Burstyn was born as Edna Rae Gillooly on December 7, 1932, in Detroit, Michigan. She went to the prestigious Cass Technical High School. After graduation she moved to Texas to model and then went to New York to be a showgirl on The Jackie Gleason Show in 1952.
From there she got a job as a nightclub dancer in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, before making her way to Broadway. In 1957 she performed in her first Broadway production, Fair Game. After gaining some notice for her acting skills for her role in 1964’s Goodbye Charlie, Burstyn took some time off to study acting with Lee Stasberg at the Actors Studio.
Up until 1970, Burstyn was credited as Ellen McRae in nearly all her film and TV appearances.
Her big break came when she was cast as the female lead in The Last Picture Show in 1971, alongside Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepard, Randy Quaid, and Cloris Leachman. She received nominations for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for her performances. In 1972, she co-starred with Jack Nicholson in The King of Marvin Gardens. Then came the horror flick The Exorcist in 1973.
During filming of The Exorcist, Burstyn received a permanent spinal injury in the sequence where she is thrown away from her possessed daughter, played by Linda Blair. The harness holding her jerked her away from the bed a bit too hard and she fell on her coccyx. Her scream of pain was filmed and used in the movie.
In 1974, she won the Oscar as Best Actress for her role in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The following year she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the Broadway drama, Same Time, Next Year. She also won praise and award nominations for her role in the 1978 movie version of the play.
The 1980s were a slow time in Burstyn’s career with only a few roles in television movies and the short-lived The Ellen Burstyn Show from 1986 to 1987. From 1982 to 1985 she was the first woman president of Actor's Equity, the actors' union.
During the 1990s, she landed supporting roles in The Cemetery Club (1993), How to Make an American Quilt (1995), The Baby-Sitters Club (1995), and The Spitfire Grill (1996).
In 2000, she played Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream where she wore twenty-pound and forty-pound fat suits and prosthetic necks for the filming. In 2001, she was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. From 2000 to 2002 she appeared in the CBS television drama That’s Life. In 2006, Burstyn starred as a bishop in the NBC comedy-drama The Book of Daniel.
Burstyn has been married and divorced three times. She and her last husband, Neil Burstyn, married from 1960 to 1971, adopted a son named Jefferson.
She is an ordained minister who doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee or eat meat, and practices the mystical Islamic religion Sufism and Yoga.
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