Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn Bio

Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress whose career spans stage, film, and television. She is renowned for portraying complex, resilient women in drama and for achieving the Triple Crown of Acting, with an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and Primetime Emmy Award wins. Burstyn made her Broadway debut in 1957 and rose to prominence with The Last Picture Show (1971) and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Her long career includes acclaimed performances in The Exorcist (1973), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Interstellar (2014), and Pieces of a Woman (2020). She has remained active in film, television, and theatre, and has served as co-president of the Actors Studio since 2000.

Early Life and Background

Ellen Burstyn was born Edna Rae Gillooly on December 7, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Correine Marie (née Hamel) and John Austin Gillooly. She has described her ancestry as Irish, French, Pennsylvania Dutch, and a small amount of Canadian Indian. Burstyn has an older brother named Jack and a younger brother named Steve. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she and her brothers lived with their mother and stepfather during her early years.

Burstyn attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit, a university-preparatory school that allowed students to choose a specific field of study, where she majored in fashion illustration. In high school she was a cheerleader, a member of the student council, and president of her drama club. She dropped out during her senior year after failing her classes. Soon afterward, Burstyn worked as a dancer using the name Kerri Flynn, and then worked as a model until the age of 23. She later moved to Dallas, where she continued modeling and worked in other fashion jobs before moving to New York City.

Path to Acting

From 1955 to 1956, Burstyn appeared as an “away we go” dancing girl on The Jackie Gleason Show under the name Erica Dean. She then decided to become an actress and chose the name “Ellen McRae” as her professional name. She later changed her surname after her 1964 marriage to Neil Burstyn. Burstyn debuted on Broadway in 1957 and joined Lee Strasberg’s The Actors Studio in New York City in 1967.

Starting in the late 1950s, and throughout the 1960s, Burstyn frequently played guest roles on a number of primetime television shows, including Dr. Kildare, 77 Sunset Strip, Ben Casey, Perry Mason, Cheyenne, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, The Virginian, Laramie, and The Time Tunnel. She was credited as Ellen McRae until 1967, when she and her then-husband Neil Nephew both changed their surname to Burstyn, and she began to be credited as Ellen Burstyn.

Ellen Burstyn Career

Early Career (1955–1970)

Burstyn began her screen career in television during the mid-1950s while working as a dancer and model. After her Broadway debut in 1957, she spent the next decade building a résumé of guest television roles and small stage parts. In 1970, she appeared uncredited in the Joseph Strick adaptation of Henry Miller’s controversial novel Tropic of Cancer.

Her persistence on stage and screen laid the groundwork for the breakthrough that followed. She was also active in the development of her craft, joining the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg, where she refined her technique and prepared for the larger film roles that would soon follow.

Breakthrough (1971–1979)

Burstyn gained recognition after starring in The Last Picture Show (1971), a coming-of-age story directed by Peter Bogdanovich and adapted from a semi-autobiographical 1966 novel by Larry McMurtry. The film received critical acclaim for its nostalgia and visual style, was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Burstyn and her co-star Cloris Leachman, and in 1998 was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In 1973, Burstyn sought the lead role of Chris MacNeil in the supernatural horror film The Exorcist. The film studio was initially reluctant to cast her, but when no other actors were put forward, Burstyn was chosen. The Exorcist became a major commercial success, won two Academy Awards, and earned Burstyn her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Burstyn followed up with Martin Scorsese’s romantic drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), where she played a widowed woman raising a son and yearning to start a new life as a singer. Her performance in the film earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1975. In the same year, she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for the comedy Same Time, Next Year, which she later reprised in a 1978 film adaptation opposite Alan Alda.

Notable Works and Milestones

Burstyn’s signature works include The Last Picture Show (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Same Time, Next Year (1978), Requiem for a Dream (2000), Interstellar (2014), and Pieces of a Woman (2020). She is one of the few living actors to have won the Triple Crown of Acting, completing the honor more than 30 years after her Oscar win, with a Primetime Emmy Award for her guest starring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2009.

Ellen Burstyn Award Nominations

Ellen Burstyn has earned multiple Academy Award and Primetime Emmy Award nominations across her career. Her Oscar nominations for Best Actress include The Last Picture Show (1972), The Exorcist (1974), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1975, won), Same Time, Next Year (1979), Resurrection (1981), and Requiem for a Dream (2001). Her Primetime Emmy nominations include Mrs. Harris (2006), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2009, won), Big Love, Flowers in the Attic, and House of Cards, reflecting her long-standing presence in prestige television and film.

Ellen Burstyn Awards Won

Ellen Burstyn has won the Academy Award for Best Actress (1975), a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (1975), two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award, among other honors. Her Emmy wins include Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2009) and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Political Animals (2013).

Ellen Burstyn Family

Ellen Burstyn was born to Correine Marie Hamel and John Austin Gillooly. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she and her brothers Jack and Steve were raised by their mother and stepfather. Burstyn adopted a son named Jefferson with her second husband, Paul Roberts, in 1961.

Personal Life

Burstyn married Bill Alexander in 1950 and divorced in 1957. The next year, she married Paul Roberts, and the couple adopted a son named Jefferson in 1961 before divorcing that same year. In 1964, she married actor Neil Nephew, who later changed his name to Neil Burstyn. The couple divorced in 1972, and she adopted the surname Burstyn professionally as a result of the marriage.

Burstyn was raised Catholic but now affiliates herself with all religious faiths, following a form of Sufism under the instruction of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, who gave her the spiritual name Hadiya. She is a supporter of the Democratic Party and served as president of the Actors’ Equity Association from 1982 to 1985. Since 2000, she has served as co-president of the Actors Studio alongside Al Pacino and Alec Baldwin, and in 2013, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.