Edward Burns

This article is about the actor-director born in 1968. For other people with the same name, see Edward Burns (disambiguation).

For the producer born in 1946, see Ed Burns.

Edward Fitzgerald Burns (born January 29, 1968) is an American actor and filmmaker. He rose to fame with The Brothers McMullen (1995), his low-budget independent film that became successful worldwide. His other film appearances include Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Holiday (2006), 27 Dresses (2008), Man on a Ledge (2012), Friends with Kids (2012), and Alex Cross (2012). Burns directed films such as She's the One (1996), Sidewalks of New York (2001), and The Fitzgerald Family Christmas (2012). On television, he appeared as Bugsy Siegel in the TNT crime drama series Mob City and as Terry Muldoon in TNT's Public Morals.

Edward Burns
Burns at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Edward Fitzgerald Burns (1968-01-29) January 29, 1968 (age 57) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	SUNY Oneonta University at Albany
Occupations	Actor director producer screenwriter
Years active	1995–present
Notable work	The Brothers McMullen She's the One Sidewalks of New York Newlyweds The Fitzgerald Family Christmas
Spouse	Christy Turlington ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	2
Website	www.edwardburns.net

Early life

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.

Career

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]

In 2024, he began production in the Republic of Ireland on his golf-based film Finnegan's Foursome.^[16]

Personal life

Burns with his wife Christy Turlington

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.^[17]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Producer	Screenwriter	Notes
1995	The Brothers McMullen	Barry/Finbar McMullen	Yes	Yes	Yes
1996	She's the One	Mickey Fitzpatrick	Yes	Yes	Yes
1998	Saving Private Ryan	Private Richard Reiben
	No Looking Back	Charlie	Yes	Yes	Yes
2000	Shark Attack 2	Surfer Guy 2				Cameo; direct-to-video
2001	15 Minutes	Fire Marshal Jordan Warsaw
	Sidewalks of New York	Tommy Reilly	Yes	Yes	Yes
2002	Lethargy	Store Clerk				Short film
	Ash Wednesday	Francis Sullivan	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Life or Something Like It	Pete Scanlon
2003	Confidence	Jake Vig
2004	The Breakup Artist	Himself
	Looking for Kitty	Jack Stanton	Yes	Yes	Yes
2005	A Sound of Thunder	Travis Ryer
	The River King	Abel Grey
2006	The Groomsmen	Paulie	Yes	Yes	Yes
	The Holiday	Ethan Ebbers
2007	Purple Violets	Michael Murphy	Yes	Yes	Yes	Direct-to-iTunes
2008	One Missed Call	Detective Jack Andrews
	27 Dresses	George
2009	Echelon Conspiracy	John Reed
2010	Nice Guy Johnny	Uncle Terry	Yes	Yes	Yes
2011	Newlyweds	Buzzy	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Friends with Kids	Kurt
2012	Man on a Ledge	Jack Dougherty
	Alex Cross	Tommy Kane
	The Fitzgerald Family Christmas	Gerry	Yes	Yes	Yes
2018	Summer Days, Summer Nights	Jack Flynn	Yes	Yes	Yes
2019	Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies	Jim	Yes	Yes	Yes
2025	Millers in Marriage	Andy Miller	Yes	Yes	Yes

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	Will & Grace	Nick	3 episodes
2006–2009	Entourage	Himself	4 episodes
2011	Vietnam in HD	Joseph L. Galloway	Voice; 3 episodes
2013	Mob City	Bugsy Siegel	5 episodes
2014	Louie	Himself	Episode: "So Did the Fat Lady"
2015	Public Morals	Terry Muldoon	10 episodes; also writer, director, executive producer and creator
2021–2022	Bridge and Tunnel	Artie	12 episodes; also writer, director, executive producer and creator

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1995	Independent Spirit	Best First Feature Shared with Dick Fisher	The Brothers McMullen	Won
	Sundance Film Festival	Best Dramatic Film		Won
1999	Screen Actors Guild	Outstanding Performance by a Cast Shared with Matt Damon, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi and Tom Sizemore	Saving Private Ryan	Nominated
	Online Film Critics Society	Best Ensemble Cast Performance Shared with Damon, Davies, Diesel, Goldberg, Hanks, Pepper, Ribisi and Sizemore		Won
2008	Teen Choice	Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller	One Missed Call	Nominated
2010	Boston Film Festival	Best Director	Nice Guy Johnny	Won