Ken Burns – Bio, Net Worth, Facts, Wiki, Filmmaker, Effect, Wife, Kids, Age, Height, Awards, PBS, Books, Documentary, County Music, Baseball, Narrator

Ken Burns is one of the most influential documentary-makers ever. Over the years, he has consistently churned out documentaries on diverse subjects, many of which also highlight social issues. While growing up, his deep interest in history provided the foundation for many of his historical films later. His passion for film-making was ignited as a teenager when he has gifted an 8 mm movie camera. With the discovery of his passion, he pursued it with all his heart and joined Film Studies and Design. 

After graduation, he started a production company and achieved success with his very first film, Brooklyn Bridge, which was also nominated for an Oscar. His subsequent films cemented his reputation with diverse topics and incorporating a unique style. But it was his first miniseries, painstakingly made over five years that propelled him to iconic status. Let’s know more about him through this article.

What is Ken Burns famous for?

• An American filmmaker.
• His style of using archival footage and photographs in documentary films.

Source: @deadline

How old is Ken Burns?

Recalling his early life, Ken was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lyla Smith Burns and Robert Kyle Burns in the year 1953. Currently, he is 66 years old. His mother was a bio technician and his father was studying cultural anthropology at Columbia University, New York at the time of his birth.

His family kept moving constantly, staying in Saint-Veran in France, New York, Delaware, and Ann Arbor. Melanie Nolan and Josh Faulkner were his closest friends, who supported him throughout his career.

When he was only three years old, his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and eventually succumbed to the disease when he was eleven. This event left a deep impact on him and became one of the reasons for his choice of career.

Where did Ken Burns go to college?

Concerning her education, Ken studied in Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor and graduated in 1971. He enrolled at the Hampshire College in Massachusetts where he studied Film Studies and Design under renowned photographers like Jerome Liebling and Elaine Mayes. To finance his education, he worked in a record store as well.

When did Ken Burns begin his acting career?

• After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he started a production company, Florentine Films with two friends from college, cinematographer Buddy Squires and Editor Paul Barnes. The company was based in Walpole, New Hampshire.
• He worked as a cinematographer for BBC, Italian television and filmed some documentary short films. In 1977, he started working on a documentary about the construction of Brooklyn Bridge. He adopted the script from the book The Great Bridge by David McCullough.
• The documentary Brooklyn Bridge was released in 1981 and received positive responses from viewers as well as critics.
• His next work was the 1984 film The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God. Shaker is a religious sect and the film featured many interviews by current shakers.
• In 1985, two of his films were released. The Statue of Liberty exploring the history of the sculpture bearing the same name, while Huey Long chronicles the life and career of the American politician Huey Long.
• In 1988, two more films were released, The Congress and Thomas Hart Benton. The former traces the history of the United States Congress, while the latter is about the American painter and muralist of the same name as the title.
• In 1990, He released his first miniseries, The Civil War, which was based on the American Civil War. The record-breaking series garnered rave reviews and was watched by about 40 million people in the US.
• He continued making documentaries and short films and his next long-form documentary was the 1994 series ‘Baseball’. The series has a running time of more than eighteen hours and traces the history of baseball to depict changes in American society.
• In 1996, He served as executive producer and creative consultant for the documentary The West. The film was about the Western United States in the second half of the 19th century. This well-received film was directed by Stephen Ives, who had earlier worked with Burns in The Civil War and Baseball.
• Most of his works in the next few years were biographical and they featured diverse personalities, like former US President Thomas Jefferson, as well as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, author Mark Twain, architect Frank Lloyd Wright and activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
• The miniseries, The War, co-directed by Burns, was released in 2007. The film details the Second World War via personal accounts of about 40 Americans.
• In 2009, he again showed his penchant for diversity with his next film, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. The film is based on the system of National Parks in the US and centers on the people who had a hand in establishing this system.
• In 2011, the miniseries Prohibition, co-directed by Burns with Lynn Novick, was released. The film explores the connection between the ban on alcoholic beverages that existed in the early 20th century and American culture and politics of that period.
• His most recent works are The Dust Bowl and The Central Park Five, both of which were released in 2012. The former is a depiction of the agricultural crisis that afflicted the US in the early 20th century, while the latter narrates the wrongful conviction of five people for assault and rape.
• Since each of his documentaries takes a few years to be completed, there are as many as five documentaries that are set for future releases. These are The Roosevelts, Jackie Robinson, Vietnam, Country Music, and Ernest Hemingway. Another film, The Address is set for a 2014 release.
• According to a 2017 piece in The New Yorker, He and his company, Florentine Films, have selected topics for documentaries slated for release by 2030. These topics include country music, the Mayo Clinic, Muhammad Ali, Ernest Hemingway, the American Revolution, Lyndon B. Johnson, Barack Obama, Winston Churchill, the American criminal justice system, and African-American history from the Civil War to the Great Migration.

Source: @zimbio

How much is Ken Burns worth?

Being a filmmaker, Ken earns a decent amount of money and salary from his profession in the field of the entertainment industry. Based on some online reports, her estimated net worth said to be $2 million at present. However, his salary and assets details are yet to be disclosed.

How tall is Ken Burns?

Observing his body statistics, Ken stands a height of 5 feet 9 inches and weighs around 75 Kg. Similarly, he has a pair of hazel eyes and black hair color. Further, her other body information is yet to be disclosed. In the case of disclosed, we will let you know.