Who

The heartthrob director and actor is also the lucky husband of supermodel Christy Turlington.

Backstory

Ed Burns was working as a gofer at Entertainment Tonight when he wrote and directed The Brothers McMullen, the story of an Irish-Catholic family on Long Island, at his parents' home for $20,000. Legend has it that after slipping a copy of the film to ET guest Robert Redford, Burns landed a spot at Sundance and ended up walking away with the top prize in 1995. (Burns has since said that it's unlikely Robert Redford actually watched the tape he gave him since his Sundance invite came nearly a year later, but the story's more amusing that way.) The win made Burns an indie sensation and he followed up a year later with She's the One, starring Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, and, naturally, Burns himself.

In the late 1990s, Burns used his newfound fame to focus on his acting career, and had parts in big-budget flicks like Saving Private Ryan and the 2001 crime drama 15 Minutes alongside Robert De Niro. Burns now divides his time between acting gigs that pay the bills (he calls acting his "hobby" or "night job"), and writing/directing/appearing in the chat-driven, New York-centric comedies about beer-drinking dudes that made him famous. Alas, his most recent films haven't attracted as much attention as his earlier efforts, quite likely because they all seem to retread the same ground. In 2006, he released The Groomsmen with John Leguizamo, Jay Mohr, and Brittany Murphy. His latest, 2007's Purple Violets, starred Selma Blair and Debra Messing and earned the distinction of being the first film to premiere on iTunes.

Personal

Burns dated Lauren Holly and Heather Graham before marrying supermodel Christy Turlington in 2003. The couple has two kids, Finn and Grace. They live in the Tribeca loft that was home to JFK Jr. prior to his death in 1999. Burns bought it a year after the plane crash for approximately $2.5 million.

Off hours

In 2006 Burns formed a classic rock band called the Blue Jackets, which provided music for The Groomsmen soundtrack. The band occasionally performs around town and Burns has directed several of its music videos.