Born January 28 or 29, 1968 in Woodside, Queens, New York, Ed Burns is an actor, producer, writer and director. The son of a federal agency manager and a police officer, he comes from an Irish-American family raised in Valley Stream, on Long Island. He went to Chaminade High School and eventually graduated from Hewlett High School. He attended the State University of New York in Oneonta and Albany before finally receiving his English degree from Hunter College in 1992.
Straight out of college, Ed Burns was thrust in the film industry as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone film The Doors. He also worked as a gofer at Entertainment Tonight, all the while, he financed, produced, directed, and starred in his first film called The Brothers McMullen. He was able to get a copy to Robert Redford after an Entertainment Tonight interview at the Rhiga Hotel in Manhattan. In 1996, he single-handedly wrote, directed and starred in the drama She’s The One with Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, and Amanda Peet. He also did Sidewalks of New York in 2001.
Burns is best known for his role in Saving Private Ryan, Confidence, Life or Something Like It, and Looking for Kitty. The last one, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, was shot with a hand-held $3,000 camera, bringing down the film’s entire budget to $200,000. It was also shot without standard permits. Commenting on this process, he said, "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.” He premiered another film of his Purple Violets on iTunes on November 2007.
Burns and his brother Bryan own a production company called Irish Twisns. He dated actresses Maxine Bahns and Heather Graham before marrying supermodel Christy Turlington in 2003.