Best known for his roles "Kirk Morris" and "Jack Farrell," with his
sharp, raspy nasal voice, sneering smile and fierce look, 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
Junge Schicksale (1972)
( Mom's on Strike (1984)). He got memorable recurring roles as felons,
like the pathological rapist "James Fitzsimmons" in several episodes of
the NBC drama series
Polizeirevier Hill Street (1981)
and body collector "Breugel" on
Max Headroom (1987). By 1988, he
broke through and the landed plum role of "Kirk Morris," a member of
the "One-Two-One" club on
Mein lieber 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
Der beste Spieler weit und breit - Sein höchster Einsatz (1991),
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-like roles, but despite his track record of playing pure scum, he
managed to get a different part in
Diesmal für immer (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).
