Robert John Burke (born September 12, 1955 in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York), is an American actor. Burke is a first generation Irish-American, and attended the acting conservatory of the State University of New York at Purchase in the mid eighties.
Burke has had recurring roles on Law & Order, appeared on The Sopranos in 2004, and is currently with the cast of Denis Leary's Rescue Me. Burke was working on the TV series Kidnapped for NBC , and is currently a featured character on ABC's series Six Degrees.
Burke's largest mainstream role to date has been taking over the lead from Peter Weller in Robocop 3.
He is notable for being a regular performer in fellow Purchase alum Hal Hartley's indie films, co-starring in 1989's The Unbelievable Truth (see photo), playing an ex-con who gets mixed up with a schoolgirl; 1992's Simple Men, playing a man who, having sworn to destroy the first woman he meets, falls in love with the owner of a diner in the middle of nowhere; and 2001's No Such Thing, in which he plays a foul-mouthed mythical beast living in Iceland. He also cameoed in Hartley's 1995 film Flirt.
In 1996, he played the lead role in the critically acclaimed Stephen King adaptation Thinner. More recently, 2005 was a big year for Burke; having a small, yet memorable role in the John Polson film Hide and Seek, a psychological thriller, starring Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning. He also made cameo appearances in the Academy Award-nominated films Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, and Good Night, and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney.
