SCREEN LEGENDS: ELLEN BURSTYN
May 27th 2008 02:54
When compiling a list of the greatest film actresses of all time, it is hard to deny the sterling work actress Ellen Burstyn has compiled over the last 30 years.
While not reaching the same level of success as Meryl Streep or Jane Fonda, Burstyn never the less has created a name for herself as an actor’s actor, providing stunning performances in film, TV, and the theatre.
PERSONAL LIFE
Ellen Burstyn (real name Edna Rae Gillooly) was born on the 7th of December, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan. Her parents were Correine Marie and John Austin Gillooly, a building contractor. They divorced when Burstyn was very young.
Before becoming an actress, Burstyn worked an assortment of jobs. At the age of 14 she was a short order cook at a lunch counter. After her graduation from Detriot’s Cass Technical High School, she travelled to Texas to become a model. This was followed by a stint as a showgirl on the Jackie Gleeson Show, and then as a nightclub dancer in Montreal.
Burstyn studied acting with Lee Strasberg at the famed Actors Studio, which she is now a co-president alongside Harvey Keitel and Al Pacino.
She has been married a total of three times. Her first marriage was to William Alexander (1950-1957), and was followed by marriages to Paul Roberts (1958-1962), and Neil Burstyn (1964-1972), which ended tragically when Neil committed suicide after succumbing to schizophrenia.
According to Burstyn in her biography “Lessons in Becoming Myself”, she was stalked by Neil for over a period of 10 years. This included a violent incident of rape which lead to no charges being laid, since Ellen and Neil were technically married at the time and the place were unable to charge him for rape.
As well as being an award winning actress during the 1970’s, Burstyn was also active in the movement to free convicted boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter from jail.
Burstyn practices the mystical Islamic religion Sufism, and is an ordained minister.
She is a vegetarian, does not drink alcohol or coffee, and practices yoga.
CAREER
In 1957, Burstyn made her Broadway debut in Fair Game. The 1960’s would see her appear in a variety of television shows such as The Doctors, Perry Mason, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, and Gunsmoke.
After studying at the Actors Studio, she got her big break in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971), which garnered her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for best supporting actress.
This would be followed by another supporting role next to Jack Nicholson in The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), and a second Oscar nomination, this time as Best Lead Actress, in the ground breaking horror classic The Exorcist (1973).
Burstyn would go on to finally snag the Oscar for her role as a single mother in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Aymore (1974). That same year, she would also win a Tony Award for Same Time, Next Year, a role she would reprise for the big screen 1978, and would once again be nominated for an Oscar. Another nomination would follow for Resurrection (1980).
Despite her success in the 1970’s, Burstyn would find it hard to find work in Hollywood during the 1980’s, and opted to for roles in TV productions instead, receiving Emmy nominations for The People VS Jean Harris (1981) and Pack of Lies (1987), and also starring in her own sitcom titled The Ellen Burstyn Show. It would only last one season.
The 1990’s and onwards would see Burstyn play supporting roles – usually as a maternal figure – in films such as How to Make an American Quilt, The Spitfire Grill, and The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
However, Burstyn would prove to have one more powerful performance left in her, with a startling portrayal of a speed addicted elderly widow in Darren Aronofsky’s potent anti-drug film Requiem for a Dream.
Other notable role around this time: the voice of Grandma Dolarhyde in Red Dragon (2002), a Pagan cult leader in the 2006 re-make of The Wicker Man, and a minor turn in HBO’s Mrs. Harris, where she was nominated for a supporting actress Emmy award despite being on screen for only 14 seconds!
Upcoming films include an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ The Loss of a Teardrop, and as Barbara Bush in the upcoming Oliver Stone George W. Bush biography, W.
Top 3 Ellen Burstyn Performances
3) Chris MacNeil, The Exorcist (1973)
Burstyn plows through a gauntlet of emotions in her portrayal of a distressed Hollywood actress and single mother who watches on as her seemingly possessed daughter (Linda Blair) turns into a monster.
2) Alice Hyatt, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
Burstyn who would go on to win an Oscar for her performance as Alice, a woman who desires to live life on her terms after years of catering to the wishes of men, providing sass and vulnerability to the role while also proving to be an adequate singer and pianist.
1) Sara Goldfarb, Requiem for a Dream (2000)
In her single greatest performance of her storied 30 plus year career, Burstyn is remarkable as a lonely widower who – after given the news that she will appear in a future episode of her favourite TV show – decides to lose weight in order to fit into her favourite red dress. She would be robbed at the Oscars by Julia Roberts in her role as Erin Brokovich.
…and the worst?
Sister Summersisle, The Wicker Man (2006)
Burstyn tries to lend gravitas in Neil LaBute’s shaky re-make of the British horror classic The Wicker Man, playing the spiritual leader of a feminist Pagan community who is something of a cross between Germaine Greer and Jeffrey Jones.
QUOTES
"Acting feels like a congenial condition to me - it's in my genes."
"It's unfortunate but our society is such that, for women in Hollywood, you get to a certain age and just fall off a cliff. But in my case, I refuse to die. I will hang on, by a little finger if necessary."
“I do like to work with young directors because it's such a difficult business that I think after directors have been around a while sometimes, not always, but sometimes their passion gets siphoned off because they get hurt.”
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