[4] She made her Broadway debut in 1968 in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,[5] for which she received the Clarence Derwent Award.

[5] Burns made her screen debut in 1969, appearing in Last Summer[6] as sensitive, conservative Rhoda, receiving critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Her other TV credits include the adaptation of Arthur Miller's play A Memory of Two Mondays (1974), the miniseries The Word (1978), and guest appearances on Love, American Style; Adam-12; Emergency!

She also wrote screenplays and stage plays, and sold scripts to the CBS soap opera Guiding Light in 1989.

"[1] A 2020 article in The Hollywood Reporter found that, according to Washington state health records, Burns died at age 73 on February 2, 2019, from complications of a fall she had suffered at home, with cirrhosis listed as a contributing factor.