Burt Kearns

Last updated
Burt Kearns
NationalityAmerican
Alma materFairfield University
Occupations
  • author
  • writer
  • film director
  • journalist
  • television and film producer

Burt Kearns is an American author, journalist, and television and film producer, writer and director, whom Donald Liebenson of Vanity Fair referred to as a "show business and pop culture [savant]." [1]

Contents

Kearns's first book, the television memoir Tabloid Baby , was published in 1999. [2] The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, which he wrote with Jeff Abraham, was published in 2019. [3] His biography of actor Lawrence Tierney, [4] Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy , was published in December, 2022 by the University Press of Kentucky. [5] [6] Applause Theatre & Cinema Books published Kearns’ book, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel , [7] [8] on April 2, 2024. [9] Kearns's book, Shemp! The Biography of the Three Stooges' Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy, was published on October 1, 2024, also by Applause. [10] [11]

In 2018, he became a contributor to the literary pop culture website, PleaseKillMe.com. [12] In December 2021, he began to contribute written and video pieces to Legs McNeil’s literary pop culture website, Legsville.com. [13]

Television and film production

Writer and producer

Kearns produced, cowrote and edited the 2025 documentary film, Pusherman: Frank Lucas and the True Story of American Gangster, [14] [15] [16] directed by Legs McNeil. He was a creator and executive producer of Breaking the Ice, a docuseries following the first diverse, competitive synchronized ice skating team. [17] [18] The series premiered on WE tv in 2023 and streams on AMC's ALLBLK platform. [19]

He appeared on-camera in, and was an executive producer of, the Reelz nonfiction special program, Kardashian: The Man Who Saved OJ Simpson. [20] He was executive producer of the Reelz nonfiction special El Chapo & Sean Penn: Bungle In The Jungle. [21] Kearns was also director, writer and executive producer of Hollywood Animal Crusaders for Animal Planet [22] and co-producer of the HBO documentary Panic. [23] He was producer of the Fox Television special, When Good Pets Go Bad 2, [24] and the syndicated series, Strange Universe . [25]

Independent features and Good Story Productions

Kearns produced the nonfiction film comedy High There . [26] [27] Kearns directed the nonfiction film, El Viaje Musical de Ezekiel Montanez: The Chris Montez Story, which opened on August 15, 2009 at the 35th annual The Fest For Beatles Fans in Chicago. [28] High There and the Montez film were produced through his Good Story Productions production company. [29]

Frozen Pictures

In 2000, Kearns formed the production company Frozen Television (later Frozen Pictures) with producer Brett Hudson. [30] Kearns was an executive producer on All the Presidents' Movies for Bravo [31] and The Secret History of Rock ’n’ Roll with Gene Simmons [32] and Adults Only: The Secret History of The Other Hollywood for Court TV. [33]

With Hudson and Albert S. Ruddy, Kearns wrote and produced the 2006 Twentieth Century-Fox film, Cloud 9 , [34] starring Burt Reynolds, which was a joint production of Frozen and The Ruddy Morgan Organization. [35]

The Seventh Python movie poster.jpg

He directed and produced the 2008 documentary musical film, The Seventh Python , about the career and influence of Monty Python collaborator and Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes, [36] and directed and produced Basketball Man, the 2007 Frozen Pictures documentary film that featured interviews telling the story of the game's inventor, James Naismith. [37] [ non-primary source needed ] [38] The film was released on DVD on May 8, 2007. [38]

Kearns founded the website, Saintmychal.com, that chronicled and promoted the canonization of 9/11 victim Mychal Judge. [39] [40] [41]

Early career

After graduation from Fairfield University, [42] Kearns worked as a reporter and editor for the Acorn Press, a chain of newspapers in southern Connecticut and Westchester, New York. He then moved to Manhattan, where he was hired on the assignment desk, and went on to become a writer and show producer at WNEW-TV's 10 O'Clock News. Kearns also wrote for CBS News' Nightwatch and CBS Morning News and later became a newswriter and producer for WNBC-TV's News 4 New York and producer of the eleven o’clock newscast. [42] He also freelanced as a writer for Spin magazine. [43] [44] [45]

Kearns joined the show A Current Affair in 1988. [46] In fall of 1990, Kearns moved on to the rival show Hard Copy , as managing editor and producer. [47] In 1994, he was senior producer of Premier Story. [48] Kearns (and his coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall) was included in Maury Povich's 1991 memoir, Current Affairs: A Life on the Edge. [49]

Kearns left tabloid television and began writing Tabloid Baby in 1996. A combination memoir and exposé, the book was published in November 1999 by Hambleton-Hill's Celebrity Books imprint. [46]

Awards

References

  1. Liebenson, Donald (4 September 2019). "Killer Set: The Strange History of Performers Dying Onstage". Vanity Fair .
  2. Tabloidbaby (2010-12-19). "tabloid baby: Buy, bye". tabloid baby. Retrieved 2016-04-09.[ non-primary source needed ]
  3. "'Show Won't Go On': Book Compiles Performers Who Died Onstage". NPR.org.
  4. "Home". lawrencetierneybook.com.
  5. "Book About Late Actor and Notorious Bad Guy Lawrence Tierney Set from Writer-Producer Burt Kearns". The Hollywood Reporter . 9 June 2021.
  6. "Lawrence Tierney Bio Etches Vivid Portrait of Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy | Features | Roger Ebert". 27 November 2022.
  7. Vognar, Chris (2024-03-27). "The photo that wrapped Marlon Brando's homoerotic swagger in a tight leather jacket". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  8. "Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel =March 29, 2024". Library Journal. Archived from the original on April 18, 2024. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  9. Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel. Archived from the original on 19 May 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2023 via rowman.com.
  10. Shemp! The Biography of the Three Stooges' Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy . Retrieved 4 February 2024 via rowman.com.
  11. "A neglected Marx Brother and an unsung Stooge finally get their due =October 18, 2024". The Washington Post.
  12. "Search for "burt kearns"". PleaseKillMe. 28 March 2018.
  13. "You searched for burt kearns".
  14. "DVD Review: Pusherman – Frank Lucas & the True Story of American Gangster". 26 June 2025.
  15. "'Pusherman' Director Legs McNeil Reveals the Real Story of 'American Gangster' Frank Lucas". The Hollywood Reporter . 24 June 2025.
  16. Moseley, Eunice (2025-07-09). "The Pulse of Entertainment: Legs McNeil Releases 'Pusherman: Frank Lucas and The True Story of American Gangsta'". EURweb. Retrieved 2025-08-06.
  17. Grodeska, J. F. (25 July 2023). "Groundbreaking Docuseries With Jersey Shore Roots". Jersey Shore Scene. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  18. Pendleton, Tonya (2023-04-28). "'Breaking the Ice' docuseries on diverse ice skating team comes to We TV in July". UPI. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  19. "Breaking News - WE tv Greenlights Ice Skating Docuseries "Breaking the Ice"". thefutoncritic.com via press release from AMC Networks. 2023-04-27. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  20. Sorokach, Josh (June 12, 2017). "Did You Know There's A New O.J. Simpson Documentary On Netflix?". Decider.com.
  21. Galloway, Stephen (9 March 2016). "The Strange, Ongoing Saga of Sean Penn, el Chapo and Who Was (And Wasn't) Making a Movie". The Hollywood Reporter .
  22. "Burt Kearns".
  23. "Bad Boy TV".
  24. "Steve Dunleavy and the Rise of Tabloid TV". The New York Observer . 6 December 1999.
  25. https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/kearns-burt-6018/ Executive Producer of Strange Universe is Art Bell's guest
  26. Diaz, Dave. "High There". Anchorage Press. Archived from the original on 2016-02-10. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  27. "An Interview with Burt Kearns, Producer - High There - The Documentary Dude". The Documentary Dude. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  28. Tabloidbaby (2009-08-16). "tabloid baby: The more they saw Chris Montez at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago, the more they wanted to call him". tabloid baby. Retrieved 2016-04-09.[ non-primary source needed ]
  29. "Welcome". Good Story Productions. Archived from the original on 2016-04-01. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  30. "Frozen Pictures to Bring Beach Volley-Ball to the Small Screen". 28 September 2004.
  31. Kumar, Martha Joynt (2007). "A Review of: "All the Presidents' Movies, executive producers, Bill Knoedelseder, Burt Kearns, Brett Hudson, and Irv Letofsky"" . Political Communication. 24: 99–104. doi:10.1080/10584600600977102. S2CID   146325033.
  32. "Unmasked Gene Simmons Lifts Curtain on Rock". ABC News .
  33. "Adults Only: The Secret History of the Other Hollywood (2001) - Cast & Crew on MUBI".
  34. https://www.newspapers.com/image/599892156/?match=1&terms=burt%20reynolds%20cloud%209 [ bare URL ]
  35. "Bibliograph".
  36. "LAist Movie Review: The Seventh Python". 27 June 2008.
  37. goodstory (2006-10-30), Red Auerbach's last interview (from 'Basketball Man'), archived from the original on 2021-12-13, retrieved 2016-04-09
  38. 1 2 "Basketball Man - Movie".
  39. "Ocala Star-Banner - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  40. Wakin, Daniel J. (2002-09-27). "Killed on 9/11, Fire Chaplain Becomes Larger Than Life". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  41. "The making of St. Mychal". USA Today. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  42. 1 2 "Burt Kearns: Tabloid TV Revolution" (PDF). www.fairfield.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  43. SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. 1988-09-01.
  44. SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. 1988-11-01.
  45. SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. 1989-03-01.
  46. 1 2 Elder, Sean (1999-12-08). "Tabloid nation". www.salon.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2000. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  47. Rader, Peter (2012-04-13). Mike Wallace: A Life. Macmillan. p. 239. ISBN   9781466802254.
  48. "Burt Kearns". www.lukeford.net. Retrieved 2016-04-09.[ self-published source ]
  49. Povich, Maury (1992-01-01). Current Affairs: A Life on the Edge. Berkley Books. ISBN   9780425132449.
  50. Team, The Good Story (September 24, 2014). "Good Story News: Emmy anniversary".