Ken Burns

Date of Birth: July 29, 1953

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Biography

Ken Burns, born Kenneth Lauren Burns, is a highly esteemed American director and producer of documentary films, known for his distinctive style of using archival footage and photographs. He was born on July 29, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. Burns is best recognized for his extensive body of work that chronicles American history and culture, including notable documentaries such as “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “Jazz,” “The War,” “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” and “The Vietnam War.” Burns grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his father was a cultural anthropologist, and his mother, who died of breast cancer when he was 11, was a biotechnician. His interest in filmmaking began in his teenage years, and he attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he studied under documentary filmmaker Jerome Liebling. After graduating in 1975, Burns co-founded Florentine Films with his college friends, which became the production company through which he would create his most famous works. Burns’s documentaries are known for their in-depth research, compelling storytelling, and innovative techniques, such as the “Ken Burns effect,” which involves panning and zooming on still photographs. His work has earned him numerous awards, including multiple Emmy Awards and nominations, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

5 Interesting Facts about Ken Burns

1. Ken Burns’s documentary “The Civil War” is one of the most-watched programs in American public television history.

2. He has received over 30 honorary degrees from various universities and colleges.

3. The “Ken Burns effect” is a popular technique in video editing software, named after him due to his frequent use of the technique in his documentaries.

4. In 2008, Ken Burns was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

5. Burns’s documentary “The Vietnam War” took over ten years to complete and involved extensive interviews with participants from all sides of the conflict.

5 Most Interesting Quotes from Ken Burns

1. “I think we are a country of many different voices, and we take our strength from that diversity.”

2. “The past often isn’t the way we like to think it was.”

3. “History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions.”

4. “Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of that anchoring in our own humanity.”

5. “I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama.”

Highest Net Worth Achieved

Ken Burns’s highest net worth achieved is estimated to be around $1.5 million.

Children

Ken Burns has two daughters with his first wife, Amy Stechler: Sarah Burns and Lily Burns. He also has two daughters with his second wife, Julie Deborah Brown: Olivia Burns and Willa Burns.