Burns, Ken (1953-…), is an American filmmaker. He gained recognition for his documentaries on American life and social history. Burns researches his subjects in great depth to bring a historical period to life. He blends interviews with materials of the time, such as correspondence, diaries, film, music, and photographs. In creating his documentaries, Burns has served as cinematographer, director, editor, music director, producer, and writer. Companion books to his documentaries have become popular. Many of Burns’s documentaries were first broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television network.
Kenneth Lauren Burns was born on July 29, 1953, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. He graduated with a B.A. degree from Hampshire College in 1975. Burns began his career as a documentary filmmaker with Brooklyn Bridge (1981). His first popular success was an 11-hour program in 1990 about the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Since 1990, Burns’s work has included documentaries about a variety of topics, including baseball, jazz and country music, and U.S. national parks. He has made films about wars, including World War II (1939-1945) and the Vietnam War (1957-1975), and about other historical events and periods, such as the Prohibition Era, when laws banned alcoholic beverages.
Burns’s biographical films have focused on such figures as American athletes, artists, political leaders, and other figures from U.S. history. Their subjects have included boxers Jack Johson and Muhammad Ali; baseball player Jackie Robinson; writer Mark Twain; architect Frank Lloyd Wright; and U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Burns also wrote Grover Cleveland, Again! (2016), a collection of stories for children about the U.S. presidents.
