罗伯特·约翰·伯克是土生土长的纽约人，20岁出头时首次出演电影，在根据Chaim Potok故事改编的戏剧《被选中的人》（1981）中扮演了一小部分角色。他后来在纽约州立大学购买分校学习表演，在那里他遇到了有抱负的电影制作人哈尔·哈特利，后者在他的处女作《难以置信的真相》中让他扮演主角之一，这是一个另类的独立故事，他在片中扮演一个试图逃离他麻烦的过去的人。伯克再次与哈特利合作拍摄了一部以兄弟为中心的黑色喜剧《憨豆人》，好莱坞制片人认为他轮廓分明的下巴线是在科幻/动作续集《机器人警察3》中取代彼得·韦勒的下巴线时，伯克大获成功。尽管伯克做出了努力，但这部电影还是失败了，他继续在主要电影中扮演较小的角色，包括备受赞誉的西部片《墓碑》（1993年）和越狱电影《逃亡》（1996年）。伯克凭借斯蒂芬·金改编的《瘦子》（1996年）获得了第二次出演好莱坞主角的机会，但这个恐怖的故事几乎被普遍认为是不讨人喜欢的，故事中他化着浓妆，描绘了一个冷酷无情的男人，他神奇地减肥了。尽管伯克的男主角时代基本上已经过去了，除了他在哈特利的《没有这样的事》（2001年）中扮演的野兽角色之外，他继续努力，并开始越来越多地在电视上工作，在冷酷的监狱剧《奥兹国》和警察程序剧《法律与秩序：特殊受害者小组》（NBC，1999年-）中反复扮演角色。在乔治·克鲁尼担任导演的前两部电影《危险心灵的自白》（2002年）和《晚安，好运》（2005年）中，伯克还是为电视观众所熟悉，尤其是当他签约在消防员系列剧《营救我》中扮演丹尼斯·利里主角的前牧师表弟米基·加文时，这个角色与伯克现实生活中的第二份工作——纽约州消防员——相吻合。这位粗犷英俊、身材高大的演员经常扮演硬汉，继续扮演伊拉克战争迷你剧《一代杀手》（HBO，2008）中的詹姆斯·“混沌”·马蒂斯少将和肥皂剧《绯闻女孩》中查克·巴斯（Ed Westwick饰）的控制欲极强的亿万富翁父亲巴特·巴斯等令人印象深刻的人物。不久之后，他就开始在《法律与秩序：SVU》中扮演角色，并经常出现在军事剧《军嫂》（Lifetime，2007-）和紧张的犯罪节目《利益之人》（CBS，2011-）中，同时仍有时间在电影中担任配角，包括丹泽尔·华盛顿/马克·沃尔伯格的动作电影《双龙出手》（2013）。

A born-and-bred New Yorker, Robert John Burke made his film debut while in his early 20s with a small part in the drama "The Chosen" (1981), based on the Chaim Potok story. He went on to study acting at SUNY Purchase where he met aspiring filmmaker Hal Hartley, who cast him as one of the leads in his debut feature "The Unbelievable Truth," an offbeat indie tale where he played a man trying to escape his troubled past. Working with Hartley again on the charming brother-centric dark comedy "Simple Men," Burke caught a major break when Hollywood producers decided that his chiseled jawline was the right one to replace Peter Weller's in the sci-fi/action sequel "RoboCop 3." Despite Burke's efforts, the movie tanked, and he went on to smaller roles in major films, including the lauded Western "Tombstone" (1993) and the prison-break movie "Fled" (1996). Burke landed his second chance in a Hollywood starring role with the Stephen King adaptation "Thinner" (1996), but the macabre tale, which featured him under heavy makeup to depict a callous man who magically loses weight, was deemed almost universally unlikable.Though Burke's leading-man days were mostly behind him, his beastly role in Hartley's "No Such Thing" (2001) aside, he soldiered on, and began increasingly working on television with recurring roles on the grim prison drama "Oz" and the police procedural "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (NBC, 1999- ). Appearing in George Clooney's first two movies as director, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" (2002) and "Good Night, and Good Luck." (2005), Burke nonetheless became more familiar to TV audiences, particularly when he signed on to play Mickey Gavin, the ex-priest cousin of Denis Leary's lead character on the firefighter series "Rescue Me," a part that dovetailed with Burke's real-life second job as a New York State fireman.Often cast as a tough guy, the ruggedly handsome and tall actor continued to play imposing figures such as Major General James "Chaos" Mattis in the Iraq War miniseries "Generation Kill" (HBO, 2008) and Bart Bass, the controlling billionaire father of Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) on the soapy drama "Gossip Girl." Before long, he was juggling his ongoing "Law & Order: SVU" part with regular spots on the military drama "Army Wives" (Lifetime, 2007- ) and the tense crime show "Person of Interest" (CBS, 2011- ), while still finding time for supporting turns in films, including the Denzel Washington/Mark Wahlberg action movie "2 Guns" (2013).

Robert John Burke (* 12. September 1960 als Robert Burke in Washington Heights, New York) ist ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler.

Robert John Burke hatte seinen ersten Auftritt als Schauspieler 1981 im Alter von 21 Jahren in dem Filmdrama Die Erwählten nach dem Roman von Chaim Potok. In den 1980er Jahren studierte er Schauspiel an der State University of New York.

Einen größeren Bekanntheitsgrad erreichte Burke als Hauptdarsteller in dem Science-Fiction-Film RoboCop 3 und in dem Horrorfilm Thinner – Der Fluch nach dem Buch von Stephen King. Als Seriendarsteller hatte er zahlreiche Gastauftritte, so u. a. in Sex and the City, Law & Order, CSI: Miami und in Die Sopranos.

Von 2002 bis 2020 hatte er als Ed Tucker 18 Jahre lang eine wiederkehrende Gastrolle in der Krimiserie Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.