Jere Burns' Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Max Headroom Breughel Surviving Suburbia Dr. Jim Help Me Help You Michael Dear John Kirk Morris Good Morning, Miami Frank Alfano Bob Pete Schmidt

Main Movie Roles 2008 - Otis 2001 - Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles 1998 - My Giant 1994 - Greedy 1986 - Let's Get Harry

BIOGRAPHY:

Probably most well-known for his roles "Kirk Morris" and "Jack Farrell", with his sharp, raspy nasal voice, sneering smile and fierce look, Jere Burns has made himself really an actor to watch. He was drawn to acting late in college. After graduating, he re-established himself in New York and landed the title role of "Don Juan" at the New York Shakespeare Festival. He made his official TV debut in a small role in the ABC Afterschool Special _Mom's on Strike (1984) (TV)_. He got memorable recurring roles as felons, like the pathological rapist "James Fitzsimmons" in several episodes of the NBC drama series "Hill Street Blues" (1981) and body collector "Breugel" on "Max Headroom" (1987). By 1988, he broke through and the landed plum role of "Kirk Morris", the mucho-sleazo member of the "One-Two-One" club on "Dear John" (1988), a remake of the hit British sitcom. That role brought him instant recognition. He got cast in many similar roles after that. In 1993, CBS gave him the role (another Kirk Morris-like) of "Arnan Rothman" in Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001), the villainous "Cade Dalton" in the NBC miniseries The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991) (TV), and as a member of the loud, bickering, feuding family in Greedy (1994) and, in 1993, he was brought in as the hateful "Pete Schmidt", the vice president of sales, for the last season of "Bob" (1992). This Bob Newhart series was a huge flop, despite Newhart's winning track-record and Burns' strong performance (probably because Bob played an angry, cynical and short-tempered grump, which wasn't what he was so famous and loved for). Burns has played other Kirk-esque roles, but despite his track record of playing pure scum, he managed to get a different part in "Something So Right" (1996) as "Jack Farrell". Jere Burns still plays the most self-deconstructing and humbling role of his career to date (somewhat akin to his "Something So Right"), as the neurotic, nervous, self-humiliating "Frank Alfonse" on "Good Morning, Miami" (2002).


TRIVIA:

• Worked as a cabdriver in Boston and as a lifeguard on Cape Cod, MA, during a two-year hiatus between high school and college.
• Attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass. (BA in Literature), as well as Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, New York, NY.
• Has three children.
• Ex-son-in-law of 'Abby Dalton' (qv).
• Is a fanatic of extreme skiing, wakeboarding and surfing.
• Plays mostly characters akin to his "Kirk Morris" from _"Dear John" (1988)_ (qv) loud, obnoxious, sarcastic, smarmy, overbearing and villainous antagonists.
• Has run in marathons and competed in triathlons.
• Saved a heart-attack victim's life using CPR at an Encino, CA restaurant in 1997.