Kenneth Ronald Berry (November 3, 1933 – December 1, 2018) was an American actor, comedian, dancer, and singer. Berry starred on the television series F Troop (1965–1967), Mayberry R.F.D. (1968–1971) and Mama's Family (1983–1990). He also appeared on Broadway in The Billy Barnes Revue, headlined as George M. Cohan in the musical George M! and provided comic relief for the medical drama Dr. Kildare with Richard Chamberlain in the 1960s.
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Early life
Berry was born in Moline, Illinois in 1933 of Swedish and English descent, one of two children of an accountant, Darrell Berry, and his wife, Bernice (née Larson). He realized he wanted to be a dancer and singer at age 12, as he watched a children's dance performance during a school assembly. He then dreamed of starring in musicals and went to movie theaters to watch Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in some of his favorite films such as Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, On the Town, and Summer Stock.
Berry soon began attending tap dance classes, and by age 15 he won a local talent competition sponsored by radio and television big band leader Horace Heidt. Impressed by the young dancer's talent, Heidt asked him to join his popular traveling performance ensemble, "The Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program". Berry accepted and toured the United States and Europe for 15 months, dancing and singing for the public and at post-World War II United States Air Force bases overseas. Berry during those months made lasting relationships with several ensemble members, including Heidt's son, Horace Jr., who later launched a big band and radio career.
Army service
Following his graduation from Moline High School, Berry volunteered for the United States Army, and was assigned to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. His first year in the Army was spent in the artillery, where he entered a post talent contest; the winner would go on Arlene Francis's Soldier Parade in New York City. Berry, who always carried his tap shoes with him, worked out a routine and a few hours later won the contest. He headed to New York for his television debut.
Berry's second and final year in the Army was with Special Services, under Sergeant Leonard Nimoy, who encouraged Berry to go to Hollywood and pursue acting. As a part of Special Services, he toured Army posts and officers' clubs, entertaining the troops as well as visiting colleges for recruiting purposes. Soon, another talent competition was held, the All Army Talent Competition, to find service personnel to appear on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town. Berry placed third in the "Specialty Act" category with the song "There'll Be Some Changes Made" and returned to New York City and television.
Career
Film work
The Sullivan appearance was to take place shortly before Berry would muster out of the Army. Nimoy sent telegrams to several studios and talent agents asking them to watch Berry on the show. The performance led to an offer from 20th Century Fox and a screen test at Universal Studios. Berry signed with an agent as soon as he arrived in Hollywood. He accepted Universal's offer and began as a contract player. Soon he was being groomed to take over for Donald O'Connor in the Francis the Talking Mule movie series; however, Mickey Rooney became available and got the part. At Universal, Berry took full advantage of the studio's talent development program, and later, under the G.I. Bill, he took jazz dance, ballet, vocal, and additional acting classes. The movie musicals Berry admired had already seen their heyday; however, acting, which he once thought of as "something I would do between song and dance routines", became the basis of his career.
Berry went on to star in the 1969 musical comedy Hello Down There — reissued as Sub a Dub Dub — as Mel Cheever, the nemesis of Tony Randall and Janet Leigh. He also starred in 1969's made-for-television film Wake Me When the War Is Over, with Eva Gabor and Werner Klemperer. and with Denver Pyle in 1976's Guardian of the Wilderness, the story of Galen Clark, the man who created Yosemite National Park. Berry also earned broader success as a Disney star in the films Herbie Rides Again in 1974, with Helen Hayes and Stefanie Powers, and The Cat from Outer Space in 1978, with Sandy Duncan and McLean Stevenson.
Las Vegas
In 1956, after being released from Universal, Berry ventured to Las Vegas, where he opened for and joined Abbott and Costello in their stage act, performing sketches and song and dance routines at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. While working with Abbott and Costello, he met Dee Arlen, an actress whom he credited with getting him his first big break. This was Berry's first performance on the Las Vegas Strip. Then, in 1957, Berry was asked by Ken Murray, a well-known vaudeville performer, to join his stage variety show, The Ken Murray Blackouts. The Blackouts played to standing-room-only audiences, and Berry was asked to choreograph and perform the opening number for the show when it played the Riviera hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Berry eventually returned to Las Vegas again in the 1970s at the invitation of Andy Griffith. Griffith, with Berry and Jerry Van Dyke, played Caesars Palace, where Berry performed song and dance numbers sandwiched by Andy and Jerry's stand-up routines.
The Billy Barnes Revue
Actress Dee Arlen referred Berry for a role in the show In League with Ivy at the Cabaret Concert Theatre, a nightclub in Los Angeles. There he met famed composer–impresario Billy Barnes, the play's composer. Barnes brought Berry into The Billy Barnes Revue ensemble, Berry's next break, and he performed in many of Barnes' shows in the coming years. While with Barnes, Berry worked with other performers, including his future wife Jackie Joseph and Joyce Jameson, Bert Convy, Patti Regan, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Lennie Weinrib, and sketch writer/director Bob Rodgers. Several cast albums were made. In November 1959, the original cast of the Broadway show was replaced two weeks after a legal dispute with the producers over a canceled performance. The cast had missed its flight from Chicago after a promotional appearance on Playboy's Penthouse, and refunds had to be made to the ticket holders. He performed in several stage shows in Los Angeles.
Television work
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts was a prime time television talent contest that ran from 1946 to 1958. The winner got a week's work on Godfrey's morning television program, which was simulcast on radio. Berry won in 1957, performed his week on the show, and was then asked back for six more weeks. He traveled with Godfrey and performed on remote broadcasts in an Omaha stockyard, in Seattle at a lumber camp, at the Boeing aircraft plant, and at the San Diego Zoo. Berry came up with a new routine for every show, which aired daily.
The Billy Barnes Review was popular with Hollywood, and one evening Carol Burnett was in Los Angeles and saw Berry in the show. She was appearing on The Garry Moore Show in New York and convinced the producers to sign Berry as a guest star. Burnett became a key ally for Berry, using him on her own special, which eventually became CBS's The Carol Burnett Show. Ken was one of Burnett's most frequent guest stars along with Jim Nabors and Steve Lawrence. In 1972, Berry and Burnett appeared together in the color remake of Burnett's Broadway hit, Once Upon a Mattress for CBS.
A notable dramatic performance by Berry was 1982's television movie Eunice, which was based on The Carol Burnett Show sketch, The Family. The Family was something of a pilot for Mama's Family. Berry played Phillip, Eunice's brother, in the special; however he went on to play Vinton, a different brother, on Mama's Family.
His collaboration with Carol Burnett continued with the 1993 theatrical production of From the Top in Long Beach, California.
The Billy Barnes Review also led to another important connection in his career when he was spotted by Lucille Ball. Ball quickly asked him to join her new talent development program at Desilu, similar to the "talent pools" – known as talent "programs" – that the other studios had. He was under contract with Desilu for six months, performing for both Ball and Barnes at the same time. The reviews for The Billy Barnes Review were largely positive, and additional investors contributed the extra money needed to move the show from the York Playhouse to Broadway, which meant he had to take leave from Desilu.
After returning from New York in 1960, Berry was brought back to Desilu to play Woody, a bell hop, in 10 episodes of CBS's The Ann Sothern Show, which was set in a New York hotel called the Bartley House. The character Woody served as a "Greek chorus of one" on the series.
Discography
Berry's first recording experience came with the Billy Barnes cast albums: one from the Broadway performance of The Billy Barnes Review and the second in Billy Barnes' L.A.
After an appearance on The Andy Williams Show, Williams asked Berry to record a solo album on his new Barnaby label. Backed by a full orchestra, Ken Berry RFD was released in 1970.
Personal life
Berry married Jackie Joseph, a Billy Barnes castmate, on May 29, 1960. On November 29, 1962, their son Joseph Larson Berry was born but died 6 days later on December 5, 1962. They then adopted two children together, John (1964–2016) and Jennifer (1965–2020). They divorced in 1977. His son John, who later became a co-founder of the Indie rock band Idaho, died in 2016 of brain cancer at the age of 51.
His daughter Jennifer died in 2020 of natural causes at the age of 55. Berry's longtime partner and companion, Susie Walsh, a stage manager, was with him for the last 24 years.
Berry "loved cars and anything with wheels" from the time he was a young child, particularly smaller cars, and maintained a 1966 Mini Moke. An avid motorcyclist, he camped and rode the local Los Angeles mountain ranges.
Death
Berry died of heart complications in Burbank, California, on December 1, 2018, at the age of 85.
