December 7, 1932. Ellen Burstyn is born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit.

September 6, 1938. Not quite six, Burstyn is sent to a Catholic boarding school, St. Mary's Academy in Windsor, Ontario.

December 21, 1939. Burstyn plays her first public role, as Little Miss Muffett in her school's Christmas pageant.

December 7, 1941. Japan attacks the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, leading to America's entry into World War II. Burstyn hears the news on a car radio on the way to her ninth birthday party.

Spring 1950. Burstyn gets a job as a model for the J. L. Hudson department store in Detroit.

December 7, 1950. Burstyn leaves home on her eighteenth birthday.

August 1951. Burstyn moves to Dallas. She travels on a Greyhound bus "with nothing but a one-way ticket, less than $3 in cash, two suitcases of new clothes, and a whole lot of emotional baggage." With no money left, she gets a job as a model, then works as a dress saleswoman and coordinator of fashion shows.

March 19, 1952. Burstyn arrives in New York City with 45 cents in her bag. She takes a job as a chorus girl in a night club in Montreal.

June 15, 1954. Burstyn meets Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actors Studio. By the fall, she lands her first job on television, in a musical called Satins and Spurs starring Betty Hutton.

1955. Seeking greater insight into herself, Burstyn begins psychotherapy.

1956-1957. Burstyn wins a role on "The Jackie Gleason Show" as one of the girls who lead in to the commercials.

June 1957. Working under the stage name Ellen McRae, Burstyn lands her first part on Broadway as the lead in a play called Fair Game. She has three more name changes to go before becoming Ellen Burstyn.

September 1957. Burstyn divorces her first husband, Bill Alexander.

November 1, 1957. Fair Game opens on Broadway to strong reviews and runs until May 1958.

September 14, 1958. Burstyn is married for the second time, to Paul Roberts, the director of Fair Game.

Spring 1959. Burstyn meets Neil Bernstein (family name originally Burstyn; his stage name at the time: Neil Nephew), a fellow student in Stella Adler's acting class.

August 1960. Burstyn sails to Europe to do a pilot for a television series.

Late 1960. Burstyn reluctantly moves to Los Angeles after her husband is offered a job there as a television producer.

August 31, 1961. Burstyn's adopted son is born on "the happiest day of my [Burstyn's] life."

April 23, 1962. Burstyn and Roberts officially adopt Jefferson Jack Roberts.

June 1962. Divorced from Roberts, Burstyn begins living on her own with her nine-month-old son. Her relationship with Neil Bernstein heats up and moves toward marriage. Through him, she meets Bob Rafelson, who would later direct her in The King of Marvin Gardens.

1963. Burstyn works steadily in television, doing guest shots on "Perry Mason," "The Real McCoys," "Dobie Gillis," and "Kraft Television Theater."

1964. After filming Pit Stop, a racing movie, and For Those Who Think Young, a teenage beach party movie, Burstyn finally gets cast in a big-budget, Hollywood studio movie. Goodbye Charlie stars Debbie Reynolds, Tony Curtis, and Walter Matthau, and is directed by Vincente Minnelli.

Late 1964. Disillusioned with Hollywood, Burstyn returns to New York, where she is married for the third time, to Neil Bernstein, and begins to study Method acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.

1967. Burstyn returns to California so that Neil can take a job as story editor on "The Monkees," created and produced by Bob Rafelson. It is a time of creative and political ferment for Burstyn and many others.

Spring/Summer 1969. Burstyn films Tropic of Cancer with Rip Torn in Rome and Paris, and contemplates giving up her career if she doesn't get more work.

January 5, 1970. At the age of thirty-seven, Burstyn chooses her current name.

May 11, 1970. Burstyn begins shooting Alex in Wonderland, directed by Paul Mazursky and costarring Donald Sutherland.

December 1970. The Last Picture Show finishes shooting.

May 1971. Burstyn begins to study with a Sufi teacher, who gives her the name Hadiya, which means "she who is guided."

Summer 1971. Burstyn travels to Europe, where she spends several weeks studying with Sufi mystics in the Alps.

October 2, 1971. The Last Picture Show opens triumphantly at the New York Film Festival. Burstyn is ultimately named Best Supporting Actress by the New York Film Critics and is nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

December 1, 1971. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Burstyn begins to shoot The King of Marvin Gardens with costars Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern.

March 1972. Burstyn signs to play Chris MacNeil, the mother of Linda Blair's character, in The Exorcist.

April 1972. Burstyn's difficult marriage to Neil Bernstein ends.

December 1973. The Exorcist opens to enormous commercial and critical success. The film goes on to receive ten Academy Award nominations, including a Best Actress nomination for Burstyn.

1974. Burstyn effectively produces and stars in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese and costarring Kris Kristofferson and introducing Jodie Foster. She also works in Harry and Tonto, for which Art Carney wins an Academy Award.

1975. Burstyn wins the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, as well as a Tony for Best Actress for her role in the Broadway play Same Time, Next Year opposite Charles Grodin—one of a handful of women to win both awards in a single year.

1975. Burstyn buys the Stone House, a Victorian mansion on the Hudson River in New York, which becomes her creative and spiritual home for the next eleven years. During her time there, she becomes a Sheraga, which in the Sufi order is like a minister, and teaches "Acting as a Spiritual Path."

1976. Burstyn films Providence, directed by Alain Resnais and costarring John Gielgud and Dirk Bogarde.

1977. Seeking to help create a “new mythology” for women and further explore "the nature of the feminine," Burstyn works on Silence of the North, the true story of a woman who raised her children alone in the Canadian wilderness.

1978. Burstyn receives her fourth Oscar nomination, for her performance in the film version of Same Time, Next Year, costarring Alan Alda.

November 1, 1978. Neil Bernstein commits suicide, a tremendously painful event in Burstyn's life.

September 26, 1980. Resurrection is released, leading to Burstyn's fifth Oscar nomination, for her performance as faith healer Edna McCauley.

1981. Burstyn is nominated for an Emmy for her work in the television film The People vs. Jean Harris.

February 17, 1982. Lee Strasberg dies at the age of eighty. Within a few months, Burstyn is elected the first female president of Actors Equity, the stage actors' union, and co-Artistic Director of the Actors Studio, with Al Pacino.

December 7, 1982. On her fiftieth birthday, Burstyn opens on Broadway in 84 Charing Cross Road.

January 1987. Burstyn sells the Stone House and moves into another beautiful old home on the Hudson River in upstate New York.

Early 1993. Beginning an exciting new phase in her career, Burstyn performs in Horton Foote’s play The Trip to Bountiful in regional theater.

1995. Burstyn makes the acclaimed independent film The Spitfire Grill.

November 14, 1996. Burstyn travels to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan with a group led by Robert Thurman, the Buddhist scholar and teacher (and father of actress Uma Thurman).

December 7, 1996. Burstyn spends her sixty-fourth birthday at Angkor Wat, the ancient Cambodian temple complex.

1997. Burstyn appears in Horton Foote's play The Death of Papa, in which, she says, "I accomplished all my goals."

1999. Burstyn plumbs the depth of her craft and confronts her personal demons as she plays Mary Tyrone, the troubled mother in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Easter weekend, 1999. Burstyn goes on a spiritual retreat for three days, living on the streets of New York City with no money and no identification. A few weeks later, she forgets her wallet and is once again in New York without money or ID, but feels "completely safe and at home, not just here, but anywhere."

2000. Burstyn plays a featured role in the independent film The Yards, starring Mark Wahlberg.

2000. Burstyn receives her sixth Oscar nomination, for her performance in Requiem for a Dream, directed by Darren Aronofsky.

2002 - 2006. Burstyn completes the first draft of her memoir, finds love with a fellow member of the Actors Studio, and continues to pursue her career with film and voice work.

Fall 2006. Burstyn appears in two new films: the thriller Wicker Man, costarring Nicolas Cage, and the science fiction drama The Fountain, costarring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. The latter reunites her with Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky.