University at Albany, The State University of New York

Edward Fitzgerald Burns is an American actor, film producer, writer and director. Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Molly , a... federal agency manager, and Edward J. Burns, a public relations spokesman and police officer. He was raised a Roman Catholic. Burns is the second of three children in an Irish American family. He was raised in Valley Stream, New York, on Long Island. He briefly attended Chaminade High School before transferring to Hewlett High School. After high school, Burns attended SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Albany, before earning a degree in English from Hunter College in 1992. Burns got his start in the film industry right after college as a production assistant on the Oliver Stone film, The Doors. While working as a gofer at Entertainment Tonight, he financed, produced, directed and starred in his first film The Brothers McMullen in his spare time, which was largely shot in his hometown of Valley Stream. Once he completed the film, he was able to get a copy to Robert Redford after an ET junket interview for Quiz Show at the Rhiga Royal Hotel in Manhattan.
more

Frank Joseph Whaley is an American film and television actor known for his roles in independent films. Whaley was born in Syracuse, New York, the... son of Josephine and Robert W. Whaley, Sr. He is half-Irish and half-Sicilian and grew up in Syracuse. He has two sisters and an older brother. His father died in the 1990s of health problems related to alcoholism. Whaley graduated from Anthony A. Henninger High School in 1981 and later from University at Albany. In 2001, he married Heather Bucha, an actress and writer, with whom he has two children. They collaborated on the NBC pilot Lloyd of the House, and continue to write together. Whaley made his film debut in 1987's Ironweed, and performed mostly in made-for-TV movies until 1989, when he appeared in Field of Dreams alongside Burt Lancaster and Kevin Costner, and Born on the Fourth of July alongside Tom Cruise. This latter film began a long collaboration with director Oliver Stone, including 1991's The Doors, in which he played Robby Krieger, and, in the same year, JFK, in which he played a conspirator in the JFK assassination.
more