Ken Burns

Director · Born July 29, 1953 · Brooklyn, New York, USA

Biography

Ken Burns (born 1953) is a highly celebrated American documentarian who gradually amassed a considerable reputation and a devoted audience with a series of reassuringly traditional meditations on Americana. Burns' works are treasure troves of archival materials; he skillfully utilizes period music and footage, photographs, periodicals and ordinary people's correspondence, the latter often movingly read by seasoned professional actors in a deliberate attempt to get away from a "Great Man" approach to history. Like most non-fiction filmmakers, Burns wears many hats on his projects, often serving as writer, cinematographer, editor and music director in addition to producing and directing. He achieved his apotheosis with The Civil War (1990), a phenomenally popular 11-hour documentary that won two Emmys and broke all previous ratings records for public TV. The series' companion coffee table book--priced at a hefty $50--sold more than 700,000 copies. The audio version, narrated by Burns, was also a major best-seller. In the final accounting, "The Civil War" became the first documentary to gross over $100 million. Not surprisingly, it has become perennial fund-raising programming for public TV stations around the country. Burns arrived upon the scene with the Oscar-nominated Brooklyn Bridge (1981), a nostalgic chronicle of the construction of the fabled edifice. The film was more widely seen when rebroadcast on PBS the following year. Though Burns has made other nonfiction films for theatrical release, notably an acclaimed and ambiguous portrait of Depression-era Louisiana governor Huey Long (1985), PBS would prove to be his true home. He cast a probing eye on such American subjects as The Statue of Liberty (1985), The Congress (1988) (PBS), painter Thomas Hart Benton (1988) (PBS) and early radio with Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991) (PBS). Burns returned to long-form documentary with his most ambitious project to date, an 18-hour history of Baseball (1994), which aired on PBS in the fall of 1994. He approached the national pastime as a template for understanding changes in modern American society. Ironically, this was the only baseball on the air at the time, as the players and owners were embroiled in a bitter strike.

Directed 45

2020s

2026
Henry David Thoreau
Director
2025
The American Revolution
Director
77
2024
Leonardo da Vinci
Director
2023
The American Buffalo
Director
2022
The U.S. and the Holocaust
Director
87
Benjamin Franklin
Director
2021
Muhammad Ali
Director
De la poussière et des hommes
Director
Hemingway
Director

2010s

2019
Country Music
Director
85
2018
The Mayo Clinic
Director
2017
The Vietnam War
Director
88
2016
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
Director
78
Jackie Robinson
Director
2014
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
Director
The Address
Director
2013
Yosemite — A Gathering of Spirit
Director
After the Central Park Five
Director
2012
The Dust Bowl
Director
The Central Park Five
Director
2011
Prohibition
Director
2010
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
Director
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
Director
Seeing, Searching, Being: William Segal
Director

2000s

2009
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Director
84
2007
The War
Director
2005
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Director
2004
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Director
2003
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
Director
2002
Mark Twain
Director
Mark Twain
Director
2001
Jazz
Director
83

1990s

1999
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
Director
1998
Frank Lloyd Wright
Director
1997
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Director
Thomas Jefferson
Director
1994
Baseball
Director
87
1991
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Director
1990
The Civil War
Director
87

1980s

1989
Thomas Hart Benton
Director
The Congress
Director
1985
The Statue of Liberty
Director
72
Huey Long
Director
1984
The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God
Director
1981
Brooklyn Bridge
Director

Produced 43

2020s

2026
Crime and Punishment in America
Executive Producer
Henry David Thoreau
Producer
Henry David Thoreau
Producer
2025
The American Revolution
Producer
77
2024
Leonardo da Vinci
Executive Producer
2023
Homecoming
Executive Producer
The American Buffalo
Producer, Executive Producer
2022
The U.S. and the Holocaust
Producer
87
Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness
Executive Producer
Benjamin Franklin
Producer
2021
Muhammad Ali
Executive Producer
Hemingway
Producer
2020
The Gene: An Intimate History
Producer
East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story
Producer, Executive Producer

2010s

2019
College Behind Bars
Executive Producer
Country Music
Executive Producer
85
2018
The Mayo Clinic
Executive Producer
2017
Walden
Executive Producer
The Vietnam War
Producer, Executive Producer
88
2016
Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
Executive Producer
78
2015
Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies
Producer
2013
Yosemite — A Gathering of Spirit
Executive Producer
2012
The Dust Bowl
Producer
The Central Park Five
Producer
2011
Prohibition
Executive Producer, Producer
2010
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
Producer, Executive Producer

2000s

2009
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Producer
84
2007
The War
Executive Producer
2005
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Producer
2002
Mark Twain
Producer
2001
Jazz
Producer
83

1990s

1999
Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony
Producer
1998
Frank Lloyd Wright
Producer
1997
Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Producer
1996
The West
Executive Producer
1994
Baseball
Producer, Executive Producer
87
1991
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Producer, Executive Producer
1990
Lindbergh
Producer
The Civil War
Executive Producer
87