Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor and moviemaker. He first became known well for The Brothers McMullen (1995), his ultra low-budget independent movie that became successful worldwide. Other movie appearances include Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Holiday (2006), Man on a Ledge (2012), Friends with Kids (2012), and Alex Cross (2012). Burns directed movies such as She's the One (1996), Sidewalks of New York (2001), and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012). For television, he featured as Bugsy Siegel in the TNT crime drama series Mob City and as Terry Muldoon for TNT's Public Morals.
Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Edward J. Burns, a police officer and public relations spokesman, and Molly (née McKenna), a federal agency manager.[1] He was raised a Roman Catholic.[2][3] Burns is the second of three children (with siblings Mary and Brian) and is of Irish, and one-quarter Swedish descent.[4] He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island.[5] He briefly attended Chaminade High School before transferring to Hewlett High School. After high school, Burns attended, from 1987 to 1992, SUNY Oneonta, University at Albany, and Hunter College.
Burns got his start in the movie industry right after college as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone movie, The Doors. While working as a gofer at Entertainment Tonight, he financed, produced, directed and featured in his first movie The Brothers McMullen in his spare time, which was largely filmed in his hometown of Valley Stream. Once he completed the movie, he was able to get a copy to Robert Redford after an ET junket interview for Quiz Show at the Rhiga Royal Hotel in Manhattan. In 1996, Burns wrote, directed and featured in the ensemble drama She's The One with Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Amanda Peet, as well as Sidewalks of New York in 2001.
Burns is also known for his acting work for movies such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), Life or Something Like It (2002), and Confidence (2003). Looking for Kitty (2004), which Burns wrote, directed and starred in, was shot with a hand-held $3,000 digital Panasonic AG-DVX100 camera with a Mini35 adapter. The movie's entire budget was $200,000[6][7] and was filmed in New York City with a tiny crew and without standard permits. Burns discussed this unusual movie-making process in the director's commentary on the DVD and wrote in the Director's Letter "If you are an aspiring filmmaker, in this day of inflating budgets and runaway production, the truth is you can make a movie for no money in New York ... and have a blast".[citation needed]
His movie Purple Violets premiered exclusively on iTunes on November 20, 2007. Burns began a series of guest appearances on the HBO original series Entourage midway through season 3, as well as appearing as Grace Adler's boyfriend in Will & Grace. In Entourage, Burns plays himself and is (within the context of the series) writing a new television series in which Johnny Drama is able to acquire a part. In 2007, Burns announced plans to partner with Virgin Comics to create a series entitled Dock Walloper.[8] Burns plans to use the comic series as a springboard to a movie of the same story.
In March 2009, The Lynch Pin, a series of short movies featuring, written and directed by Burns were released via the internet.[9] The ten episodes are only available to view online as of August 2009[update] and future plans for the project are unknown.
With the modest success of Purple Violets, Burns was considering taking a studio directing assignment to make money. After reading a few scripts and attending a few meetings, he chose to remain a writer/director. He then wrote Nice Guy Johnny and filmed it quickly, with the RED One camera, for a reported $25,000 with a small crew.[10] Nice Guy Johnny premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010.[11]
To coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011, Burns wrote a movie, Newlyweds, that he also directed and starred in. Conforming to a model similar to Nice Guy Johnny, Newlyweds was filmed with a Canon 5D, with an even smaller crew, for $9000, in 12 days.[12] The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2011 as the final night movie.[13] He claimed on Twitter that the $9,000 budget was "5k for actors, 2k insurance, 2k food and drink. 9k in the can."[14] In 2013 Burns featured as real-life gangster Bugsy Siegel in Frank Darabont's miniseries Mob City.
In 2012, Burns set up a screenwriting contest with the web startup Scripped for a crowdsourced screenplay which he intended to help get produced.[15]
Burns is married to model Christy Turlington and they have two children, a daughter born in 2003 and a son born in 2006. He and Turlington are Catholic. He is an advisor to ICX Media, an ad-tech audience analytics data company.[16]
He's Irish-Catholic, used to work at "Entertainment Tonight," has a father who's a cop and has that bridge-and-tunnel reverse pride of people whose lives span the East River.
I'm thankful that I'm one-quarter Swedish, as well.
Mr. Burns's parents encouraged him to write years ago; his mother, a film buff, watches Woody Allen's 'Annie Hall' and 'Manhattan' twice a month.
The movie's budget was just over two hundred thousand dollars and it shows, with fuzzy pictures, unimpressive sound quality, and that horrible banjo strumming that always seems to be on the soundtrack of indie films.
He made the movie for a staggering $200,000, purchasing a Panasonic digital camera for three grand and casting friends who could help him out for a couple of weeks.
Ed Burns is setting a deal with Virgin Comics for a comic book series that serves as a calling card for a live action feature reports reports Variety. Burns has created "Dock Walloper," a stylized gangster tale set in the 1920s, where Prohibition has created a struggle to control the criminal underworld.
9k in the can. We only shot 12 days. That's how to make an independent film.