Herschel Bernardi

Swarthy character player, best remembered as Tevye in the long-running musical "Fiddler on the Roof." Bernardi played gangster types or slow-thinking, good-natured schmoes in occasional feature comedies and dramas including "A Cold Wind in August" (1961), "Irma La Douce" (1963), and "The Front" (1976). A busy voice-over artist as well, Bernardi was much in demand for cartoon characters, as with his Charlie the Tuna of TV commercials fame.

• Born:
  October 30, 1923 in New York, New York
• Died:
  May 9, 1986.
• Job Titles:
  Actor

Significant Others

• Wife: . divorced; mother of Bernardi's two older children
• Wife: . mother of his infant son; survived him

Milestones

• 1968 Returned to Broadway to star in the title role of the musical, "Zorba"
• Earliest films include the Yiddish-language "Green Fields" (1937) and "Yankel the Shoemaker" (1939)
• Starred on Broadway as Tevye in the musical, "Fiddler on the Roof"