Warren Berlinger: Movies & Box Office

Warren Berlinger (August 31, 1937 – December 2, 2020) was an American character actor whose career spanned seven decades, encompassing Broadway, film, television, and commercial work. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Frieda (née Shapkin) and Elias Berlinger, a building contractor of Jewish heritage, he grew up in a family that owned a glass store on Avenue D, an environment that nurtured his early interest in performance. At the age of nine he debuted in the original 1946 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun alongside Ethel Merman, marking the start of a prolific stage career that later included award‑winning roles in Blue Denim (for which he received a Theatre World Award) and productions such as The Happy Time, Anniversary Waltz, and the London run of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Transitioning to screen, Berlinger’s first film credit came in 1956 with Teenage Rebel, and he quickly amassed a diverse résumé that featured appearances in Because They're Young (1960), The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1960) opposite Jack Lemmon and Rick Nelson, and a memorable turn as Phillip Short in Elvis Presley's 1966 musical Spinout. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he became a familiar face on television, guest‑starring on series such as Happy Days, Charlie’s Angels, Friends, Columbo, and Murder, She Wrote, while also delivering supporting roles in films like The Long Goodbye (1973), The Cannonball Run (1981), and The World According to Garp (1982). In 1973 he was a regular on the short‑lived sitcom A Touch of Grace and later appeared in the 1996 Robert Zemeckis‑directed musical That Thing You Do!. His later years saw him honored as the honorary mayor and sheriff of Chatsworth, California, and his final screen performance occurred in a 2016 episode of Grace and Frankie. Married to actress Betty Lou Keim in 1960, the couple raised four children before Keim’s death in 2010; Berlinger himself succumbed to cancer in December 2020 at age 83.