Oscar Profile #155: Ellen Burstyn

Born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, Michigan on December 7, 1932, the high school cheerleader and young model was the “away we go” girl on TV’s Jackie Gleason Show in 1955 and 1956. Deciding to become an actress, she changed her name to Ellen McRae, racking up nearly thirty credits on numerous TV shows before making her big screen debut in 1964’s For Those Who Think Young and Goodbye, Charlie. That same year she changed her professional name to Burstyn after marrying third husband Neil Burstyn AKA Neil Nephew.

Numerous other TV roles and an occasional film role kept her busy until Peter Bogdanovich provided her with her big break as the mother of teenager Cybill Shephard in 1971’s The Last Picture Show. The role brought her the first of six Oscar nominations to date. An equally strong role in 1972’s The King of Marvin Gardens also earned an enthusiastic critical response. She would divorce Burstyn/Nephew that same year.

A cultural phenomenon, 1973’s The Exorcist brought Burstyn her second Oscar nomination, her first as lead. 1974’s sleeper hit Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore brought her a third nomination and her first and only win to date. She may have had a second for the following year’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo‘s Nest if she hadn’t turned the role down. 1975 was a busy year for the actress. She was not able to attend the Oscars in April to accept her award as she was starring on Broadway in Same Time, Next Year for which she would win the Tony two months later. The 1978 film version would earn her a fourth Oscar nomination.

Burstyn received a fifth Oscar nomination for 1980’s Resurrection. In 1981 she received an Emmy nomination for the controversial TV movie, The People vs. Jean Harris. The following year she returned to Broadway in 84 Charing Cross Road for the first time since 1957 and was elected the first female president of Actors Equity, a position she would hold for four years. Almost never out of the public eye, she continued to star in numerous films and TV shows, even headlining her own self-named TV comedy series from 1986-87. Notable films over the next two decades included 1985’s Twice in a Lifetime; 1993’s The Cemetery Club; 1996’s How to Make an American Quilt for which she received a Screen Actors Guild nomination as part of the ensemble; that same year’s The Spitfire Grill and 1998’s Playing by Heart. She received her sixth Oscar nomination, her first in twenty years for 2000’s Requiem for a Dream.

Burstyn became the twentieth person to win the triple crown of acting awards – the Oscar, Tony and Emmy when she won an Emmy for an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She received a second last month for Political Animals in which she played Sigourney Weaver’s retired showgirl mom.

Burstyn, who will be 81 in December, shows no sign of slowing down. She has nine films in various stages of production including two documentaries, one on Marilyn Monroe and another on Geraldine Page.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971), directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Bogdanovich’s film of Larry McMurtry’s novel made numerous careers including the director’s. McMurtry was the most famous of the participants, having been known to film enthusiasts as the author of the novel upon which the 1963 film Hud was based. Bogdanovich was seen as an up-and-coming director. Of the cast only Cloris Leachman was a household name, having already become part of the ensemble of TV’s The Mary Tyler Moore. Timothy Bottoms had gotten rave notices earlier in the year for his film debut in Johnny Got His Gun, but everyone else including Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Sam Bottoms and veterans Ben Johnson, Ellen Busrstun and Eileen Brennan were basically unknown to the general public, the latter three even though they had been around for some time.

The coming-of-age tale, which takes place two decades earlier, still resonates in its timeless explorations of themes of youthful rebellion, aging and the economic and cultural death of a town. Burstyn as a still hot “pushing 40” mama was a revelation. The role ignited the 39 year-old actress’ long dormant career and sent it into the stratosphere from which it has never come down.

THE EXORCIST (1973), directed by William Friedkin

William Peter Blatty’s best-seller was based on an actual exorcism that was performed in 1949. The character of the mother was based on Shirley MacLaine, Batty’s friend with whom he had worked on the notorious 1965 flop, John Goldfarb, Please Come Home. The character of the director was based on that film’s J. Lee Thompson

Although MacLaine was everyone’s first choice for the film she chose not to do it and Burstyn got the part instead. The film was a major box-office success and an awards magnet, It was nominated for seven Golden Globes including Best Actress and won four – Best Picture; Director, Screenplay and Supporting Actress (Linda Blair). It was then nominated for ten Oscars including all of those categories, winnign only two – for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound.

ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1974), directed by Martin Scorsese

Burstyn’s portrayal of a determined widow who, with her impressionable young son, sets out on the road in search of a new life was highly anticipated, but Variety’s early review was not kind, leaving audiences to anticipate the worst. Word of mouth and general critical consensus, however, was strong and by the time of the Oscars, Burstyn, on her third nomination, proved a popular winner.
That year’s Best Actor winner was Art Carney in Harry & Tonto which featured Burstyn as his daughter. The two had previously worked together in the mid-1950s on The Jackie Gleason Show on which Carney was one of the stars and Burstyn one of the June Taylor dancers and the show’s “away we go” girl.

RESURRECTION (1980), directed by Daniel Petrie

Burstyn had her own favorite role as a woman who has a near death experience and emerges with the power to heal the sick with the touch of her hands in Petrie’s film written by Lewis John Carlino who was experiencing a career high for his adapted screenplay and direction of Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini.

Burstyn’s performance, based on a real life healer, is extraordinary, as are the supporting turns of Sam Shepard as her lover and Eva LeGallienne as her grandmother. Contrary to popular thinking, Burstyn’s now elderly character does not die at the end after curing a young boy of cancer by taking the disease into her own body. She lives on as proprietress of the desert gas station, performing many more miracles.

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000), directed by Darren Aronofsky

Twenty years after her fifth Oscar nomination, Burstyn stunned audiences with her haunting portrayal of an elderly television, sugar and eventually diet pill addicted woman. The film was an ensemble piece with Jared Leto as her son and Jennifer Connolly as his girlfriend also noteworthy as lost souls descending into a pit of drug addiction.

The only question was whether Burstyn would earn her sixth nomination in lead or support. There were arguments for and against both. With numerous regional critics’ awards in the lead category under her belt, her nomination in the thatcategory was assured although a second Oscar against the juggernaut that was Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich seemed unlikely. She might have had a better chance against her friend Marcia Gay Harden who won in support in Pollack in which she was the female lead and ironically had more screen time than Burstyn in Requiem.