter of the Democratic Party, and appeared in the 2009 documentary PoliWood.
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Ellen Burstyn served as president of the Actors' Equity Association from 1982 to 1985.
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Ellen Burstyn is on the Board of Selectors of Jefferson Awards for Public Service.
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Ellen Burstyn is one of the few living actors to have won the Triple Crown of Acting which is the Oscar, Emmy, and Tony.
70.
Ellen Burstyn won the Academy Award in 1975 for her performance in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.