Herschel Bernardi(1923-1986)
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The character actor Herschel Bernardi was born into a theatrical family
on October 30, 1923, in New York, New York. The Yiddish-language theater
in the United States was centered in New York City's Lower East Side,
on Second Avenue, and the Bernardi family were stage people who plied
their craft in Yiddish, as did the Adler Family (Jacob and his children
Luther and Stella), Paul Muni and the young Sidney Lumet. The young
Herschel was a trouper and appeared on the stage as a child and as a
teenager. As a teen, he appeared in the movies
Green Fields (1937) and Yankel the
Blacksmith (1939), which were shot in Yiddish and directed by future
Hollywood B-movie director Edgar Ulmer.
The adult Bernardi, who briefly used the name "Harold" professionally
in place of the more ethnic-sounding "Herschel," appeared in bit parts
in Hollywood B pictures. In the early 1950s, his movie and television
career suffered when he was blacklisted for alleged communist sympathies.
After being cleared, Bernardi began to work
steadily on TV, in the movies and on the stage.
In 1958, he made his first impact on popular American culture as
Lieutenant Jacoby, the hapless policeman who was a friend of Craig
Stevens's eponymous private detective Peter Gunn (1958) in
Blake Edwards' influential TV
series. "Peter Gunn" was heavily indebted to film noir, German
expression, and California cool jazz, and the contrast of the
harassed Jacoby with the coolly patrician Gunn was part
of the dynamic that drove the series. For his role as Lt. Jacoby, Herschel Bernardi received his sole Emmy
nomination, in 1959.
Possessed of a resonant voice, Bernardi did a lot of voice over work on
television, providing the "Ho ho ho!" of the Jolly Green Giant and the voice
of Charley the Tuna in TV commercials. Most famously, he used his
singing voice to take over for Zero Mostel
as Tevye the milkman in the Broadway musical
Fiddler on the Roof (1971),
which was a smash hit when it debuted in 1964. In addition to two
stints on Broadway, in both the original show and the revival, Bernardi
played Tevye in several road show tours. He was nominated for a Tony in
the Broadway revival. He received his first Tony nomination in 1969 for
playing the lead in the musical "Zorba."
Off the Broadway stage, Herschel Bernadi was a supporting character owing
to his average face. Yet in 1970, Bernardi
finally played a leading man in a filmed entertainment when he was
cast as Arnie Nuovo, an ethnic blue-collar worker who is promoted off
of the loading dock into management by an eccentric business owner. As
the eponymous Arnie (1970), Bernardi
was twice nominated for a Golden Globe. The series was canceled after
two seasons.
Bernardi continued to find steady work as a character actor, mostly on
TV. In 1976, he appeared in support of
Woody Allen in
Martin Ritt's
The Front (1976), a movie about the
Hollywood blacklist that also featured another of the Big Three
Tevyes, Zero Mostel. (Both Bernardi and Mostel were beaten out for the
role in the
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
movie by Topol, who received an Oscar nomination
in the role and took over Bernardi's place as Tevye in traveling road
shows of "Fiddler on the Roof" after Bernardi's death.) Mostel, like
Ritt, had been blacklisted in the 1950s.
Herschel Bernardi died on May 9, 1986, at the age of 62, still a working
actor whose services had been in demand from childhood.
on October 30, 1923, in New York, New York. The Yiddish-language theater
in the United States was centered in New York City's Lower East Side,
on Second Avenue, and the Bernardi family were stage people who plied
their craft in Yiddish, as did the Adler Family (Jacob and his children
Luther and Stella), Paul Muni and the young Sidney Lumet. The young
Herschel was a trouper and appeared on the stage as a child and as a
teenager. As a teen, he appeared in the movies
Green Fields (1937) and Yankel the
Blacksmith (1939), which were shot in Yiddish and directed by future
Hollywood B-movie director Edgar Ulmer.
The adult Bernardi, who briefly used the name "Harold" professionally
in place of the more ethnic-sounding "Herschel," appeared in bit parts
in Hollywood B pictures. In the early 1950s, his movie and television
career suffered when he was blacklisted for alleged communist sympathies.
After being cleared, Bernardi began to work
steadily on TV, in the movies and on the stage.
In 1958, he made his first impact on popular American culture as
Lieutenant Jacoby, the hapless policeman who was a friend of Craig
Stevens's eponymous private detective Peter Gunn (1958) in
Blake Edwards' influential TV
series. "Peter Gunn" was heavily indebted to film noir, German
expression, and California cool jazz, and the contrast of the
harassed Jacoby with the coolly patrician Gunn was part
of the dynamic that drove the series. For his role as Lt. Jacoby, Herschel Bernardi received his sole Emmy
nomination, in 1959.
Possessed of a resonant voice, Bernardi did a lot of voice over work on
television, providing the "Ho ho ho!" of the Jolly Green Giant and the voice
of Charley the Tuna in TV commercials. Most famously, he used his
singing voice to take over for Zero Mostel
as Tevye the milkman in the Broadway musical
Fiddler on the Roof (1971),
which was a smash hit when it debuted in 1964. In addition to two
stints on Broadway, in both the original show and the revival, Bernardi
played Tevye in several road show tours. He was nominated for a Tony in
the Broadway revival. He received his first Tony nomination in 1969 for
playing the lead in the musical "Zorba."
Off the Broadway stage, Herschel Bernadi was a supporting character owing
to his average face. Yet in 1970, Bernardi
finally played a leading man in a filmed entertainment when he was
cast as Arnie Nuovo, an ethnic blue-collar worker who is promoted off
of the loading dock into management by an eccentric business owner. As
the eponymous Arnie (1970), Bernardi
was twice nominated for a Golden Globe. The series was canceled after
two seasons.
Bernardi continued to find steady work as a character actor, mostly on
TV. In 1976, he appeared in support of
Woody Allen in
Martin Ritt's
The Front (1976), a movie about the
Hollywood blacklist that also featured another of the Big Three
Tevyes, Zero Mostel. (Both Bernardi and Mostel were beaten out for the
role in the
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
movie by Topol, who received an Oscar nomination
in the role and took over Bernardi's place as Tevye in traveling road
shows of "Fiddler on the Roof" after Bernardi's death.) Mostel, like
Ritt, had been blacklisted in the 1950s.
Herschel Bernardi died on May 9, 1986, at the age of 62, still a working
actor whose services had been in demand from childhood.