David Birney, star of TV’s “Bridget Loves Bernie” and “St. Elsewhere” and Broadway’s “Amadeus,” died Friday at his dwelling in Santa Monica, Calif. after a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s illness. He was 83.
The veteran actor’s passing was confirmed by “life associate” Michele Roberge, the New York Times reported.
Birney first gained mainstream fame in 1972 reverse his future spouse Meredith Baxter within the CBS sitcom “Bridget Loves Bernie.” The present was common — slotted between scores juggernauts “The Mary Tyler Moore Present” and “All within the Household — however short-lived because of controversial protests by Jewish groups who disagreed with the “intermarriage” of Birney’s Jewish cabbie character, Bernie Steinberg, and Baxter’s Bridget Fitzgerald, a Catholic grade faculty trainer from a rich household.
Each divorced on the time, Birney and the futxure “Household Ties” matriarch, who had two kids from her first marriage, obtained hitched for actual in 1974. The pair had three youngsters of their very own earlier than getting divorced in 1989.
Baxter later claimed that Birney was emotionally and bodily abusive in her bombshell 2011 guide “Untied: A Memoir of Household, Fame, and Floundering.” He vehemently denied her claims, deeming them an “appalling abuse of the reality.”
The son of an FBI agent, Birney was born on April 23, 1939, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Dartmouth Faculty with a level in English literature in 1961, then earned his grasp’s in theater from UCLA, Variety reported. After a tour within the US Military and a 12 months with the Barter Theatre in Virginia, Birney made his New York theater debut in 1967’s “The Comedy of Errors,” “King John” and “Titus Andronicus” on the Shakespeare Competition for Joseph Papp.
“I solely took the TV collection as a result of the choices for actors get fewer and fewer,” he told the Times at the height of his new TV fame in 1972. “I got here in within the mid-’60s when British actors dominated the American theater, and for an actor desirous to do Shakespeare you needed to steal these components across the nation someway. I’m very lucky to have been nearly steadily employed, however I haven’t all the time achieved what I’ve wished to do … I’ll go wherever at any time to do Romeo — you’ll be able to print that.”
After the aborted success of “Bridget Loves Bernie,” Birney earned acclaim for taking part in John Quincy Adams within the 1976 PBS manufacturing of “The Adams Chronicles.” The identical 12 months, he assumed the position of NYC detective Frank Serpico in an NBC collection adapted from Sidney Lumet’s 1973 movie “Serpico” (1973), which earned Al Pacino an Oscar nod for finest actor because the title character.
Within the ensuing a long time, he was a well-recognized face on tv and the stage, with a standout role as Antonio Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s Tony-winning “Amadeus” on Broadway. He was additionally within the unique solid of NBC’s basic medical comedy-drama, “St. Elsewhere,” in 1982 and 1983, however left the hit present to pursue his half in “Amadeus.”
He additionally equipped the voice of Anakin Skywalker within the NPR radio dramatization of “Return of the Jedi” in 1996. His remaining credited position was a visitor spot on the CBS police procedural drama “And not using a Hint” in 2007.
Along with his profession accomplishments, Birney chaired the American Diabetes Affiliation for 5 years and served on the Dartmouth Faculty Board of Overseers for the Hopkins Heart for the Performing Arts, in keeping with his official IMDB bio.
Birney is survived by his kids with Baxter — daughters Kate and Mollie Birney and a son, Peter Baxter — in addition to a stepdaughter, Eva Bush, and a stepson, Ted Bush, Baxter’s kids from a earlier marriage. He additionally had two grandchildren and his brothers, Glenn and Gregory.
