Ken Burns
American documentary filmmaker of U.S. history and culture.
Kenneth Lauren Burns is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series that chronicle United States history and culture. His work, often produced in association with WETA-TV or the National Endowment for the Humanities and distributed by PBS, includes widely recognized series such as The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, and The Vietnam War. Burns lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.
- born
- July 29, 1953
- field
- Documentary filmmaking
- nationality
- American
- known_for
- Documentary series on U.S. history and culture
Lore & Background
Kenneth Lauren Burns was born on July 29, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, to Lyla Smith Burns, a biotechnician, and Robert Kyle Burns Jr., a graduate student in cultural anthropology. His family moved frequently, including to France, Delaware, and Michigan. His mother died of breast cancer when he was 11, an experience he said shaped his career. He recalled a searing memory from 1962 when neighbors collected money to help his family, which he described as a lesson in community and courage. Burns graduated from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor in 1971 and attended Hampshire College, where he studied under photographers Jerome Liebling and Elaine Mayes, earning a Bachelor of Arts in film studies and design in 1975.
Reader's Guide
Burns's documentaries have earned two Academy Award nominations, for Brooklyn Bridge (1981) and The Statue of Liberty (1985), and have won several Emmy Awards. His signature style involves cutting rapidly from still pictures, using first-hand narration from contemporary writings. He co-directed The Central Park Five with his daughter Sarah Burns. His work covers diverse subjects including art, mass media, sports, political history, music, literature, environmentalism, and war. The Civil War is often considered his chef d'oeuvre. Burns has built a long career producing and directing well-received television documentaries and miniseries, mostly on United States history. His body of work includes topics slated for release by 2030, such as country music, the Mayo Clinic, Muhammad Ali, Ernest Hemingway, the American Revolution, Lyndon B. Johnson, Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, the U.S. criminal justice system, and African-American history.
Did You Know?
- Burns's mother died of breast cancer when he was 11, which he said helped shape his career.
- He co-directed The Central Park Five with his daughter Sarah Burns.
- Burns is a descendant of Johannes de Peyster Sr. through Gerardus Clarkson, an American Revolutionary War physician.
- He discovered on Finding Your Roots that he is a descendant of a slave owner from the Deep South.
More in Film Directors 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record