Ken Burns' face

He's always been weird looking. Hard to take him seriously when you see his face. His voice is also weird.

Find it impossible to believe that he's not transgender.

It’s the hair. It’s like a little boy’s haircut.

He's always creeped me out.

He would look much better if he didn't wear that cheap and ratty Korean wig.

Very creepy.

He looks and sounds like a little girl disguised as an old man.

I've always had a thing for Shelby Foote. Anyone else?

FTM.

You are easily triggered OP Frau Karen, so I made this documentary about you.

Burns is just really weird looking. Anyone that disagrees is crazy or blind. There, I said it.

Notwithstanding his unfortunate face and haircut, I've never understood the appeal for this guy and his documentaries.

Critics can't stop fellating him, but his work never fails to put me to sleep.

Maybe that's due to Peter Coyote's uninspired, monotone voice or I'm just a cretin.

He isn't a good storyteller.

OP I was going to say YES you are the only one freaked out by his face, but 11 other posters disagree with me apparently. Personally I think it's weird to judge people by their looks. I mean, If you can change something via diet or exercise, okay - maybe, point taken. But for something as unchangeable or generic as you dont like his face - that seems cruel. You deal with the cards you're dealt. I only say this because I have super awkward birthmark on my face and there's nothing I can do about it.

R13 = fat, tedious fraucunt

Like, SUPER AWKWARD, you guys!!!!

Very peculiar looking. It's as if someone set out to bake an overly detailed gingerbread man cookie but took the pan from the oven way prematurely, and the cookie spread into a formless blob and all of the excruciating detail "ran", and the gingerbread "man" came out with a multitude of birth defects, a blobby round face, part old man, part little girl, and the hair...the hair painted on with toothpicks and a Sharpie, like one of those Japanese wooden dolls.

It's a mashup of things that went horribly wrong.

[quote]I mean, If you can change something via diet or exercise, okay - maybe, point taken. But for something as unchangeable or generic as you dont like his face - that seems cruel.

My dear, I would never approach Mr. Burns and say, "You know, you look like a 6-year-old lesbian with progeria," but you know what? This is a bitchy gossip board. I enjoy his documentaries but find his face odd.

He's always been odd looking. But I'm a huge fan of his work. I even went to a local screening preview event for "Country Music". The wonderful Kathy Mattea (a fellow West Virginia native) performed.

[quote ] Ken Burns compares sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard to rise of Nazis

Is he related to Pete Burns?

He looks like he could be Tig Notaro‘s creepy older brother!

Sometimes older lesbians are ok with a little facial hair, OP.

He said it was because he is half Asian. He truly hates america. He would have flown with the Japs attacking pearl harbour

R22: really? I can’t seem to find online where he said he’s half Asian

Care to link?

The right-wing trolls are triggered by his new documentary, which explains a lot of these inane comments.

He has that thing that some Irish men have. A Leprechaun face. Cute when young, but weird and creepy when they get older and wrinkles and sagging start to appear.

I think he would look better if he stop dying his hair.

Even that schoolboy haircut would look much better gray than artificially black.

If he had a proper hair cut he'd look infinitely more appropriate. I get the feeling he thinks wearing his hair in that childish style makes him look younger. No, it just makes him look weird.

While I agree he is difficult to look at (the hair especially), his work can be brilliant.

I don't always agree with his personal take on some things. What he does is bring important issues into the mainstream and generates discussion.

R23 he said it very seriously in an interview. It might have been some kind of joke.

Bangs are probably a bad idea at this point

A demure pose

R31- For years my friend and I have referred to him as the BEARDED LADY and thought he should have named his production company

BEARDED LADY PRODUCTIONS Presents-

I agree with the folks who said it's his haircut. It needs to be changed, but maybe he considers it part of his "brand" now.

I'm looking forward to his Holocaust series. The parallels to the rise of Nazism in Germany and the reich-wing here in the US is frightening. The documentary points out that there have always been supporters of fascism in the US.

I'm not sure it is really his hair. He looks like he wears a wig to me.

He looks like a child molester.

What's the problem again?

R8...I always had a thing for Shelby Hande..

He does look weird, but he's never creeped me out.

It used to work

He has a boyish, Peter Pan face.

Agree with R2. Ken has always looked like a "stealth" transgender.

His blog is alarming.

Nessa, gurrrrrrrrlllll!!

It’s the wig and small features

Yeah, it's a rug and the very fine, female features. Daughter is also the same height as "dad".

With Uma Thurman. Doesn't have a man's face or body.

He's kept the Beatle mop top cut for 40 years, because he got this cut when he was 11, when his mother died. I guess it's sentimental for him and doesn't want to change it. I read this via google. Well....it's nice that he still has the hair to continue with it.

R47, the hair looks fake. Ken does look to be a woman but does it really matter? We're talking about a documentary filmmaker not a hot male celeb.

I do like his documentaries...

No R48..It doesn't really matter, and I only pointed it out because people talk, or joke, about his hair or "wig". I think it's his real hair....but it doesn't really matter..lol.

R50, I happen to think the hair is not real but I don't think it's a big deal. It's just an expected part of being a public figure these days. It's not a moral failing like some on DL think it is. It's the same as wearing makeup or getting Botox.

Is he a tree-hating Oirishman??

Uncanny valley.

I do as well @R49

[quote] He said it was because he is half Asian. He truly hates america. He would have flown with the Japs attacking pearl harbour

R22, you’re completely full of shit and you know it.

I could find nothing indicating he’s half Asian. In fact, he can trace his ancestry back to colonial Americans. Furthermore, there has been an outcry that his dominance in PBS documentaries reveal the network’s glaring lack of diversity.

That he would’ve fought with the Japanese in WWII sounds like a festering log of shit you just pulled out of your ass, unless you can cite that as an actual statement of his.

Really rather androgynous, despite the shadowy facial hair

Can’t quite decide: Elfish? Or Gamine?

Ken Burns must be a DataLounger and was hurt by this thread and got a more normal hair cut. He has been making the rounds on MSNBC plugging his new book and looks like this.

Kinda reminds me of that dude from ABBA.

Ken Burns wanted to appear forever youthful.

Bodega- Cat- Please don't tell me that the Bearded Lady wears a RATTY KOREAN WIG.

R30- He looks like he was left in a walk in freezer for two hours.

He looks like Jack Frost ❄

Like an old lesbian P.E. teacher.

Started watching this, I think it concludes tonight. Not really that interesting, it's mainly a rehash of Nazi anti-Semitism - the 999th version. It did give a recap of how American attitudes towards immigration have waxed and waned over the years. Maybe the other episodes will give something new. So far this seems to me just another Holocaust series and I fail to see how it's Americans' fault European Jews couldn't all immigrate here.

We still have very strict immigration policies. How many Syrians have been admitted? Venezuelans fleeing the communist policies the GOP claims to loathe, get kidnapped and sent to Martha's Vineyard.

I'm getting cynical about the constant flood of Holocaust documentaries. The Nazis slaughtered gay men and people with disabilities, Gypsies, Communists and Socialists. I always suspect this is to guilt Americans in continuing to fund the Israelis' mistreatment of Palestinians.

R64- He has a MONOPOLY on these grand documentaries on PBS since the 1990's. It would be nice to have a little variation.

There are billions of starving people. Insane to allow any in. Immigration industry is too strong.

Guys, his look is pure ABBA. Benny, Björn and Burns. ABBBA.

OP, you obviously have a phobia of men with neotenous facial features as I do. Exposure therapy can cure it, though! I suggest you start out easy by staring at photos of Michael J. Fox and Matthew Broderick, then work your way up to singer-songwriter Paul Williams. Once you’ve gotten acclimated and feel brave enough, try Ken Burns again. It worked for me!

Triggered OP can't deal with his amazing documentaries. His new one is a great as his other works. Poor delusional racist, Nazi, Republican OP is missing out, as usual. OP can't deal with facts, so goes after his looks like the typical schoolyard bully. So typical. So sad.

I think it's good to retell this story, the attitude of Americans back then....the horrors going on in Europe. The generations that lived through that are dying off...boomers, though didn't fight during WWII, were taught about the holocaust and were very aware of the idea of fascism. Boomer parents had stories to tell. It's far enough away from the current generation, that they have no real idea of it. It's so relevant today and I was surprised how bad many Americans were back then, xtians, too...very much like today. It bears repeating.

The hate toward immigrants, back then, were as bad as today....only with a different group of people.

[quote] Triggered OP can't deal with his amazing documentaries

They are as over-emotional and womanly as his face.

He can look however he wants, his documentaries are hugely important in their educational value. I worry no one else would be doing these in an accessible way if he were to disappear tomorrow.

He’s sorta girly looking if you know what I mean.

[quote] I worry no one else would be doing these in an accessible way if he were to disappear tomorrow.

There's a whole slew of imitators in TV and in film schools who are already replicating his over-emotional, didactic style. He uses lots of emotional music and digital fakery on vintage photographs.

Have only watched the first episode but there's nothing new in it and I don't really see why it was commissioned. There are already a million documentaries about the Holocaust.

^ I am tired of hearing about that event. I do not need to be reminded.

(and I'm sure it's mentioned to school children as part of their history studies)

I wish he hadn't given Shelby Foot any credence. That guy was full of southern shit

Hate towards immigrants is survival instinct. If we let in billions we would lose everything. There's no reason to allow nonwhites into white country. Can only lead to genocide..

R79 you need to go back in time and block the slave ships.

I had a South African friend. Her German Jewish parents emigrated in the mid-1930s to South Africa which was wide open. There's a massive Jewish population in Capetown. She said her parents knew Hitler was going to annihilate the Jews back then and all the Jews knew it too. The only ones who stayed were either too poor to leave or wealthy and figured their social standing and money would save them.

She and her brother got reparations from Germany in the 1960s.

Another cruel thread. Only on datalounge.

If only his face were the worst of this deficits.