Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn had a troubled youth. At 14, she was a cook in a snack bar, but also a dancer in a troupe of acrobats. After dropping out of high school, she became a model in Texas to pose on the covers of paperbacks. Then we find her in a nightclub in Montreal where she is a dancer. She then goes to New York where she appears as a girl in a television show. It was during this period that she began to take an interest in the profession of actress. She then made her Broadway debut in 1957 with the play Fair game , then continued until the early 1960s in several small roles in television series.

She made her debut in cinema in 1964 under the leadership of Vincente Minnelli with Au revoir Charlie. In order to deepen the mastery of her playing technique, she then worked with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's studio while continuing her recurring appearances in the TV series The Doctors until the end of the 60s. Success was not long in coming. come with The Last Session (1971) by Peter Bogdanovich where his performance earned him an Oscar nomination. She then played Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson's bittersweet The King of Marvin Gardens, and starred in William Friedkin's The Exorcist, a cult horror film that earned her a second nomination. She imposes herself but she is confined somewhat in the roles of a simple or off-center woman.

It is with the drama Alice is no longer here (1974) by Martin Scorsese that she obtains real recognition, since she finally wins the Oscar for best actress. Despite this, she was not overwhelmed by the offers and stayed away from the screens for three years before reappearing vividly in Alain Resnais' Providence. This film marks the beginning of a series of public failures which will see her return for a time on television where she achieves some success. In 1986, she even hosted a TV series called The Ellen Burstyn Show .

It was only in the 90s that she returned to the cinema in a less sporadic manner, through supporting roles in comedies or dramas. But it does not offer any striking interpretation. Her real comeback comes with The Yards where she plays the role of Mark Wahlberg's mother, and especially with Requiem for a Dream where her role as an aging woman addicted to diet pills reminds her of her great talent and earned her a new Oscar nomination. .

Between 2002 and 2006, the films in which the actress appeared did not achieve great success with the public. This is the case with Un Mystérieux tableau by Brent Shields or The Wicker Man by Neil LaBute. But 2006 is the year of another great collaboration between Ellen Burstyn and Darren Aronofsky with the film The Fountain where she plays a great scientist. In 2008, we find her alongside Thandie Newton and Josh Brolin in the biopic W. - The Improbable President by Oliver Stone. The actress, the time for a role, takes the place of Barbara Bush. The same year, Ellen Burstyn also devotes herself to the small screen. She is part of the cast of season 10 of Special Victims Unit, the Dick Wolf series. She plays the role of a mother, that of Inspector Elliot Stabler,