Kenneth Lauren Burns was born on the 29th July 1953, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, and is a film director and producer, probably best recognized for directing and producing documentary films, such as “The Civil War” (1990), “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” (2009), “Prohibition” (2011) and “The Roosevelts” (2014). He has been an active member of the film industry since 1981.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Ken Burns is? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the total size of Ken’s net worth is over $1.5 million as of mid-2016. Most of his income is the result of his successful involvement in the entertainment industry as a filmmaker – director and producer.
Ken Burns Net Worth $1.5 Million
Ken Burns was born to Robert Kyle Burns, who worked as a cultural anthropologist, and Lyla Smith Burns, who was a bio-technical worker; his brother is Ric Burns, who works also as a filmmaker of the documentary films. His family moved frequently, so he spent his childhood in France, and Ann Arbor among other places, where his father worked as a professor. Bright and talented he carried his love for making movies through his high school years, when he received a movie camera for his 17th birthday. Upon matriculation from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor in 1971, he enrolled at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts; some of his professors were photographers Elaine Mayes and Jerome Liebling. He graduated with a BA degree in Film Studies and Design in 1975.
Subsequently, his professional career began when Ken founded the production company Florentine Films in 1975, together with Elaine Mayes classmate Robert Sherman, based in Walpole, New Hampshire. Since then, his career has gone only upwards, and so has his net worth, as well as popularity. Parallel with working at his own company, Ken has worked as a cinematographer for numerous television channels, including the BBC channel, Italian television, and others.
In 1977, Ken began working on his first documentary film – “Brooklyn Bridge” – which was an adaptation of a book named “The Great Bridge”, by David McCullough. The film was released in 1981, and was nominated for an Academy Award in the category for Best Documentary, increasing his net worth by a large margin. The film was followed by other documentaries, such as “The Shakers: Hands To Work, Hearts To God” (1984), and “The Statue Of Liberty” (1985), which was also nominated for Oscar.
At the beginning of the next decade he created the documentary miniseries “The Civil War”, based on the American Civil War, which achieved huge ratings. His next big work was the TV series “Baseball” (1994), for which he won an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Informational Series. Two years later, he was the executive producer of the film “The West”, directed by Stephen Ives, which also contributed a lot to his net worth.
Furthermore, he also won an Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Non-fiction Series, for directing and producing his next film “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”. Most recently, he has created such films as “The Dust Bowl”, and “The Central Park Five”, both released in 2012, and “The Roosevelts” (2014), and “Cancer: The Emperor Of All Maladies” (2016). “The Vietnam War” will be released in 2017, and will likely further increase his net worth.
Speaking about his personal life, Ken Burns has been married to Julie Deborah Brown since 2003; the couple has two daughters. Previously, he was married to Amy Stechler (1982-1993), with whom he also has two daughters. His current residence is in Walpole, New Hampshire.
