Burns's professional acting debut occurred in David Susskind's TV production of The Crucible. She made her Broadway debut in 1968 in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, for which she received the Clarence Derwent Award. She also appeared in Operation Sidewinder on Broadway. In 1970 she won the Theatre World Award for her performance in the off-Broadway play Dear Janet Rosenberg, Dear Mr. Kooning. Burns made her screen debut in 1969 in Last Summer as sensitive, conservative Rhoda, receiving critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The role also brought her the 1970 Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other film credits include Me, Natalie and Red Sky at Morning.
Television
Burns's television debut was the role of Mary Warren in Arthur Miller'sThe Crucible. She went on to appear as the original Cathy Craig on One Life to Live in 1969. Her other TV credits include the adaptation of Arthur Miller's play A Memory of Two Mondays, the miniseries The Word, and guest appearances on Love, American Style, Adam-12, Emergency!, The Mod Squad, Police Woman, The Waltons and The Bionic Woman. She continued on television throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, when she turned from acting to writing.
Writing
Her children's book, The Winter Bird, was published by Windmill Books in 1971. Staying behind when other birds go south for the winter, a little bird discovers a new way of life in the unusual world of carousel horses. She also wrote screenplays and stage plays, and sold scripts to the CBSsoap operaGuiding Light in 1989.
Radio
She also was an actress on radio, appearing in 1973 on Mutual's The Zero Hour, hosted by Rod Serling.
In June 1989, Burns married Kenneth Shire. At the time, she lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Later in her life, she and Shire resided in a retirement community in Lynden, Washington. Little is known about Burns' life following her acting career; Shire said that she had resented the publicity and scrutiny from it, saying "She hated the movie ... and most everything that came with it. She wanted to be remembered as a published writer of novels." A 2020 article in The Hollywood Reporter found that, according to Washington state health records, Burns died at age 73 on February 2, 2019, from complications of a fall she had suffered at home, with cirrhosis listed as a contributing factor.
