Burns, Catherine Lloyd 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born April 19, 1961, in New York, NY; daughter of Red Burns (worked in entertainment industry); married (divorced); married Adam Forgash (a writer and producer); children: (first marriage) a daughter. Education: Attended college.

CAREER:

Actor, writer, and screenwriter. Former head of interactive telecommunications department at New York University, New York, NY. Actor in films, including The Night We Never Met, 1993; Michael, 1996; Jane Austen's Mafia!, 1998; Pushing Tin, 1999; Everything Put Together, 2000; Keeping the Faith, 2000; Disposal, 2003; The Baxter, 2005; and The Last New Yorker, 2006. Television acting appearances include television films Dad, the Angel & Me, 1995, and The Second Civil War, 1997, and television series Law&Order, 1991; Party of Five, 1994; All-American Girl, 1994; Maybe this Time, 1995; Partners, 1995; The Single Guy, 1996; Public Morals, 1996; Ned and Stacey, 1997; Lateline, 1998; and Malcolm in the Middle, 2000-2001. Stage appearances include The Dinner Party, Paper Mill Playhouse, 2002, Winter Shorts, Takes on Women/Take One, A Suffering Colonel, and Chelsea Walls, all Naked Angels Theater Company; and in The Heartsick Pioneer, Losing Father's Body, Generation X, and More Naked at the Coast.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Dramalogue Award, for performance in play More Naked at the Coast.

WRITINGS:

(With Adam Forgash and Marc Forster) Everything Put Together (screenplay), Moonstone, 2000.

It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks: A Memoir of a Mother and Daughter, North Point Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Catherine Lloyd Burns is an actor whose first book, It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks: A Memoir of a Mother and Daughter, explores the author's relationship with her mother, beginning with the years immediately after her father's death when Burns was only nine years old. In the eyes of the author, her mother showed little sympathy or patience with Burns after her father died, even going so far as to instruct her daughter not to use her father's death as a way to get attention or manipulate people. Soon Burns found herself estranged from her mother and living with older stepsiblings and then in boarding schools. The author recounts her life in college and her experiences with sex and drugs, as well as her flirtation with suicide. After a marriage, the birth of a daughter, and then divorce, Burns eventually reconciles with her mother. "The full circle of the maternal bond is what makes this memoir satisfying," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Leah Greenblatt, writing in Entertainment Weekly, noted that the author's "vignettes are wry and touchingly authentic." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: "Nicely mingling wit and wisdom, … Burns crafts a memoir about being a daughter, becoming a mother and coming to terms with the gap between what you want and what you get." In a review in Booklist, Whitney Scott commented that the author "recounts with gut-twisting authenticity the love-hate relationship."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Burns, Catherine Lloyd, It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks: A Memoir of a Mother and Daughter, North Point Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 56, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2004.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2006, Whitney Scott, review of It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks, p. 12.

Entertainment Weekly, April 21, 2006, Leah Greenblatt, review of It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks, p. 77.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2006, review of It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks, p. 217.

Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2006, review of It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks, p. 52; February 13, 2006, Hilary S. Kayle, "Do Mom and Dad Know Best?," includes mention of It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks, p. 54.