Edward "Ed" Burke is a corrupt U.S. Senator in the WB/CW TV series Smallville. He is a supporting antagonist in the sixth season and appeared in the episode "Prototype".
He was portrayed by Alan C. Peterson, who also played Officer Timmons in Shooter and Zhong in Spark: A Space Tail.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Senator Burke had business dealings with LuthorCorp, allowing the U.S. Military to cooperate with their secret Project Ares. In return, Lex Luthor had transferred five million dollars to a secret bank account in the Cayman Islands for Burke.
Unknown to the Senator, Lex had video recorded their meetings, discussing the project and kept the feed on a flash drive. Lionel Luthor was unaware of his son's dealings with the Senator.
Prototype[]
Senator Burke went to the Luthor Mansion again and Lana Lang remarked that Lex had been seeing a lot of the Senator before she leaves. Burke asked for an update on Project Ares and Lex reports that everything was on schedule. Burke countered that in fact, everything is ahead of schedule; he knew that Lex had already started mass-production. Burke intended to shut it down because the Senate would discover the Project's true mission and all involved.
Lex pointed out all the money he had paid Burke for his cooperation, but Burke threatened to scrutinize all of LuthorCorp's business deals for the last twenty years if Lex exposed his role in the Project. Lana had listened in on the conversation secretly. Lois Lane had a source on the corrupt senator and went to his favorite restaurant to bribe a waiter about his whereabouts.
With his tip, she was able to accost Burke just as his limo pulled up to the restaurant. She started questioning him about his Cayman Island accounts but he blew her off. When she mentioned Project Ares, he then told his guards to get rid of her but an unseen assailant suddenly appeared.
He killed all bodyguards before killing Senator Burke whose death was witnessed by Lois. Lois recognized the assassin before he vanished. The tabloids later reported that Burke was killed by the Mob but Lois knew the real truth. Upon his death, his vacated Senate seat was filled by Kansas State Senator Martha Kent.
