Entertainment
David Birney, Bridget Loves Bernie and St Elsewhere actor, dies aged 83Tori Brazier
Birney died at his home on Friday (Picture: Getty)
David Birney, the Broadway actor best known for his appearances on the sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie and medical drama St Elsewhere, has died at the age of 83.
He died at his home in Santa Monica, California on Friday.
The cause was Alzheimer’s disease, as reported by The New York Times, with which the actor was diagnosed in 2017, citing Michele Roberge, who told the publication she was his life partner.
Birney had great success on stage during his acting career, appearing in productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival and on Broadway, where he appeared in Amadeus and Man and Superman.
He also portrayed classical parts including Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard III, as well as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird and Algernon Moncrieff in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
However, he achieved wider recognition through his onscreen work, which included the popular but controversial sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie from 1972 to 1973.
Birney in the short-lived Bridget Loves Bernie with co-star Meredith Baxter (Picture: CBS via Getty Images)
The actor as Dr Ben Samuels on St Elsewhere (Picture: NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Depicting an inter-faith marriage between a Jewish taxi driver and a Catholic schoolteacher, CBS gave the show a plum slot, where it consistently finished within the top ten programmes in prime time and was the highest rated new show of the season.
Following public criticism from many Jewish groups though, who objected to its portrayal of intermarriage and claimed the show used Jewish stereotypes, Bridget Loves Bernie was cancelled.
Birney went on to wed his Bridget co-star Meredith Baxter in 1974, and the couple welcomed three children together before divorcing in 1989.
Birney with his now-wife Meredith Baxter in 1982. The former co-stars would go on to divorce in 1989 (Picture: Maureen Donaldson/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The actor went on to appear in mini-series The Adams Chronicles as John Quincy Adams, as well as the TV adaptation of Serpico, where he starred in the lead role taken on by Al Pacino in the 1973 film.
His one season as Dr Ben Samuels came in the early 1980s, and the passionate stage performer also appeared in guest roles on other big shows including Murder, She Wrote, The Love Boat, The Twilight Zone and Hawaii Five-O.
The couple also starred together on The Love Boat in 1982 (Picture: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Born on April 23, 1939 to an FBI special agent father and housewife-turned-estate-agent mother, Birney attended Ivy League college Dartmouth and UCLA.
After serving in the army, he moved to regional theatre in Virginia and made his Broadway debut in 1969 in a production of Molière’s The Miser.
His other notable work included a 1967 appearance in soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and John Carpenter’s TV movie horror Someone’s Watching Me! In 1978.
His last credit came from a guest appearance in 2007 on Without a Trace, a series about the special FBI Missing Persons Squad.
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He is survived by daughters Kate and Mollie Birney, son Peter Baxter, stepchildren Eva and Ted Bush, two grandchildren, and brothers, Glenn and Gregory.
He was also married to – and divorced from – Mary Concannon.
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