IMDB

Actor

1937-08-31 · Brooklyn, New York, USA · Male

35 series in the catalog

Warren Berlinger (August 31, 1937 – December 2, 2020) was an American character actor, with Broadway runs, movie and television credits, and much work in commercials.

Early life

Warren Berlinger was born on August 31, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, of Jewish heritage, the son of Frieda (née Shapkin) and Elias Berlinger, a building contractor. His family owned Berlinger's Glass Store on Avenue D.

Career

Berlinger appeared in nine Broadway productions across his career, beginning at nine years old with the original 1946 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun, with Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. Notable Broadway roles include young Bibi in The Happy Time (1951), Johnny in Take a Giant Step (1953), the son of Macdonald Carey and Kitty Carlisle in Anniversary Waltz (1954), and Buddy Baker in Neil Simon's first Broadway comedy Come Blow Your Horn in 1961. He co-starred in both the 1958 Broadway stage production and the Hollywood movie adaptation of the drama Blue Denim (winning a Theatre World Award for the stage version). Berlinger played the starring role of the clever window washer J. Pierpont Finch in the 1963 London stage production of Frank Loesser's Pulitzer-Prize winning musical satire How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Shaftesbury Theatre, which ran for 520 performances.

He began his long TV career as a teenager in live NYC television, and would appear in drama anthologies, TV series, soap operas, and the original Howdy Doody show. He guest-starred on dozens of shows over six decades, most often as the comic friend, relative, co-worker, neighbor, or "average Joe." In 1965, Berlinger was the star of Kilroy, a segment of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Other memorable portrayals include episodes of Charlie's Angels, Happy Days (including an appearance as "tough-as-nails" United States Army recruiter Sergeant Betchler), That Girl, as Marlo Thomas's stingy cousin Howard (Season 1, Episode 27) and as Dr. Goldfisher (Season 4, Episode 25), Love, American Style, Operation Petticoat, Friends, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. In 1975, he was a special guest member of the show Emergency! playing the role of heart transplant patient Frank Fenady alongside Jeanne Cooper. He also starred in an Archie Bunker-type sitcom entitled "Warren."

Berlinger had regular and recurring roles on The Joey Bishop Show from 1961-1962, Bracken's World (1969-1970), The Funny Side (1971), A Touch of Grace (1973), Operation Petticoat (1978-1979), Happy Days (1975-1981), Too Close for Comfort (1982-1986), and Shades of LA (1990-1991).

In 1966, he played Phillip Short in the movie Spinout.

As a character actor began in 1956 with the film Teenage Rebel, and continued in the movies Because They're Young (1960), The Wackiest Ship In The Army (1960), Billie (1965) and Thunder Alley (1967).

Berlinger worked with Elvis Presley in the 1966 film musical Spinout.

In 1960, he appeared with Jack Lemmon and Rick Nelson in The Wackiest Ship in the Army as Radioman 2nd class A.J. Sparks.

In 2006, Berlinger marked his 60th anniversary in show business. He was both honorary mayor and honorary sheriff of Chatsworth, California.

His final acting credit was a 2016 episode of Grace and Frankie.

Personal life and death

In 1960, Berlinger married actress Betty Lou Keim, who died in 2010. They had four children.

Berlinger died from cancer on December 2, 2020, at the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, California; he was 83.

Warren Berlinger at the Internet Broadway Database