From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. John Joseph "Jack" MacGowran (October 13, 1918 – January 31, 1973) was an Irish character actor, whose last film role was as the alcoholic director Burke Dennings in The Exorcist. He was probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jack MacGowran , licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.