Catherine Burns (September 25, 1945 β February 2, 2019)
was an American actress of stage, film, radio and television. She was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in ''
Last Summer
''Last Summer'' is a 1969 teen drama film about adolescent sexuality based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Evan Hunter. Director Frank Perry filmed at Fire Island locations. It stars Catherine Burns, Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison and R ...
'' (1969).
Early years
Born in New York City of Irish and Polish heritage, Burns was raised in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, and attended
Hunter College High School
Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...
,
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
and the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...
.
Career
Burns's professional acting debut occurred in
David Susskind
David Howard Susskind (December 19, 1920 β February 22, 1987) was an American producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a TV talk show host. His talk shows were innovative in the genre and addressed timely, controversial topics beyond th ...
's TV production of ''
The Crucible
''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692β93. Miller wrote the play as a ...
'' (1967).
She made her
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
debut in 1968 in ''
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'',
for which she received the
Clarence Derwent Clarence may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Clarence County, New South Wales, a Cadastral division
* Clarence, New South Wales, a place near Lithgow
* Clarence River (New South Wales)
* Clarence Strait (Northern Territory)
* City of Clarence, a loca ...
Award.
[ She also appeared in ''Operation Sidewinder'' (1970) on Broadway.][
In 1970 she won the ]Theatre World Award
The Theatre World Award is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway theatre, Broadway or Off-Broadway. It was first awarded for the 1945β ...
for her performance in the off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
play ''Dear Janet Rosenberg, Dear Mr. Kooning''.
Burns made her screen debut in 1969 in ''Last Summer
''Last Summer'' is a 1969 teen drama film about adolescent sexuality based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Evan Hunter. Director Frank Perry filmed at Fire Island locations. It stars Catherine Burns, Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison and R ...
'' as sensitive, conservative Rhoda, receiving critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The role also brought her the 1970 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress. Despite the recognition, Burns never appeared in another theatrically released film after 1971, when she was just 26 years of age.
Her other film credits include ''Me, Natalie
''Me, Natalie'' is a 1969 American comedy-drama film directed by Fred Coe about a homely young woman from Brooklyn who moves to Greenwich Village and finds romance with an aspiring painter. The screenplay by A. Martin Zweiback is based on an orig ...
'' (1969) and ''Red Sky at Morning
The common phrase "red sky at morning" is a line from an ancient rhyme often repeated by sailor, mariners:
''Kentucky Weather'', by Jerry D. Hill, 2005, p.139, web:
Books-Google-ikC
Red sky at night, sailors' delight.
Red sky at morning, sail ...
'' (1971).
Television
Burns's television debut was the role of Mary Warren in Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 β February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...
's ''The Crucible
''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692β93. Miller wrote the play as a ...
'' (1967). She went on to appear as the original Cathy Craig
Cathy Craig is a fictional character on the American soap opera '' One Life to Live''. Introduced onscreen in January 1969, the character role is the first ongoing antagonist to lead heroine Victoria Lord and last appears in November 1978.
Cast ...
on ''One Life to Live
''One Life to Live'' (often abbreviated as ''OLTL'') is an American soap opera broadcast on the ABC television network for more than 43 years, from July 15, 1968, to January 13, 2012, and then on the internet as a web series on Hulu and iTunes ...
'' in 1969. Her other TV credits include the adaptation of Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 β February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...
's play ''A Memory of Two Mondays
''A Memory of Two Mondays'' is a one-act play by Arthur Miller. He began writing the play in 1952, while working on '' The Crucible'', and completed it in 1955. Based on Miller's own experiences, the play focuses on a group of desperate workers ...
'' (1974), the miniseries '' The Word'' (1978), and guest appearances on ''Love, American Style
''Love, American Style'' is an anthology comedy television series that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1974. The series was produced by Paramount Television. During the 1971β72 and 1972β73 seasons, it was a part of ABC's Friday primetime lineup ...
'', ''Adam-12
''Adam-12'' is an American television police procedural crime drama television series created by Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb. The series follows Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed as they patrol the stre ...
'', ''Emergency!
''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situatio ...
'', ''The Mod Squad
''The Mod Squad'' is an American crime drama series, originally broadcast for five seasons on ABC from September 24, 1968, to March 1, 1973. It starred Michael Cole as Peter "Pete" Cochran, Peggy Lipton as Julie Barnes, Clarence Williams III as ...
'', '' Police Woman'', ''The Waltons
''The Waltons'' is an American historical drama television series about a family in rural Virginia during the Great Depression and World War II. It was created by Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book ''Spencer's Mountain'' and the 1963 film ...
'' and ''The Bionic Woman
''The Bionic Woman'' is an American science fiction action-adventure television series created by Kenneth Johnson based on the 1972 novel ''Cyborg'' by Martin Caidin, starring Lindsay Wagner that aired from January 14, 1976, to May 13, 1978. ' ...
''. She continued on television throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, when she turned from acting to writing.
Writing
Her children's book, ''The Winter Bird'', was published by Windmill Books in 1971. Staying behind when other birds go south for the winter, a little bird discovers a new way of life in the unusual world of carousel horses. She also wrote screenplays and stage plays, and sold scripts to the CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
soap opera ''Guiding Light
''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...
'' in 1989.
Radio
She also was an actress on radio, appearing in 1973 on the Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
's series '' The Zero Hour'', hosted by Rod Serling
Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 β June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ' ...
.
Personal life and death
In June 1989, Burns married Kenneth Shire. At the time, she lived on the Upper West Side
The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...
of Manhattan. Later in her life, she and Shire resided in a retirement community in Lynden, Washington
Lynden is a city in Whatcom County, Washington, United States. It is located north of Bellingham and approximately south of the CanadaβUS border.
The city is located along the Nooksack River and State Route 539. The population of Lynde ...
. Little is known about Burns' life following her acting career; Shire said that she had resented the publicity and scrutiny from it, saying "She hated the movie 'Last Summer''.. and most everything that came with it. She wanted to be remembered as a published writer of novels."
A 2020 article in ''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' found that, according to Washington state health records, Burns died at age 73 on February 2, 2019, from complications of a fall she had suffered at home, with cirrhosis
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
listed as a contributing factor.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Catherine
1945 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American actresses
20th-century American women writers
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in Washington (state)
Actresses from New York City
American film actresses
American people of Irish descent
American people of Polish descent
American television actresses
Deaths from cirrhosis
People from Lynden, Washington
People from the Upper West Side
Writers from Manhattan
21st-century American women