Triple crown-winning (Academy Award, Primetime Emmy, and Tony Award) actress Ellen Burstyn will reprise her role as Chris MacNeil in the 2023 sequel to The Exorcist, The Exorcist: Believer — alongside Good Girls‘ Lidya Jewitt, Ann Dowd, and Leslie Odom Jr. on October 6. But what else can we catch the veteran actress in? Over her decades-long career, Burstyn has starred in dozens of films. We present to you our agreed-upon 10 best.
The Exorcist
In The Exorcist, Burstyn plays a successful actress who must turn to the church after exhausting all other resources when her 12-year-old daughter becomes possessed by a demon.
Burstyn famously went above and beyond for the role when she was actually seriously injured in a particularly gnarly scene where she was thrown across the room by the demon.
Same Time, Next Year
Burstyn plays Doris — a housewife and mother from Oakland, California — who meets family man George (played by Alan Alda) at a bed and breakfast. The two begin an affair and agree to meet there every year. What follows is a chronicle of the political upheavals, societal changes, and personal growth of these two main characters as they invariably come to terms with their rapidly changing concept of an America divided by war, civil discourse, and the morphing of gender roles.
Requiem for a Dream
Never before have we seen such an intimate, biting portrait of drug addiction from such alternate perspectives. Harry (Jared Leto), his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), and girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) are heroine addicts looking to stop using and get into business for themselves as respectable drug dealers. The whole operation — held together with Scotch tape and Elmer’s glue — unsurprisingly goes awry when Marion and Harry can’t seem to avoid dipping into the cookie jar.
Burstyn plays Harry’s widowed mother, Sarah, whose own fragile existence is disrupted by a phone call to be a contestant on her favorite TV game show. The prospect of being seen by all of America consumes her, as does the need to fit into the dress she wore to Harry’s graduation. Thus begins a desperate spiral of prescribed diet drugs that send Sarah down the dangerous path of barbiturates, amphetamines, and a killer fridge.
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
In the film later adapted to a TV series, Burstyn plays Alice Hyatt, a recently-widowed young mother who must go back to work to support her self and her young son, Tommy. The only work she can find is as at a diner in Tucson, Arizona, where they put down roots and attempt to make a life for themselves as Alice forges friendships with her fellow waitresses and hesitantly tries again for romance.
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore also stars Kris Kristofferson, Harvey Keitel, and Jodie Foster.
Resurrection
In Resurrection, Burstyn plays Edna Mae McCauley, a woman who suddenly develops the ability to heal people after a near-fatal car accident. In the course of trying to understand her newfound powers, she falls in love with one of her patients, farmer Cal Carpenter (Sam Shepard), who is so overwhelmed by Edna’s healing abilities that he attempts to kill her. After he is incarcerated, we see that Edna left her small town and faded into obscurity, and now runs a gas station where she continues to heal when the opportunity arises.
Another Happy Day
A maddening tale of family ties and faltering mental health, Sam Levinson’s Another Happy Day stars Ellen Barkin as Lynn Hellman – a woman preparing to attend her estranged son’s wedding. Burstyn plays her mother — Doris Baker — a woman seemingly in cahoots with the devil to try the patience of long-suffering Lynn. There are comedic moments with the family, as well as harrowing ones, as we watch the feckless crabs in a bucket attempt to sort out their misgivings, misquotes, and misery, and Lynn maintains her own sanity by fits and starts.
Mrs. Harris (2005)
Annette Bening plays Jean Harris — the titular Mrs. Harris — who shoots and kills her fiancé, Herman Tarnower, after he breaks off their engagement. Burstyn plays Tarnower’s ex-girlfriend, for which she was nominated for an Emmy, even though she received exactly 4 minutes of screen time. The debacle that ensued among the nominating committee resulted in an adjustment in the nomination process implemented the following year.
The Wicker Man (2009)
Nicolas Cage portrays Edward Malus, a policeman summoned by his ex-love to an island off the coast of Washington State to help find her missing daughter. Burstyn is Sister Summersisle, the matriarch of a pagan society of women. A bizarre tale frequently compared to Ari Aster’s Midsommar — or I should say, Midsommar is derivative of Wicker Man — Wicker Man turns out be yet another vehicle to showcase the unique talents of the inimitable Cage.
The King of Marvin Gardens (1972)
Ne’er-do-well Jason (Bruce Dern) convinces his brother, David (Jack Nicholson) to leave their hometown of Philadelphia to join him in Atlantic City with the promise of making a fortune for themselves. David arrives to find Jason living in a hotel with sex worker Sally (Ellen Burstyn) and her stepdaughter, Jessica (Julia Anne Robinson). Unstable Sally ends up being the antagonist of the tale and Burstyn delivers a meaty performance.
The Last Picture Show (1971)
The central character of The Last Picture Show, young Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) bumps around his small Texas town, trying to learn his way around life, women, and a semblance of anything vaguely resembling a future for himself after high school.
Nominated for an Oscar for her turn as Lois Farrow — mother of town beauty Jacy (Cybill Shepherd) — Burstyn was originally offered the role of Ruth Popper, but she turned it down. So the part went to funny girl Cloris Leachman. Both women were nominated for their roles, but critics presupposed Burstyn for the win. Leachman actually took home the statue, not a hard sell when you consider the success of the Mary Tyler Moore Show which was enjoying a phenomenal level of success when The Last Picture Show released.