Ellen Burstyn Trivia | 40 facts about the actress

Ellen Burstyn is an American actress, who is known for her portrayals of complex women in dramas.

Let’s find out more about the actress!

1. Suffered a permanent spinal injury while filming The Exorcist (1973).
2. In the sequence where she is thrown away from her possessed daughter, a harness jerked her hard away from the bed. She fell on her coccyx and screamed in pain, which was kept in the final version of the released film.
3. Turned down the lead role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nes (1975) because she had a sick husband to care for.
4. She got married three times.
5. Her third (and last) husband, Neil Burstyn was a bright, talented upcoming actor and writer (The Monkees (1965)).
6. According to Ellen, he eventually degenerated into mental illness and became schizophrenic and violent. He left her just before she became a star. When she refused his pleas to get back together, he stalked and terrorized her for many years. He committed suicide in 1978.
7. Worked as an acrobat and as a model for paperback covers.
8. In September 2009, she became the 20th person to have won the Triple Crown of Acting: Academy Award
9. An ordained minister, Burstyn does not consume alcohol or drink coffee and practices yoga.
10. Played her Academy Award nominated character from Same Time, Next Year (1978) on Broadway first and won a Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for the role in 1975.
11. Burstyn was quoted in the book “On Women Turning 50” that she did not attend the Academy Awards ceremony the year she won as she felt she could not handle the pressure and attention if she won.
12. After attending several later Oscar ceremonies at which she lost, she later regretted not being there to accept her award. Martin Scorsese, the director of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), accepted on her behalf.
13. Wore 20- and 40-pound fat suits and prosthetic necks to play Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (2000).
14. Says she is often mistaken for fellow actress Louise Fletcher. People tell her she was great in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) (for which Fletcher won an Oscar). Fletcher reports being told frequently that she did a wonderful job in one of Burstyn’s roles.
15. Underwent an illegal abortion at 5 months pregnant in 1950. The operation left her infertile.
16. Along with Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel, was named co-president of The Actor’s Studio in 2000.
17. Became a mother in 1962, when she adopted her son, Jefferson Roberts, with her now ex-2nd husband, Paul Roberts. She has one grandchild.
18. Acting mentor of Megan Mullally.
19. She wrote to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences to protest Liv Ullmann’s elimination from Oscar contention in 1974 for her performance in Scener ur ett äktenskap (1973) (aka “Scenes from a Marriage”). AMPAS used a rule under which TV presentations must have appeared in movie theaters in the same year, to prevent Ullmann from being nominated. The result is that Burstyn won the Oscar for her performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974).
20. Chosen by People Magazine as one of the “50 Most Beautiful People in the World.”
21. Following her birth parent’s divorce, she was sent to St. Mary’s Academy in neighboring Windsor, Ontario. She returned home to Detroit after her mother’s remarriage.
22. Is one of 14 Best Actress Oscar winners to have not accepted their Academy Award in person, Burstyn’s being for «Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore»
23. Part of remarkable Strasberg alumni.
24. Godmother of her The Spitfire Grill (1996) co-star Marcia Gay Harden)’s children.
25. Served as co-artistic director for The Actor’s Studio.
26. In 2005, she was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Acting of the Savannah Film Festival.
27. Release of her book, “Lessons in Becoming Myself”. (2006)
28. Member of the Official Competition Jury at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival (1977). Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival (1981). Co-head of jury at the Berlin International Film Festival (1988).
29. Made a special Academy Awards appearance in 1998, at the The 70th Annual Academy Awards (1998), and participated in the “Oscar Family Album” sequence, along with many other former Academy Award winners.
30. The character of Jean Harris seems to be a favorite for Burstyn. She was Emmy-nominated for the lead role as Jean Harris in the 1981 TV-movie, The People vs. Jean Harris (1981) and, in 2006, she was nominated as a supporting character (as an ex-lover of Jean Harris’s lover) in the cable-movie based on the Harris case in Mrs. Harris (2005).
31. Burstyn is perhaps the first actress to be nominated for a performance that is less than 1-minute long (in fact, it is approximately 15 seconds). She vied for the Emmy with fellow “Mrs. Harris” (and The Last Picture Show (1971)) co-star and Oscar-winner Cloris Leachman. Neither won.
32. She has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant.
33. Was the 75th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for Alice Doesn’t Live Here(1974) at The 47th Annual Academy Awards (1975) on April 8, 1975.
34. Received the National Board of Review’s Career Achievement Award in December 2000 at Tavern on the Green.
35. Recipient of the 2006 Career Achievement in Acting Award from the Hamptons Film Festival.
36. Daughter of Austin (1903-1988), born in the state of New Jersey, and Correine (née Hamel) Gillooly (1907-1985) , born in the state of North Dakota. They married in the state of Ohio on September 1, 1928.
37. Has two brothers.
38. Is one of 3 actresses who have won the Best Actress Oscar for playing a character called Alice.
39. In 1975, Ellen won the Oscar for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and the Tony for “Same Time, Next Year”, making her one of five actresses to win the Tony and the Oscar in the same year. The others are Shirley Booth, Audrey Hepburn, Mercedes Ruehl, and Judi Dench.
40. Born at 4:00 AM EST.