Edward Burns Biography

Date of Birth: January 29, 1968

Edward Burns is an independent filmmaker, as well as an actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He received the coveted Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival in 1995 for his film The Brothers McMullen, a comedy about the romantic escapades of three Irish Catholic brothers.

Burns was born in Queens, New York and attended Oneonata College and The State University of New York in Albany. He transferred to Hunter Collage in Manhattan to study film, where he made shorts. In 1993, he worked as a production assistant for the TV show Entertainment Tonight, where he first had the idea for The Brothers McMullen.

He shot the film at his parents' house with a colossal budget of $25,000 and the donated talents of ET crewmembers. While the film was rejected by distributors, it was embraced at Sundance, winning the highest honor.

Burns continued with the same cast and crew to make She's the One with Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz. Tom Petty wrote the original soundtrack and this time, Burns' budget was a healthy $3 million.

His third feature was Long Time, Nothing New, now called No Looking Back. In 1998, Edward Burns could be seen in Steven Spielberg's World War II drama Saving Private Ryan. Since then he's been working on projects that are a little different. "I'm getting antsy to work with a bigger budget," he says. "At a certain point, you don't want to compromise the look of the film."

Although he hasn't hit the big time as a director yet, since Saving Private Ryan, Burns has scored bigger roles in high budget films such as starring with Angelina Jolie in Life or Something Like It (2002) and working alongside Ben Kingsley in A Sound of Thunder (2004). He also appeared in the romantic comedy 27 Dresses (2008), the crime thriller Man on a Ledge (2011) and most recently in Friends with Kids (2012).

His personal life is going along smoothly as well, having married supermodel Christy Turlington on June 7, 2003. Edward and Christy had their first child, a baby girl on October 25, 2003.

Filmography (actor):

Five-Fourths (2007)
One Missed Call (2007)
Purple Violets (2006)
The Holiday (2006)
The Groomsmen (2006)
The River King (2005)
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
The River King (2005)
Looking for Kitty (2004)
Confidence (2003)
Ash Wednesday (2002)
Life, Or Something Like It (2002)
Sidewalks of New York (2001)
Fifteen Minutes (2001)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
No Looking Back (1998)
She's the One (1996)
The Brothers McMullen (1995)

Filmography (director):

Looking for Kitty (2004)
Ash Wednesday (2002)
Sidewalks of New York (2001)
No Looking Back (1998)
She's the One (1996)
The Brothers McMullen (1995)