Shelley Berman

Sheldon Leonard Berman (February 3, 1925 – September 1, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, lecturer and poet.[1]

Shelley Berman
Berman in the 1960s
Born	Sheldon Leonard Berman (1925-02-03)February 3, 1925 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	September 1, 2017(2017-09-01) (aged 92) Bell Canyon, California, U.S.
Resting place	Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Education	Art Institute of Chicago (BFA)
Occupation	Comedian actor writer teacher lecturer poet
Years active	1954–2014
Spouse(s)	Sarah Herman ( m. 1947)
Children	2
Comedy career
Medium	Stand-up, film, television
Genres	Observational comedy
Website	http://www.shelleyberman.com/

In his comedic career, Berman was awarded three gold records and he won the first Grammy Award for a spoken comedy recording in 1959.[2] He played Larry David's father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, a role for which he received a 2008 Emmy Award nomination.[3]

He taught humor writing at the University of Southern California for more than 20 years.[4]

Early life and education

Berman was born in Chicago, the son of Irene (née Marks) and Nathan Berman. He was Jewish.[5]

He served in the Navy during World War II.[6] He then enrolled in Chicago's Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University) as a drama student. There he met fellow student Sarah Herman; they married in 1947.[6] His acting career began with an acting company in Woodstock, Illinois.[5] Leaving Woodstock in 1949, the couple made their way to New York City.[7]. He studied acting at the HB Studio.[8] To make ends meet, Berman found employment as a social director, cab driver, speech teacher, assistant manager of a drug store, and a dance instructor at Arthur Murray Dance Studios.[7]

Eventually, Berman found work as a sketch writer for The Steve Allen Plymouth Show.[9]

Career

Early career

Berman began as a straight actor, receiving his training at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, honing his acting skills in stock companies in and around Chicago and New York City.[10]

In the mid-1950s, he became a member of Chicago's Compass Players, which later evolved into The Second City.[11] While performing improvised sketches with Compass, Berman began to develop solo pieces, often employing an imaginary telephone to take the place of an onstage partner.[11]

Nightclubs and live performances

In 1957, Berman was hired as a comedian at Mister Kelly's in Chicago, which led to other nightclub bookings, and a recording contract with Verve Records.[12] His comedy albums earned him three gold records and he won the first Grammy Award for a spoken comedy recording.[2] Berman appeared on numerous television specials and all of the major variety shows of the day.[2]

He starred on Broadway in A Family Affair and continued with stage work in The Odd Couple, Damn Yankees, Where's Charley?, Fiddler on the Roof, Two by Two, I'm Not Rappaport, La Cage aux Folles, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and Guys & Dolls.[12]

Berman's voice was used as the inspiration for the voice of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Fibber Fox, performed by Daws Butler.[13]

Television career

Berman portrayed the role of Mendel Sorkin in an episode of CBS's Rawhide ("The Peddler", 1962).[14]

Berman also appeared fairly regularly as a panelist (and once as the "Mystery Guest") on the famous CBS game show What's My Line in the early and mid-1960s.

Berman performed both comedic and dramatic roles on television, including appearances on episodes of The Twilight Zone (both radio and TV versions), Bewitched, Peter Gunn, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Adam-12, Emergency!, Brothers, Night Court, MacGyver, L.A. Law, Friends, Walker, Texas Ranger, The King of Queens, Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, Lizzie McGuire, Hannah Montana, CSI: NY and the revived Hawaii Five-0.[15][16] He also had a recurring role on the short-lived sitcom Walter & Emily.[17]

From 2002 to 2009, Berman appeared as Larry David's aged father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, a role for which he received a 2008 Emmy Award nomination.[3]

Film career

Among Berman's film credits are Dementia (1955, with Shorty Rogers), The Best Man (1964, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson), Divorce American Style (1967, with Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds), Every Home Should Have One (1970, with Marty Feldman), Beware! The Blob (1972, with Robert Walker Jr.), Rented Lips (1988, with Martin Mull and Robert Downey Jr.), Teen Witch (1989, with Robyn Lively and Zelda Rubinstein), The Last Producer (2000, with Burt Reynolds), Meet the Fockers (2004, with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller), The Holiday (2006, with Cameron Diaz), and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008, with Adam Sandler).[18][10][12][16][17]

Late Career

For over 20 years, Berman was a lecturer (later lecturer emeritus) in humor writing in the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California. He was also a teacher for the Improv Olympics program.[4]

Works

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1955	Dementia	Stoned Beatnik	Uncredited	[19]
1964	The Best Man	Sheldon Bascomb
1967	Divorce American Style	David Grieff
1970	Every Home Should Have One	Nat Kaplan
1972	Beware! The Blob	Hair Stylist
1988	Rented Lips	Bill Slotnik
1989	Teen Witch	Mr. Weaver
1990	Elliot Fauman, Ph.D.	Stromberg
1991	Motorama	Million Dollar Driver
2000	The Last Producer	Poker Player #1
2004	Meet the Fockers	Judge Ira
2006	The Holiday	Norman
2008	You Don't Mess with the Zohan	Zohan's Father
2010	The Legend of Secret Pass	Ira (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	The Repertory Theatre	Sheldon Berman	Episode: Time of Delivery
1955	Goodyear Playhouse	Manager	Episode: The Catered Affair
1959	Peter Gunn	Danny Holland	Episode: The Comic
1961	The Twilight Zone	Archibald Beechcroft	Episode: The Mind and the Matter
	General Electric Theater	Stanley	Episode: The $200 Parlay
	Car 54, Where Are You?	Rabbi Einsenberg	Episode: Catch Me on the Paar Show
1962	Rawhide	Mendel Sorkin	Episode: The Peddler
1963	Breaking Point	Roy Chase	Episode: Whatsoever Things I Hear
1964	Burke's Law	King Dmitri	Episode: Who Killed Cassandra Cass?
	Bewitched	Mr. Brinkman	Episode: The Witches Are Out
1966	Mister Roberts	Performer	Episode: The Replacement
	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	Sheldon Veblen	Episode: The Super Colossal Affair
	The Hero	Performer	Episode: The Truth Never Hurts
1967	Get Smart	Elwood Box	Episode: Classification: Dead
1968-69	That's Life	Mr. Quigley	6 episodes
1969	The Tommy Leonetti Show	Performer	1 episode
1970	The Mary Tyler Moore Show	Dr. Walter Udall	Episode: Divorce Isn't Everything
1971	Adam-12	Phil Duke	Episode: Log 165: Once a Cop
1970-71	Love, American Style	Various Roles	3 episodes
1974	Emergency!	Art Frommich	Episode: The Screenwriter
1975	Police Woman	Eddie Bender	Episode: The Company
1977	Forever Fernwood	Mel Beach	1 episode
1978	Vega$	Mickey	Episode: Milliken's Stash
	Flying High	Phil	Episode: High Rollers
1979	Brenda Starr, Reporter	A.J. Livwright	Television Movie
	Eischied	Performer	Episode: Angels of Terror
1978-81	CHiPs	Strum/Desperate Car Owner	2 episodes
1983	Matt Houston	Dickie Bevak	Episode: The Yacht Club Murders
1984	Brothers	Marcus	2 episodes
1985	Hotel	Barney	Episode: Obsession
1985	Knight Rider	Josh Bevin	Episode: Knight Song
1987	St. Elsewhere	Bill Belvedere	Episode: Getting Ahead
	The New Mike Hammer	Comedian	Episode: The Last Laugh
	CBS Summer Playhouse	Harry	Episode: Mabel and Max
	ABC Afterschool Special	Harold	Episode: The Kid Who Wouldn't Quit
1988	Night Court	Al	Episode: I'm OK, You're Catatonic
1989	What's Alan Watching?	Mel Krasoen	Television Special
	The Munsters Today	Sam Hawkins	Episode: The Trial
1990	What a Dummy	Grandpa Lou	Episode: Grandpa Lou
1991	Monsters	Leo Tandoski	Episode: Werewolf of Hollywood
	MacGyver	CIA-Agent Abe	Episode: Honest Abe
	Walter & Emily	Albert	1 Episode
1992	Carol Leifer: Gaudy, Bawdy & Blue	Himself	Television Movie
	Civil Wars	Performer	Episode: The Triumph of DeVille
1992-93	L.A. Law	Ben Flicker	6 episodes
1994	Garfield and Friends	Dick Drake (voice)	Episode: Horror Hostess
1995	Living Single	Hyman	Episode: Baby I'm Back...Again
1996-96	Friends	Mr. Kaplan Jr.	2 episodes
1997	Chicago Sons	McGlashan	Episode: The Things We Do for Love
1997	The Blues Brothers Animated Series	Alderman J. Alderman (voice)	8 episodes
1998	Arlis$	Ollie Fogle	Episode: The American Game
1999	L.A. Doctors	Performer	Episode: Been There, Done That
2000	Providence	Performer	Episode: Syd in Wonderland
	Walker, Texas Ranger	Ira Goldberg	Episode: Lazarus
2001	That's My Bush!	Principal	Episode: Fare Thee Welfare
2002	Lizzie McGuire	Nobby Frostybump	Episode: Xtreme Xmas
2003	The King of Queens	Skitch	Episode: Queens'bro Bridge
2004	Dead Like Me	Theo	Episode: The Shallow End
2005	Grey's Anatomy	Jed Sorento	Episode: Let it Be
2007	Entourage	Uncle Shelley	Episode: The Return of the King
	State of Mind	Harvey Fleischman	Episode: Passion Fishing
2006-08	Boston Legal	Judge Robert Sanders	11 episodes
2008	Hannah Montana	Dr. Froman	Episode: Don't Go Breakin' My Tooth
	Pushing Daisies	Gustav Hofer	Episode: Robbing Hood
2009	CSI: NY	George Savar	Episode: Yahrzeit
	The Unusuals	Tom Speigelman	Episode: The Tape Delay
	Raising the Bar	Danny Rose	Episode: Rules of Engagement
2002-09	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Nat David	13 episodes
2012	Hawaii Five-0	Morty Sapperstein	Episode: Ohuna

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Ref.
1959	The Girls Against the Boys	Husband	Alvin Theatre	[20]
1962	A Family Affair	Alfie Nathan	Billy Rose Theatre
1973-74	The Prisoner of Second Avenue	Mel Edison	National Tour
1980	Insideoutsideandallaround with Shelley Berman	Playwright-Performer	Bijou Theatre

Discography

• Inside Shelley Berman (1959)
• Outside Shelley Berman (1959)[21]
• The Edge of Shelley Berman (1960)[21]
• A Personal Appearance (1961)[21]
• New Sides (1963)[21]
• The Sex Life of The Primate (And Other Bits of Gossip) (1964)[21]
• Let Me Tell You a Funny Story (1968)[21]
• Live Again! Recorded at the Improv (1995)[21]
• To Laughter with Questions (2013)[21]
• When Jews Were Funny (2013)[21]

Bibliography

• Cleans and Dirtys (1966)
• A Hotel Is a Place ... (1972)
• Up in the Air With Shelley Berman (1986)[22]
• To Laughter With Questions (2013)[23]

Awards and Nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
1959	Grammy Awards	Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album	Inside Shelley Berman	Won	[24]
2006	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Nominated
2008	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated

Personal life

Berman married Sarah Herman on April 19, 1947. The two met while they were studying acting at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.[25]

In the mid-1960s, Berman and wife Sarah adopted two children, son Joshua and daughter Rachel.[10] The Bermans were planning Joshua's bar mitzvah when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Joshua died on October 29, 1977 at age 12.[25]

Berman and his wife were both enthusiastic supporters of the Motion Picture and Television Fund (located in Woodland Hills, California), a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries with limited or no resources, and contributed their time and resources to the benefit of the facilities and the residents.[3]

In the 1980s, the Chamber of Commerce in Canoga Park, California selected Berman to be one of the celebrities to serve a term as honorary mayor of Canoga Park.[26]

Allegation of plagiarism

In a 2012 podcast interview with Marc Maron, Berman alleged that comedian Bob Newhart plagiarized his improvisational telephone routine style, describing its genesis and saying it was a "very special technique that couldn't really be imitated.[27] It could be stolen. And it was." He continued, "I was coming to work at night and a guy stopped his car, passed me by, and said 'Hey, Shelley! There's a guy [who] stole your act!'"[27] When asked by Maron if it was done maliciously, Berman replied, "Maliciously? He wouldn't do it maliciously. Nobody does that. But he did it to make a living. And he became a star."[28]

When asked in interviews about the telephone issue, Bob Newhart noted that:

Shelley Berman did it before I did it. Mike (Nichols) and Elaine (May) did a version of it. There was a thing called 'Cohen on the Telephone,' which was a very, very early recording by Edison [Records] of a guy on the phone.[29]...George Jessel had a radio show...At the end, he would call up his mother and tell her how the show had gone. As a kid growing up, I remember listening to him and he would call his mother up and say, 'Mama, this is Georgie'" – he paused, skillfully – "'from the money.'"[28]

On his website, comedy writer Mark Rothman discussed the history of comic "telephone" monologists, who dated the routine as far back as the 1920s, George Jessel who was doing phone conversations with his mother in vaudeville, with the opening line "Hello Mama? This is Georgie." In the 30s and 40s there was this radio comedienne named Arlene Harris, often referred to as Arlene "Chatterbox" Harris, who did telephone monologues to one of her "friends." In the 50s, a great comedienne, Betty Walker, made about a zillion appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, doing essentially the same kind of act as Arlene Harris. All of this pre-dated Shelley Berman. Even Mike Nichols and Elaine May, who were contemporaries of Berman's at Second City, engaged in telephone dialogues, with very similar styled material.[30]

Death

Berman died from Alzheimer's disease-related complications at his home in Bell Canyon, California, in the early morning of September 1, 2017.[10] He was 92 years old. His archive was donated to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.[31]

Comedian Steve Martin praised Berman on Twitter, thanking him for "changing modern stand-up [comedy]".[32] Marc Maron also tweeted praising "Shelley Berman has hung up the phone. RIP. The guy who inspired me to sit. Great comic."[33]

References

1. "Shelley Berman, Famed 'Sit-Down' Comedian, Dies at 92". Hollywoodreporter.com. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
2. "Grammy Winner Shelley Berman Dies". Grammy.com. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
3. "Shelley Berman, Stand-Up Comic and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Actor, Dies at 92". NBC News. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
4. "Shelley Berman". University of Southern California. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
5. "18Doors". 18doors.org. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
6. McLellan, Dennis (September 1, 2017). "Shelley Berman, angst-filled comedian who pioneered standup (or sit-down) comedy, dies at 92". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
7. "Shelley Berman, angst-filled comedian who pioneered standup (or sit-down) comedy, dies at 92". Los Angeles Times. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
8. "HB Studio - Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC". Hbstudio.org. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
9. "Vintage Television". Kine Video. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
10. Keepnews, Peter (September 1, 2017). "Shelley Berman, Stand-Up Comic Who Skewered Modern Life, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
11. "The Second City Mourns the Loss of Shelley Berman". Broadway World. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
12. "Comedian Shelley Berman, who got his start in Chicago, dies at 92". The Chicago Sun-Times. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
13. "Yakky Doddle in Foxy Duck". Yowp.blogspot.com. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
14. "Rawhide "The Peddler"". TV Guide. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
15. "Shelley Berman Biography". Film Reference. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
16. "'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Star Shelley Berman Has Passed Away". The Observer. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
17. "Shelley Berman dead: Curb Your Enthusiasm alum dies at 92". Entertainment News. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
18. "Shelley Berman, Famed Comedian and 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Actor, Dead at 92". The Rolling Stone. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
19. "Shelley Berman". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
20. "Shelley Berman – Broadway Cast & Staff". IBDb.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
21. "Shelley Berman Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
22. Shelley Berman obituary The Guardian, accessdate February 20, 2018
23. Shelley Berman, Comic And ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Actor, Dead At 92, Huff Post, accessdate February 20, 2018
24. "Shelley Berman". IMDb.
25. "Shelley Berman, comedian-bard of everyday life, has died". The Washington Post. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
26. "The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California · Page 270". The Los Angeles Times. September 9, 1991. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
27. "Episode 332 – Shelley Berman". Wtfpod.com. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
28. Martel, Ned (April 12, 2005). "For Bob Newhart, Dean of Deadpan, the Laughs Go On". The New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
29. Thorn, Jesse (May 16, 2012). "Bob Newhart talks about stand-up, sitcoms, and why he stays busy | Comedy | Interview". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
30. Rothman, Mark (March 28, 2013). "The Telephone Hour". Markrothmansblog.blogpot.com. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
31. "National Comedy Center Acquires Archive Comedian Shelley Berman". The Post-Journal. February 1, 2018. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
32. "Steve Martin on Twitter". Twitter. September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
33. Ivie, Devon (September 2, 2017). "Shelley Berman, Comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm Actor, Dead at 92". Vulture.com. Retrieved 2020-03-18.

External links

• Official website
• Comprehensive Berman interview with Kliph Nesteroff
• Shelley Berman on IMDb 
• Shelley Berman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Shelley Berman at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Shelley Berman at AllMovie
• Audio interview on The Sound of Young America (MP3 link)
• Shelley Berman Radio Interview WSLR
• Shelley Berman at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
• Shelley Berman at Find a Grave