A born-and-bred New Yorker, Robert John Burke made his film debut while in his early 20s with a small part in the drama "The Chosen" (1981), based on the Chaim Potok story. He went on to study acting at SUNY Purchase where he met aspiring filmmaker Hal Hartley, who cast him as one of the leads in hi ... s debut feature "The Unbelievable Truth," an offbeat indie tale where he played a man trying to escape his troubled past. Working with Hartley again on the charming brother-centric dark comedy "Simple Men," Burke caught a major break when Hollywood producers decided that his chiseled jawline was the right one to replace Peter Weller's in the sci-fi/action sequel "RoboCop 3." Despite Burke's efforts, the movie tanked, and he went on to smaller roles in major films, including the lauded Western "Tombstone" (1993) and the prison-break movie "Fled" (1996). Burke landed his second chance in a Hollywood starring role with the Stephen King adaptation "Thinner" (1996), but the macabre tale, which featured him under heavy makeup to depict a callous man who magically loses weight, was deemed almost universally unlikable.Though Burke's leading-man days were mostly behind him, his beastly role in Hartley's "No Such Thing" (2001) aside, he soldiered on, and began increasingly working on television with recurring roles on the grim prison drama "Oz" and the police procedural "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 1999- ). Appearing in George Clooney's first two movies as director, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2002) and "Good Night, and Good Luck." (2005), Burke nonetheless became more familiar to TV audiences, particularly when he signed on to play Mickey Gavin, the ex-priest cousin of Denis Leary's lead character on the firefighter series "Rescue Me," a part that dovetailed with Burke's real-life second job as a New York State fireman.Often cast as a tough guy, the ruggedly handsome and tall actor continued to play imposing figures such as Major General James "Chaos" Mattis in the Iraq War miniseries "Generation Kill" (HBO, 2008) and Bart Bass, the controlling billionaire father of Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) on the soapy drama "Gossip Girl." Before long, he was juggling his ongoing "Law & Order: SVU" part with regular spots on the military drama "Army Wives" (Lifetime, 2007- ) and the tense crime show "Person of Interest" (CBS, 2011- ), while still finding time for supporting turns in films, including the Denzel Washington/Mark Wahlberg action movie "2 Guns" (2013).
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| Organization | Category | Movie | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actor | RoboCop 3 | Nominated |
Rescue Me
as Mickey Gavin
Episodes: 44
First Aired: Jul 21, 2004
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
as Ed Tucker
Episodes: 30
First Aired: Sep 20, 1999
Gossip Girl
as Bart Bass
Episodes: 27
First Aired: Sep 19, 2007
Person of Interest
as Officer Patrick Simmons
Episodes: 16
First Aired: Sep 22, 2011
Kidnapped
as Bellows
Episodes: 13
First Aired: Sep 20, 2006
Allegiance
as Special Agent Brock
Episodes: 8
First Aired: Feb 05, 2015
Project Blue Book
as William Fairchild
Episodes: 7
First Aired: Jan 08, 2019
Blue Bloods
as Jyle Hogan
Episodes: 3
First Aired: Sep 24, 2010
From the Earth to the Moon
as Bill Anders
Episodes: 2
First Aired: Apr 05, 1998
Sex and the City
as Walker Lewis
Episodes: 2
First Aired: Jun 06, 1998
CSI: Miami
as Jim Resdon
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 23, 2002
Oz
as Special Agent Pierce Taylor
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jul 12, 1997
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
as IAB Lieutenant Ed Tucker
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Apr 27, 2014
Law & Order
as Milton Danbury
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 13, 1990
Golden Boy
as Andrew Lightstone
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Feb 26, 2013
White Collar
as Patrick O'Leary
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Oct 23, 2009
Law & Order
as Arthur "Buzz" Palley
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 13, 1990
The Sopranos
as Officer Zmuida
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jan 10, 1999
Law & Order
as Ron Innes
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 13, 1990
Banshee
as Salvatore Ferillo
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jan 11, 2013
Six Degrees
as David
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 21, 2006
The Equalizer
as O'Toole
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Sep 18, 1985
Witchblade
Episodes: 1
First Aired: Jun 12, 2001
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