David Birney Dies: ‘Bridget Loves Bernie’, ‘St. Elsewhere’ Actor Was 83
deadline.comDavid Birney, an actor who found early success on Broadway before landing the co-starring role on a 1972 sitcom, Bridget Loves Bernie, that would be one of the most controversial TV shows of its era, died of Alzheimer’s disease Friday, April 29, at his home in Santa Monica, Calif.
He was 83.His death was reported to The New York Times by his life partner, Michele Roberge.Born in Washington D.C. and raised in Cleveland, Birney had studied theater at the University of California, Los Angeles, when in 1965 he began acting in regional theaters across the country, including the Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, and the Hartford Stage Company in Connecticut.In 1967, he performed in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of A Comedy of Errors, and in 1969 he made his Broadway debut as Cleante in Molière’s The Miser.
In all, he appeared in seven Broadway productions through 1985, including The Good Woman of Setzuan (1970), The Playboy of the Western World (1971), An Enemy of the People (1971), Antigone (1971), Amadeus (1980) and Benefactors (1985).Although he had small roles in a number of television series beginning in the late 1960s, Birney found his signature role in the short-lived Bridget Loves Bernie, a CBS situation comedy about the marriage of Jewish cab driver and writer Bernie Steinberg, played by Birney, and Catholic schoolteacher Bridget Fitzgerald, played by Meredith Baxter (the co-stars would marry in real life following the show’s cancelation).The series was given pride of place on CBS’ famed Saturday night line-up, following All in the Family and preceding The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
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