Person
Ellen Burstyn
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women in dramas, she has received numerous accolades, includin…
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Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women in dramas, she has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards, making her one of the few performers to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting". She has also received a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award. Burstyn made her acting debut on Broadway in Fair Game in 1957 before winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for Same Time, Next Year (1975). She earned the Academy Award for Best Actress as the widow Alice Hyatt in Martin Scorsese's romantic drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974). Her other Oscar-nominated roles were in The Last Picture Show (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Same Time, Next Year (1978), Resurrection (1980), and Requiem for a Dream (2000). Her other notable films include Harry and Tonto (1974), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002), W. (2008), Interstellar (2014), The Age of Adaline (2015), and Pieces of a Woman (2020). She won Primetime Emmy Awards for her guest role in the NBC legal drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2009) and supporting role in the USA Network political miniseries Political Animals (2013). Her other Emmy-nominated roles include Pack of Lies (1988), Mrs. Harris (2005), Big Love (2008), Draft Day, Flowers in the Attic (both 2014), and House of Cards (2016). Since 2000, she has been co-president of the Actors Studio, a drama school in New York City. In 2013, she was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame for her work onstage.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2026
Place to Be
Movie Brooke
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2026
Flesh Impact
Movie Marilyn Monroe
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2025
Breakdown: 1975
Movie Self
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2025
This Ordinary Thing
Movie Self (voice)
-
2025
Duse, the Greatest
Movie
-
2024
E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump
Movie E. Jean Carroll
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2024
Mother, Couch
Movie Mother
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2024
Fear and Love: The Story of The Exorcist
Movie Self
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2023
The Exorcist: Believer
Movie Chris MacNeil
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2022
The First Lady
TV show Sara Delano Roosevelt
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2022
Three Months
Movie Valerie
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2022
Reframed: Marilyn Monroe
TV show Self
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2021
Paul Newman, Behind Blue Eyes
Movie Herself
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2021
Queen Bees
Movie Helen Wilson
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2021
Watch on the Rhine
Movie Fanny
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2021
Law & Order: Organized Crime
TV show Bernadette Stabler
More credits
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2020
Pieces of a Woman
Movie Elizabeth Weiss
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2020
Delphine and Carole
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2019
Lucy in the Sky
Movie Nana Holbrook
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2019
American Woman
Movie Miss Dolly
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2019
The Kelly Clarkson Show
TV show Self
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2019
Steven Arnold: Heavenly Bodies
Movie Self
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2019
The House of Tomorrow
Movie Josephine Prendergast
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2018
Friedkin Uncut
Movie Self
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2018
Nostalgia
Movie Helen Greer
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2018
All I Wish
Movie Celia Berges
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2018
The Tale
Movie Nettie
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2017
Marilyn Monroe: Auction of a Lifetime
Movie Self
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2016
Wiener-Dog
Movie Nana
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2016
Custody
Movie Beatrice Fisher
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2015
Unity
Movie Narrator (voice)
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2015
About Scout
Movie Gram
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2015
The Age of Adaline
Movie Flemming
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2014
Interstellar
Movie Murph (older)
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2014
The Calling
Movie Emily Micallef
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2014
Petals on the Wind
Movie Olivia Foxworth
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2014
Two Men in Town
Movie Mère Garnett
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2014
Draft Day
Movie Barb Weaver
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2014
River of Fundament
Movie Hathfertiti
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2014
And the Oscar Goes To...
Movie Self - Interviewee
