Robert John Burke Biography

Robert John Burke (born September 12, 1960) is an American actor.

Early life and education

Burke was born in New York City, the son of immigrants from Galway, Ireland. He attended the Acting Conservatory at SUNY Purchase in the mid-1980s.

Career

Burke was a castmember on Denis Leary's Rescue Me and plays Bart Bass on The CW's Gossip Girl. He was working on the TV series Kidnapped for NBC and was a featured character on ABC's series Six Degrees. Burke has also had recurring roles on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (where he has the recurring role of NYPD Internal Affairs lieutenant Ed Tucker, a frequent nemesis for the SVU detective squad), Person of Interest (as a crooked cop working for the mob) and appeared on The Sopranos in 2004. He was also on Sex and the City in seasons four and five playing Miranda's hookup. Also, in 2004 Burke played the role of Mr. Neck in the independent film Speak.

Burke's largest mainstream role to date has been taking over the lead from Peter Weller in RoboCop 3. He is notable for being a regular performer in fellow Purchase alum Hal Hartley's indie films, such as 1989's The Unbelievable Truth and 1992's Simple Men. He also had a small role in Hartley's 1995 film Flirt.

He starred in Richard Stanley's 1993 film Dust Devil, and in 2001's No Such Thing, in which he plays a foul-mouthed mythical beast living in Iceland. In 1996, he played the lead role in the Stephen King adaptation Thinner. More recently, 2005 was a big year for Burke, having had a small yet memorable role in the John Polson film Hide and Seek, a psychological thriller starring Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning. He also had small roles in the Academy Award-nominated films Munich directed by Steven Spielberg and Good Night, and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney.

In 2008, he portrayed Major General James Mattis, Commanding General of 1st Marine Division in the HBO miniseries Generation Kill. Burke also portrayed Gen. Ned Almond, commanding general of the 92nd Div., Buffalo Soldiers, in the 2008 Spike Lee film Miracle at St. Anna. He appeared in the 2012 film Safe.

Personal life

Burke has two children. He spent several days at Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks assisting with the search and rescue. He has since become a New York State certified firefighter. He also recently traveled to New Orleans to assist in the re-building of New Orleans fire houses.

Burke holds a 3rd degree black belt in Matsubayashi Shorin-ryu Okinawan Karate. He has a twin brother, who made a cameo appearance in Richard Stanley's 1993 film Dust Devil, playing his twin.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1981	The Chosen	Levi Saunders	as Robert Burke
1986	Nightmare Weekend	Dave	as Robert Burke
1989	The Unbelievable Truth	Josh	as Robert Burke
1991	Rambling Rose	Dave Wilkie	as Robert Burke
1992	Dust Devil	Dust Devil	as Robert Burke
	Simple Men	Bill McCabe	as Robert Burke
1993	A Far Off Place	Paul Parker	as Robert Burke
	RoboCop 3	RoboCop / Alex J. Murphy	as Robert Burke
	Heaven & Earth	G.I. Paul
	Tombstone	Frank McLaury	as Robert Burke
1995	Flirt	Men's Room Man #	as Robert Burke
	Killer: A Journal of Murder	R.G. Greiser
1996	If Lucy Fell	Handsome Man
	Fled	U.S. Marshal Pat Schiller
	Thinner	Billy Halleck
1997	May day - Flag in den Tod	Tom Hutton	as Robert Burke
	Cop Land	Officer B
	First Love, Last Rites	Henry
1998	Somewhere in the City	Frankie
2001	No Such Thing	Monster
2002	For Earth Below	Automated Bank Voice (voice)	Short film
	State Property	Bob	as Robert Burke
	Confessions of a Dangerous Mind	Inspector Jenks
2003	Tea Time with Roy & Sylvia	Roy	Short film
	Piggie
2004	Speak	Mr. Neck
	Connie and Carla	Rudy
2005	Hide and Seek	Steven
	Good Night, and Good Luck.	Charlie Mack	Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture (shared with cast)
	Munich	Belligerent American
2006	The Oh in Ohio	Binky Taylor
	Jack's Law	Det. Ron Banks
2007	The Ex	Colonel	as Robert Burke; previously titled Fast Track
2008	Miracle at St. Anna	General Ned Almond
2010	Brooklyn's Finest	State Trooper #1
2011	Limitless	Pierce
2012	Safe	Captain Wolf
2013	2 Guns	Jessup
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	The Equalizer	O'Toole	Episode: "Torn"
1995	Crazy for a Kiss	Steve	TV movie
1998	Homicide: Life on the Street	Jeffrey Andrews	Episode: "Abduction"
	From the Earth to the Moon	William Anders	2 episodes
	A Bright Shining Lie	Frank Drummond	TV movie
	Alptraum im Airport	Paul Bacon	as Robert Burke
2000	Falcone	Jules Weller
2002	Witchbalde	Det. Dean Gorner	Episode: "Agape"
	Sex and the City	Walker Lewis	2 episodes
2000-2003	Oz	Special Agent Pierce Taylor	8 episodes
2003	CSI: Miami	FBI Agent Jim Resdon	Episode: "Blood Brothers"
2004	The Sopranos	Officer Zmunda	Episode: "Two Tonys"
1995-2004	Law & Order	Arthur 'Buzz' Palley / FBI Agent Ron Innes / Lt. Colonel Milton Danbury	3 episodes
2006	Six Degrees	David	2 episodes
2006-2007	Kidnapped	Bellows	10 episodes
2007	Queens Supreme	Special Agent Jeff Donaldson	Episode: "Permanent Markers"
2008	Generation Kill	Major General James 'Chaos' Mattis	3 episodes
2010	Blue Bloods	Jyle Hogan	3 episodes
2002-2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	IA Sgt./Lt. Ed Tucher	13 episodes
2011	White Collar	Patrick O'Leary	Episode: "The Dentist of Detroit"
2004-2011	Rescue Me	Mickey Gavin	54 episodes
2012	NYC 22	Deputy Inspector Dennis McClaren	Episode: "Thugs and Lovers"
	Person of Interest	Simmons	4 episodes
	Army Wives	General Kevin Clarke	14 episodes
2007-2012	Gossip Girl	Bart Bass	19 episodes