Biography

Eric Berry was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 9 January 1913 to parents Frederick William Berry and Anna Lovisa Danielson. He attended the City of London School

City of London School

The City of London School is a boys' independent day school on the banks of the River Thames in the City of London, England. It is the brother school of the City of London School for Girls and the co-educational City of London Freemen's School...

 and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...

. Berry was briefly married to actress Constance Carpenter

Constance Carpenter

Constance Emmeline Carpenter was an English-born American film and musical theatre actress.-Biography:Born in Bath, Somerset, Carpenter was the daughter of vaudevillians and began performing at an early age....

. He died of cancer

Cancer

Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 on 2 September 1993 in Laguna Beach, California

Laguna Beach, California

Laguna Beach is a seaside resort city and artist community located in southern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southwest of the county seat of Santa Ana...

.

Career

Eric Berry made his first stage appearance in April 1931 in a production of Spilt Milk at what was then known as the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead. He made his West End theatre

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 debut the following year in a production of The Cathedral at what is now the Noël Coward Theatre

Noël Coward Theatre

The Noël Coward Theatre, formerly known as the Albery Theatre, is a West End theatre on St. Martin's Lane in the City of Westminster. It opened on 12 March 1903 as the New Theatre and was built by Sir Charles Wyndham behind Wyndham's Theatre which was completed in 1899. The building was designed by...

, then referred to as the New Theatre. Berry first appeared on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 in September 1954 as Percival Browne in a production of The Boy Friend

The Boy Friend

The Boy Friend is a musical by Sandy Wilson. The musical's original 1954 London production ran for 2,078 performances, making it briefly the third-longest running musical in West End or Broadway history until it was surpassed by Salad Days...

at the Royale Theatre, a production which set a record for the longest-running Broadway production of a British musical. In 1972, Pippin

Pippin (musical)

Pippin is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto...

opened at the Imperial Theatre

Imperial Theatre

The Imperial Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 249 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan. The theatre seats up to 1417 people....

 starring Eric Berry as Charles, a part he would perform for the show's six-year Broadway run. Berry performed in a number of other productions on Broadway, including The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1590 or 1591. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and tropes with which he would later deal in more...

in 1958, The Great God Brown

The Great God Brown

The Great God Brown is a 1926 play by Eugene O'Neill. It is noted for its use of masks.-Plot:Dion Anthony and his friend William A. "Billy" Brown are sons of business partners. Both love Margaret, but she falls in love with Dion when he is presented behind a cruel and cynical mask, even though he...

in 1959, and Gideon

Gideon (play)

Gideon, a play by Paddy Chayefsky, is a seriocomic treatment of the story of Gideon, a judge in the Old Testament. The play had a successful Broadway run in 1961 and was broadcast on NBC in 1971 as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special.-The story:...

in 1961.

From 1937 through 1983, Eric Berry also appeared in films and on television. Films in which Berry appeared include The Red Shoes in 1948, Miss Robin Hood

Miss Robin Hood

Miss Robin Hood is a 1952 British film directed by John Guillermin. It falls neatly within the genre of post-war British fantasy, and there are strong correlations with a number of films within this genre such as e.g...

in 1952, Escape by Night

Escape by Night (1953 film)

Escape by Night is a 1953 British crime film directed and written by John Gilling.-Plot:Gino Rossi is an Italian crime boss on the run who hides in a theater with a British journalist who wants to extract his life story.-Cast:...

in 1953 and the 1961 adaptation of The Light that Failed

The Light that Failed

The Light That Failed is a novel by Rudyard Kipling that was first published in 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events throughout the story occur in Sudan or India. The Light that Failed follows the life of Dick Heldar, a painter who...

. Teleplay

Teleplay

A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...

s in which Berry appeared include Sunday Night Theatre

Sunday Night Theatre

Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of plays created by the BBC first in early 1950, and was regularly shown on Sundays until late 1959, when the last play, A Cup of Kindness, was staged...

in 1950 and 1951, Play of the Week

Play of the Week

Play of the Week is an American anthology series of televised stage plays which aired in NTA Film Network syndication from October 12, 1959 to May 1, 1961...

in 1960, and Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an anthology television series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967...

in 1963.