Edwin J. Burke is an Immortal Lamb.
Burke was born on August, 30 1889, in Albany, New York. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. In 1910 he began his acting career with a local Shakespearean company. Burke was elected to The Lambs in 1924 as a Professional member.
He worked as a stage director for a traveling stock company. After running out of money during the 1919 Actors’ Strike, Burke decided to see if he could make a living writing for vaudeville. Over the next ten years or so he wrote over 250 one-act plays and skits. Hollywood called in 1928 after the success of his first full-length play This Thing Called Love (adapted for the screen in 1929 and again in 1940).
After working as a writer and director on many successful films, including Bad Girl (1931) for which he won an Academy Award. Burke left Hollywood in 1935 and retired to High Bridge, New Jersey.
Edwin J. Burke passed away after a short illness at New York on September 26, 1944. Not long before his death he had been working with Winfield R. Sheehan on Captain Eddie (1945), a film based on the life of Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker.
Burke helped finance the building of a theater in The Lambs 44th Street clubhouse. He was named an Immortal Lamb after his death. In 2014, his nephew brought Burke’s Academy Award to display in the Lambs’ clubhouse.