Ken Berry
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Ronald "Ken" Berry (born November 3, 1933) is an American
dancer, comedic actor
and singer. He began on stage as a dancer and later starred in television sitcoms.
, Illinois
. He made his television
debut on Arlene Francis
' Soldier Parade, when he was serving in the United States Army
during the Korean War
. After winning Ms. Francis' talent contest, he was invited to appear on Ed Sullivan
's Toast of the Town (which later evolved into The Ed Sullivan Show
). Berry's army sergeant
was Leonard Nimoy
, who urged him to return to California
after the war for television auditions. Following his discharge in 1955, Berry performed with the Billy Barnes Revues
in the 1950s and early 1960s. In the late 1950s, Berry appeared as a hotel bellhop named Woody in CBS
's The Ann Sothern Show
. During the 1960-1961 season, he guest starred with Pat O'Brien
on ABC
's sitcom, Harrigan and Son
.
Cast as a semi-regular practitioner on NBC
's Dr. Kildare
and as a choreographer on episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show
, Berry attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. In 1966, he was chosen to portray Captain Wilton Parmenter on ABC's F Troop
. Berry's grace and agility allowed him to perform choreographed pratfalls over hitching post
s, sabers, and trash cans as the accident-prone Captain Parmenter. He is noted for his dancing agility in one particular episode of the western, in which he walks down a boardwalk witlessly avoiding 13 hazards. He was primed as the future heir-apparent Sam Jones
on the eighth and final season of The Andy Griffith Show
, thus inheriting the sequel series Mayberry R.F.D.
. As the new head resident of Mayberry RFD from 1968 to 1971, Berry successfully assumed the reins from Sheriff Andy Taylor Andy Griffith
. For six years, Berry played the slow-witted Vinton Harper on Mama's Family
, a spinoff of the Carol Burnett Show.
In 1972, Berry co-starred with Carol Burnett
in the CBS special "Once Upon A Mattress". The same year, he had his own summer replacement series, The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show. In 1973 Sherwood Schwartz
wrote a Brady Bunch spin-off called Kelly's Kids, which featured Berry as the adoptive father of three diverse boys (white, black and Asian). The pilot failed to interest ABC, but the concept was revived later in Diff'rent Strokes
and Webster
. A favorite guest on The Carol Burnett Show
in the 1970s, Berry was chosen to star in the spin-off
Mama's Family, featuring the dysfunctional Harper clan
. Berry called his time on F Troop "two years of recess", and has referred to the idyllic Mayberry as "America's 'Brigadoon
'".
Series writers used his "trouper" talents in stories around church revues and talent contests. On the 1970 Mayberry RFD installment "The Charity", he and co-star Paul Hartman
did a soft shoe dance together. Berry would sometimes end an RFD show on the porch at dusk, serenading others with such songs as "Carolina Moon". On a Little House on the Prairie
installment, Berry played a nimble clown and circus manager, in a story that dealt with Nels Oleson's shame of an obese sister. He appeared on The Golden Girls
as Rose Nylund
's (Betty White
's) high school
sweetheart
, Thor Anderson in the show's seventh season. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s Berry was a spokesman in commercials for Kinney Shoes, singing and dancing to the "Great American Shoe Store" jingle.
Berry's film credits include, Wake Me When the War Is Over
, Hello Down There
and the Disney
motion pictures Herbie Rides Again
, and The Cat from Outer Space
.
and The Music Man
. In 2002, actress Betty White (who played his sister, Ellen, on Mama’s Family) said: "I'm a great Ken Berry booster. He's one of THE most versatile, and personable talents I've known."
Berry married actress Jackie Joseph
on May 29, 1960. They had met when they both performed with Billy Barnes. Berry and his wife adopted two children, but divorced in 1977.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dancer, comedic actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and singer. He began on stage as a dancer and later starred in television sitcoms.
Life and career
Berry was born in MolineMoline, Illinois
Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. He made his television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
debut on Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis was an American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist...
' Soldier Parade, when he was serving in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. After winning Ms. Francis' talent contest, he was invited to appear on Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 , which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S...
's Toast of the Town (which later evolved into The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
). Berry's army sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....
was Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
, who urged him to return to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
after the war for television auditions. Following his discharge in 1955, Berry performed with the Billy Barnes Revues
Billy Barnes (composer)
Billy Barnes is a composer and lyricist from Los Angeles, California. His hit songs include " Too Long at the Fair" recorded by Barbra Streisand , and "Something Cool", recorded by jazz vocalist June Christy...
in the 1950s and early 1960s. In the late 1950s, Berry appeared as a hotel bellhop named Woody in CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's The Ann Sothern Show
The Ann Sothern Show
The Ann Sothern Show is an American sitcom starring Ann Sothern that aired on CBS for 93 episodes. The series began on October 6, 1958, and ended on September 25, 1961. The Ann Sothern Show was Sothern's second sitcom for CBS...
. During the 1960-1961 season, he guest starred with Pat O'Brien
Pat O'Brien (actor)
Pat O’Brien was an American film actor with more than one hundred screen credits.-Early life:O’Brien was born William Joseph Patrick O’Brien to an Irish-American Catholic family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an altar boy at Gesu Church while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets...
on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's sitcom, Harrigan and Son
Harrigan and Son
Harrigan and Son is an ABC sitcom about a father-and-son team of lawyers, played by Pat O'Brien and Roger Perry as Jim Harrigan, Sr., and Jim, Jr. In supporting roles, as secretaries, are Georgine Darcy as Gypsy and Helen Kleeb as Miss Claridge. The series aired 34 episodes at 8 p.m. Eastern Time...
.
Cast as a semi-regular practitioner on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...
and as a choreographer on episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
, Berry attracted the attention of Hollywood producers. In 1966, he was chosen to portray Captain Wilton Parmenter on ABC's F Troop
F Troop
F Troop is a satirical American television sitcom that originally aired for two seasons on ABC-TV. It debuted in the United States on September 14, 1965 and concluded its run on April 6, 1967 with a total of 65 episodes. The first season of 34 episodes was filmed in black-and-white, but the show...
. Berry's grace and agility allowed him to perform choreographed pratfalls over hitching post
Hitching post
A hitching post is a post to which a horse may be tethered to prevent it from straying. The term can also refer to:* The "hitching post", a contentious punishment in the case of Hope v...
s, sabers, and trash cans as the accident-prone Captain Parmenter. He is noted for his dancing agility in one particular episode of the western, in which he walks down a boardwalk witlessly avoiding 13 hazards. He was primed as the future heir-apparent Sam Jones
Sam Jones (Mayberry R.F.D.)
Sam Jones is a fictional character who debuted on the American television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show . Jones then went on to star in the spin-off show Mayberry R.F.D.. Jones is portrayed by American actor Ken Berry.-Overview:...
on the eighth and final season of The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
, thus inheriting the sequel series Mayberry R.F.D.
Mayberry R.F.D.
Mayberry R.F.D. is a spin-off and direct continuation of The Andy Griffith Show under a new title, for the same sponsor, General Foods...
. As the new head resident of Mayberry RFD from 1968 to 1971, Berry successfully assumed the reins from Sheriff Andy Taylor Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith
Andy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's epic film A Face in the Crowd before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead...
. For six years, Berry played the slow-witted Vinton Harper on Mama's Family
Mama's Family
Mama's Family is an American television sitcom that premiered on NBC on January 22, 1983. It was cancelled in May 1984, but NBC would continue to air reruns until September 1985. In September 1986, Mama's Family returned in first-run syndication, where it aired for an additional four seasons,...
, a spinoff of the Carol Burnett Show.
In 1972, Berry co-starred with Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...
in the CBS special "Once Upon A Mattress". The same year, he had his own summer replacement series, The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show. In 1973 Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Schwartz
Sherwood Charles Schwartz was an American television producer. He worked on radio shows in the 1940s, and created the television series Gilligan's Island on CBS and The Brady Bunch on ABC...
wrote a Brady Bunch spin-off called Kelly's Kids, which featured Berry as the adoptive father of three diverse boys (white, black and Asian). The pilot failed to interest ABC, but the concept was revived later in Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
and Webster
Webster (TV series)
Webster is an American situation comedy that premiered on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989...
. A favorite guest on The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show
The Carol Burnett Show is a variety / sketch comedy television show starring Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, Lyle Waggoner, and Tim Conway. It originally ran on CBS from September 11, 1967, to March 29, 1978, for 278 episodes and originated from CBS Television City's Studio 33...
in the 1970s, Berry was chosen to star in the spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
Mama's Family, featuring the dysfunctional Harper clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
. Berry called his time on F Troop "two years of recess", and has referred to the idyllic Mayberry as "America's 'Brigadoon
Brigadoon
Brigadoon is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Songs from the musical, such as "Almost Like Being in Love" have become standards....
'".
Series writers used his "trouper" talents in stories around church revues and talent contests. On the 1970 Mayberry RFD installment "The Charity", he and co-star Paul Hartman
Paul Hartman
Paul Hartman was an American dancer, stage performer and television character actor.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, Hartman, like Fred Astaire, began performing as a dancer with his sister...
did a soft shoe dance together. Berry would sometimes end an RFD show on the porch at dusk, serenading others with such songs as "Carolina Moon". On a Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
installment, Berry played a nimble clown and circus manager, in a story that dealt with Nels Oleson's shame of an obese sister. He appeared on The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...
as Rose Nylund
Rose Nylund
Rose Nylund was born May 1930 in St. Olaf, Minnesota. She is a fictional character featured on the popular 1980s situation comedy The Golden Girls, and its spin-off The Golden Palace. She was portrayed by Betty White for 8 years and 208 episodes.Rose was comically portrayed as naïve and simple,...
's (Betty White
Betty White
Betty White Ludden , better known as Betty White, is an American actress, comedienne, singer, author, and former game show personality. With a career spanning seven decades since 1939, she is best known to modern audiences for her television roles as Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and...
's) high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
sweetheart
Sweetheart
Sweetheart can be:*The term of endearment applied to a person's significant other**Childhood sweetheart*Forgetful of bringing drinks to fellow coworkers*Sweetheart , recorded by Rainy Davis and re-recorded by Mariah Carey and Jermaine Dupri...
, Thor Anderson in the show's seventh season. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s Berry was a spokesman in commercials for Kinney Shoes, singing and dancing to the "Great American Shoe Store" jingle.
Berry's film credits include, Wake Me When the War Is Over
Wake Me When The War Is Over
Wake Me When the War Is Over is a 1969 American comedy made-for-TV film starring Ken Berry and Eva Gabor, and directed by Gene Nelson. It first aired on ABC.-Plot:...
, Hello Down There
Hello Down There
Hello Down There is a 1969 musical comedy film made by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Jack Arnold and Ricou Browning and produced by George Sherman and Ivan Tors from a screenplay by John McGreevey and Frank Telford. It starred Tony Randall and Janet Leigh...
and the Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
motion pictures Herbie Rides Again
Herbie Rides Again
Herbie Rides Again is a 1974 comedy film. It is the sequel to The Love Bug, released six years earlier, and the second in a series of movies made by Walt Disney Productions starring an anthropomorphic 1963 Volkswagen racing Beetle named Herbie...
, and The Cat from Outer Space
The Cat from Outer Space
The Cat from Outer Space is a 1978 Disney film, starring Ronnie Schell, Ken Berry, Sandy Duncan, Harry Morgan, Roddy McDowall and McLean Stevenson.-Plot:...
.
Off screen
After Mama's Family ended, Berry continued to perform/tour for a few more years in stage shows such as George M!George M!
George M! is a Broadway musical based on the life of George M. Cohan, the biggest Broadway star of his day who was known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway." The book for the musical was written by Michael Stewart, John Pascal, and Francine Pascal. Music and lyrics were, of course, by George M...
and The Music Man
The Music Man
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with...
. In 2002, actress Betty White (who played his sister, Ellen, on Mama’s Family) said: "I'm a great Ken Berry booster. He's one of THE most versatile, and personable talents I've known."
Berry married actress Jackie Joseph
Jackie Joseph
Jackie Joseph is an American character actress, voice artist, and writer known for portraying the film characters of: Audrey Fulquard in the original The Little Shop of Horrors, Sheila Futterman in both Gremlins films, and the voice of Melody in the animated television series Josie and the...
on May 29, 1960. They had met when they both performed with Billy Barnes. Berry and his wife adopted two children, but divorced in 1977.