Edward "Ed" Burke was a corrupt U.S. Senator in the WB/CW TV series Smallville.
He was a recurring 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.
Unknown to the senator, Lex had recorded their meetings discussing the project on a flash drive. Lionel wasn't aware of their dealings.
Prototype
Senator Burke later went to the Luthor Mansion and Lana Lang remarked that Lex has 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 revealed that in fact, everything is ahead of schedule; he knows that Lex has already started mass-production. Burke intended to shut it down because the Senate would discover the Project's true mission.
Lex pointed out all the money he's 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. Lois Lane had a source on the dirty senator and went to his favorite restaurant to bribe a waiter.
With his tip, she was able to accost Burke just as his limo pulled up. She starts to question him about his Cayman Island accounts but he blew her off. He tells his guards to get rid of her but an unseen assailant suddenly appeared.
He killed the bodyguards before killing Senator Burke whose death was witnessed by Lois. Lois recognized the assassin before he vanished. The papers reported that Burke was killed by the Mob but Lois knew the truth. Upon his death, his vacated Senate position was filled by Kansas State Senator Martha Kent.
