Gedeon Burkhard was born in Munich, West Germany, the son of Wolfgang Burkhard and German actress Elisabeth von Molo (then Burkhard) who is the granddaughter of Alexander Moissi, a famous Albanian actor of the 20th century. Gedeon was educated at a boarding school in England and began his acting career in 1979 in the German TV film Tante Maria.
During the 1990s, he lived in the United States, working in several productions, but without much recognition. Burkhard married Birgit Cunningham, then divorced three months later. After that, he lived in Vienna for Kommisar Rex for more than five years, then moved to Berlin. Burkhard was working in Cologne on the TV series Alarm für Cobra 11 as the detective Chris Ritter until November 2007. His character Chris Ritter had a heroic death. He then returned to Berlin to be close to his daughter and to work on projects. He said "For the moment I will dedicate myself again fully to my artistic vagabond life in Berlin". Burkhard appeared in the Quentin Tarantino movie Inglourious Basterds. In February 2009, he was shooting the film Massel, made for German television. In 2011, he was in Rome, shooting the Italian miniseries Caccia al Re – La narcotici.
In 2011, he competed in Ballando con le Stelle, the Italian version of "Dancing with the Stars", accompanied by professional Italian dancer Samanta Togni, in which he danced with his "daughter" Laura Glavan.
In 2016, Burkhard played Gustav Froehlich, a German actor and UFA star, in the international movie The Devil's Mistress by Czech director Filip Renč. The biographical film is about the life of actress Lída Baarová and her relationship with Joseph Goebbels. The film was released in January 2016 in Prague.
