Matinee Classics - Herschel Bernardi Biography & Filmography

Herschel Bernardi ACTOR

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HERSCHEL BERNARDI BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Herschel Bernardi was born on October 30th, 1923 in New York City, New York to parents, Berel and Laina Bernardi. His was born into a family already involved in show business, therefore, from a young age he was already performing on stage with his family.

His family was Yiddish and there was a Yiddish-language theater in New York City where his family would all perform on stage. After gaining quite a bit of experience as a child stage actor he continued to work in the field of entertainment as a teenage boy breaking into the film industry.

His film debut was in, "Green Fields" (1937) followed by, "Yankel the Blacksmith" (1939) which were both shot in Yiddish. As Bernardi got older, he stuck to making his living as a working actor.

He began working on a number of Hollywood films but for a while his career suffered when he was black listed briefly in Hollywood and had to be cleared by the anti-communists who helped get his career back on track.

He returned to acting appearing in films as well as television and remained working as a stage actor soon appearing on Broadway in such productions as, "Fiddler on the Roof", "Zorba" and "Bajour".

He added a number of film credits to his resume, some of which include, "The Savage Eye" (1960), "Irma la Douce" (1963), "Love with the Proper Stranger" (1963) starring Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood, "The Front" (1976) and "No Deposit, No Return" (1976).

Some of his more well known television roles were on such series as, "Harbor Command", "The Eleventh Hour", "State Trooper", "Route 66", "Bonanza", "Dr. Kildare", "Peter Gunn" and he also had a starring role on the sitcom, "Arnie" which aired on CBS. For his performance he received two Golden Globe nominations.

Along with his work in film, stage and television he did a variety of voice over projects that ranged from commercial work to narrating films and cartoon voices. Some of his voice over projects include, "The Man From Button Willow" (1965), "The Ghost Monster" (1970) and "The Drifter" (1970).

Prior to him passing, some of his more recent roles were in the television series, "Murder, She Wrote" (1985), "Hail to the Chief" (1985), "Highway to Heaven" (1986) and "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" (1986).

He married only once to Teri Bernardi and they had one child together, Michael Bernardi. They remained married until he passed away in his sleep at the age of sixty two from a heart attack on May 9th, 1986 in Los Angeles, California. His remains are buried at Mt. Sinai memorial Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.