page_title: Ellen Burstyn
section_title: 1984–2005: Television films and continued success
hierarchical_section_title: Ellen Burstyn / Career / 1984–2005: Television films and continued success
caption_attribution_description: English: Darren Aronofsky at the 6th Odessa International Film Festival.
context_page_description: Ellen Burstyn is an American actress. Known for her portrayal of complicated women in dramas, Burstyn is the recipient of various accolades, and is among the few performers to have won an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony.
  Born in Detroit, Michigan, Burstyn left school and worked as a dancer and model. She made her stage debut on Broadway in 1957 and soon started to make appearances in television shows. Stardom followed several years later with her acclaimed role in The Last Picture Show, which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her next appearance in The Exorcist, earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film has remained popular and several publications have regarded it as one of the greatest horror films of all time. She followed this with Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
  She appeared in numerous television films and gained further recognition from her performances in Same Time, Next Year, which won her a Golden Globe Award, and Resurrection, How to Make an American Quilt, and Requiem For a Dream.
context_section_description: Burstyn followed up the mid-1980s with a number of roles in television films, including The Ambassador (1984), Surviving (1985), Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Into Thin Air (1985), Act of Vengeance (1986), Something in Common (1986) and play adaptation, Pack of Lies (1987). For Twice in a Lifetime, she co-starred with Gene Hackman and Ann-Margret. Burstyn portrays Kate, the wife that Hackman's character divorces when he falls in love with another woman. Pack of Lies was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, including another one for Burstyn as Outstanding Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie.
  In 1986, Burstyn starred in an ABC television sitcom, The Ellen Burstyn Show, with co-stars Megan Mullally as her daughter and Elaine Stritch as her mother. Created by David Frankel, it ran only for one season. In 1987, she appeared in Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam and Look Away, both which were television movies. In 1988, she then participated again as a member of the jury for the 38th Berlin International Film Festival. A variety of acting performances followed suit, including in the dramas Hanna's War (1987), When You Remember Me (1990), Dying Young (1991) and Grand Isle (1991). In 1990, Burstyn won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. In addition to television movies, Burstyn appeared in When a Man Loves a Woman (1994) with co-stars Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan.
  In 1995, she portrayed Judith in the comedy-drama Roommates (1995). The film received negative reviews and was a commercial failure, but it did receive a nomination for Best Makeup in the Academy Awards. Also that year, Burstyn appeared in How to Make an American Quilt (1995), based on the 1991 novel of the same name by Whitney Otto, which tells the stories of several generations of women who are part of the same quilting circle. Despite a mixed critical response, the cast received a nomination for Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. In 1998, Burstyn appeared in Playing By Heart, with co-stars including Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie, a story of eleven ordinary people in Los Angeles who are connected in different ways. Some critics such as Roger Ebert viewed the film positively despite the lackluster performance at the box office.
  Burstyn next found supporting roles in The Spitfire Grill (1996), about a woman starting a new life after being released from prison, and Deceiver (1997), a murder crime drama. Although not box office hits, each film garnered mixed to positive responses, according to film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Next, she appeared in James Gray's The Yards (2000) alongside a principal cast of Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, Faye Dunaway and James Caan. The crime drama was unpopular and a commercial failure, earning less than $1 million worldwide from a budget of $24 million.
  In 1999, director Darren Aronofsky offered Burstyn the role of Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream (2000). She initially rejected the part, objecting to the depressive nature of the story. However, Burstyn changed her mind after seeing Aronofsky's previous work. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Hubert Selby Jr, which tells the story of four New Yorkers whose lives are affected by drug addictions. To prepare for the role, Burstyn had to research troubled women in Brooklyn, "to get their speech patterns and outlook on life - and how narrow that is ... their life is about getting enough money to put food on the table to feed their children, and that's it". She also had to wear fat suits and lose about 10-pounds (4½ kg) to showcase her character's weight-loss. Burstyn and her co-stars, Jennifer Connelly, Jared Leto, and Marlon Wayans, found the filming schedule of forty days challenging and intense. Requiem for a Dream premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was released to theaters on October 6, 2000. The film was well received and praised for its visual style and depiction of drug abuse. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone writes, "Burstyn gives an award-caliber perform
caption: Director Darren Aronofsky has worked with Burstyn twice.
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