Ed Burns

Edward P. Burns (born January 29, 1946) is an American screenwriter and television producer. He has worked closely with writing partner David Simon. For HBO, they have collaborated on The Corner, The Wire, Generation Kill, The Plot Against America, and We Own This City. Burns is a former Baltimore police detective for the homicide and narcotics divisions, and a public school teacher. He often draws upon these experiences for his writing. Burns served in the U.S. Army infantry during the Vietnam War. He then served in the Baltimore Police Department for twenty years. When he worked in homicide, his partner was Detective Harry Edgerton, who would later become the basis for Frank Pembleton on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street.Following his retirement from the police force, Burns became a teacher in the Baltimore public school system. He has said that he stumbled into teaching with little preparation because of the intense demand for teachers in inner-city schools. He taught seventh and eight grade. Psychologically, he compared the experience of teaching to the Vietnam War.He found the experience profoundly challenging because of the emotional damage that the vast majority of his students had already experienced before reaching the classroom. He saw his primary role as instilling caring behavior in his pupils. He felt his major impact was in giving the children an example of an "adult who's consistent, who's always there, who always comes through with what he said, then that's a new world for them."