ELLEN BURSTYN

'Ellen Burstyn' (born December 7, 1932, as 'Edna Rae Gillooly' in Detroit, Michigan, U.S.) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.

Contents

Personal Life

Career

Emmy Awards and controversy

Other activities

Filmography

References

See also

External links

Personal Life

Because her parents divorced when she was young, Ellen says she only remembers seeing her father one time when she was away at boarding school. At 19 years old, Ellen says she sought out her father, hoping to establish a relationship with him. "I arrived on his doorstep and … he didn't consider me a daughter, he considered me a hot babe. So that ended that relationship," she says. "What happens is that you go on trying to look for a father all of your life until the day comes when you realize I have to father myself." She referred to her mother as tough, violent and controlling. In 1960, after two failed marriages, Ellen fell in love with actor Neil Burstyn. Ellen said he was charming, funny, bright, talented and eccentric. Then he degenerated into mental illness and became schizophrenic and violent. Neil left Ellen just before she became one the most celebrated actors of the 1970s and '80s, with five Oscar nominations and one win in 10 years. "Then he wanted to come back," she says. "By then I had discovered how pleasant life was without a crazy husband and I didn't want him to come back. In her biography "Lessons in Becoming Myself", Burstyn revealed that she was stalked over a period of 10 years by her third husband whom she divorced. This included a violent incident of rape that went unpunished, as the police said that because the perpetrator was her husband "no crime was committed." Ultimately he committed suicide, upon which his parents sent Burstyn a telegram stating "Congratulations, you've won another Oscar; Neil killed himself".

Career

Burstyn debuted on Broadway in 1957 and, in 1975, won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in ''Same Time, Next Year'' (a role she would reprise in the film version, three years later). In 1990 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. Until 1970, she was credited as "'Ellen McRae'" in nearly all her film and TV appearances.
Burstyn won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1974 for her performance in the movie ''Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore''. She received her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1971 for the film ''The Last Picture Show'', and was subsequently nominated for Best Actress in 1973 for the horror movie ''The Exorcist'', in 1978 for ''Same Time, Next Year'', in 1980 for ''Resurrection'', and for ''Requiem for a Dream'' in 2000.
She worked on several television shows of the 1960s, including guest appearances on ''Perry Mason'', ''Maverick'', ''Wagon Train'', ''77 Sunset Strip'', ''The Big Valley'' and ''Gunsmoke''. She hosted ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1980. In 1986, she had her own ABC sitcom, ''The Ellen Burstyn Show'' costarring Megan Mullally as her daughter and Elaine Stritch as her mother. It was cancelled after one season. From 2000 to 2002, Burstyn appeared in the CBS television drama ''That's Life''. In 2006, she starred as a bishop in the controversial NBC comedy-drama ''The Book of Daniel''.
Burstyn last appeared in ''The Fountain'', directed by Darren Aronofsky, with whom she worked in ''Requiem for a Dream''.

Emmy Awards and controversy

Burstyn was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Miniseries or Special, for the TV movie ''The People vs. Jean Harris'' (1981) and again for another TV movie, ''Pack of Lies'' (1987).
In 2006, she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for HBO's ''Mrs Harris'' as Dr. Tarnower's "Ex-Lover #3." (She had played the title character in ''The People vs Mrs Jean Harris''). She was nominated for a performance that consisted of 14 seconds of screen time, two lines of dialogue and a total of 38 words. This is the shortest nominated performance in the history of the Emmy Awards.
Soon after the nominations were announced, an outcry ensued from the press and the public regarding the worthiness of the nomination. One explanation for the nomination was that people were honoring Burstyn for her nominated but non-winning performance from the first ''Harris'' telefilm. A more popular accusation was that the nominating committee was either confused in their recollection, or merely "threw in" her name from sheer recognition, assuming a worthy performance without actually seeing it.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences initially insisted that "based on the popular vote, this is a legitimate nomination." Meanwhile, HBO deflected the blame for submitting the nomination to the movie production company. Burstyn's own reaction ranged from initial silence to:
to this final quote:
Ultimately, Kelly Macdonald, who starred in ''The Girl in the Cafe'', won the award. (Neither Burstyn nor her costar Cloris Leachman won). In March 2007, the Academy officially announced that eligibility for a Primetime Emmy Award in any long-form supporting-actor category required nominees to appear on-screen in at least 10 percent of the project (9 minutes in a typical 90-minute telefilm).
Many critics still cite this incident to illustrate the lack of integrity in the increasingly expansive process of Emmy nominations, where name and role misrecognition have played an increasingly visible role.^[1]

Other activities

★ In 1981, Burstyn recorded "The Ballad of the Nazi Soldier's Wife" (Kurt Weill's musical setting of Bertolt Brecht's text "Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib?") for Ben Bagley's album ''Kurt Weill Revisited, Vol. 2''.

★ Burstyn served as president of the Actors' Equity Association from 1982 to 1985.

★ In 1997, Burstyn was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

★ In 2000, Burstyn was named co-president of The Actor's Studio, alongside Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel.

★ Burstyn practices Sufism. She is affiliated with the Maezumi Institute (Zen Peacemakers) and says her spiritual journey was inspired by the book ''The Last Barrier: A Journey Through the World of Sufi Teaching''.^[2]

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1964	''Goodbye Charlie''	Franzie Salzman
	''For Those Who Think Young''	Dr. Pauline Thayer
1969	''The Winner''	Ellen McLeod
1970	''Alex in Wonderland''	Beth Morrison
	''Tropic of Cancer''	Mona Miller
1971	''The Last Picture Show''	Lois Farrow
1972	''The King of Marvin Gardens''	Sally
1973	''The Exorcist''	Chris MacNeil
1974	''Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore''	Alice Hyatt
	''Harry and Tonto''	Shirley Mallard
	''Thursday's Game''	Lynne Evers	TV
1977	''Providence''	Sonia Lngham
1978	''A Dream of Passion''	Brenda
	''Same Time, Next Year''	Doris
1980	''Resurrection''	Edna Mae McCauley
1981	''Silence of the North''	Olive Frederickson
	''The People vs. Jean Harris''	Jean Harris	TV
1984	''The Ambassador''	Alex Hacker
1985	''Into Thin Air''	Joan Walker	TV
	''Twice in a Lifetime''	Kate MacKenzie
1986	''The Ellen Burstyn Show''	Ellen Brewer	TV
	''Act of Vengeance''	Margaret Yablonski	TV
	''Something in Common''	Lynn Hollander	TV
1987	''Look away''	Mary Todd Lincoln	TV
	''Pack of Lies''	Barbara Jackson	TV
1988	''Hannah's War''	Katalin
1990	''When You Remember Me''	Nurse Cooder	TV
1991	''Grand Isle''	Mademoiselle Reisz
	''Dying Young''	Mrs. O'Neil
	''Mrs. Lambert Remembers Love''	Lillian "Lil" Lambert	TV
1992	''	Wilma	TV
1993	''	Joan Delvecchio	TV
	''The Cemetery Club''	Esther Moskowitz
1994	''Trick of the Eye''	Frances Griffin	TV
	''Getting Gotti''	Jo Giaclone	TV
	''When a Man Loves a Woman''	Emily
	''Getting Out''	Arlie's Mother	TV
	''The Color of Evening''	Kate O'Reilly
1995	''How to Make an American Quilt''	Hy Dodd
	''The Baby-Sitters Club''	Emily Haberman
	''Follow the River''	Gretel	TV
	''My Brother's Keeper''	Helen	TV
	''Roommates''	Judith
1996	''Timepiece''	Maud Gannon	TV
	''Our Son, the Matchmaker''	TV
	''The Spitfire Grill''	Hannah Ferguson
1997	''Flash''	Laura Strong	TV
	''Deceiver''	Mook
	''A Deadly Vision''	Yvette Watson	TV
1998	''Playing by Heart''	Mildred
	''The Patron Saint of Liars''	June Clatterbuck	TV
	''You Can Thank Me Later''	Shirley Cooperberg
1999	''Walking Across Egypt''	Mattie Rigsbee
	''Night Ride Home''	Maggie	TV
2000	''Mermaids''	Trish Gill	TV
	''Requiem for a Dream''	Sara Goldfarb
	''The Yards''	Val Handler
2001	''Within These Walls''	Joan Thomas	TV
	''Dodson's Journey''	Mother
2002	''Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood''	Viviane Joan 'Vivi' Abbott Walker
2003	''Brush with Fate''	Rika	TV
2004	''The Five People You Meet in Heaven''	Ruby	TV
	''	Tommie	TV
2005	''Mrs. Harris''	Ex-lover #3
	''Down in the Valley''	Ma
	''Our Fathers''	Mary Ryan	TV
2006	''The Fountain''	Dr. Lilian Guzetti
	''The Wicker Man''	Sister Summersisle
	''The Elephant King''	Diana Hunt
	''30 Days''	Maura	Post-production
2007	''The Stone Angel''	Hagar	Completed
	''Our Lady of Victory''	Mother St. John	Post-production
	''Mitch Albom's For One More Day''	Pauline Benetto
2008	''The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond''	Miss Adie	Filming

References

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031602142.html
2. http://www.zenpeacemakers.org/mi/programs/mi_newsletter.htm

See also

★ BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role

★ Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy

External links

★ Official website

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★ Interview