“I came in in the mid-’60s when British actors dominated the American theater, and for an actor wanting to do Shakespeare, you had to steal those parts around the country by hook or by crook.
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“I only took the TV series because the options for actors get fewer and fewer,” he told the Times at the height of his new TV fame in 1972. David Birney and Linda Purl in 1977’s “Testimony of Two Men.” Getty Images Actor David Birney and the consul general of France, Philippe Larrieu, in 2005 at the afterparty for the film premiere of “The Chorus.” Getty Images After a tour in the US Army and a year 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” at the Shakespeare Festival for Joseph Papp. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English literature in 1961, then earned his master’s in theater from UCLA, Variety reported.
The son of an FBI agent, Birney was born on April 23, 1939, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. The pair had three kids of their own before getting divorced in 1989.īaxter later claimed that Birney was emotionally and physically abusive in her bombshell 2011 book “Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame, and Floundering.” He vehemently denied her claims, deeming them an “appalling abuse of the truth.” Getty Imagesīoth divorced at the time, Birney and the future “Family Ties” matriarch, who had two children from her first marriage, got hitched for real in 1974.
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The veteran actor’s passing was confirmed by “life partner” Michele Roberge, the New York Times reported.īirney first gained mainstream fame in 1972 opposite his future wife Meredith Baxter in the CBS sitcom “Bridget Loves Bernie.” The show was popular - slotted between ratings juggernauts “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “All in the Family - but short-lived thanks to 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 school teacher from a wealthy family.Ĭast of the “CBS Schoolbreak Special” made-for-TV movie “15 and Getting Straight”: (clockwise from top) David Birney, Tatum O’Neal, Drew Barrymore and Corey Feldman. Elsewhere” and Broadway’s “Amadeus,” died Friday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., after a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Elsewhere was ranked #20 on TV Guide's 2002 list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.", with the magazine also selecting it as the best drama series of the 1980s in a 1993 issue.Celebrities react to Queen Elizabeth’s death: Elton John, Mick Jagger and moreĬharles immediately becomes king after death of mom, Queen Elizabeth IIīritish monarch, who lived up to her vow of ‘devoted service’ for over 70 years, dead at 96ĭavid Birney, star of TV’s “Bridget Loves Bernie” and “St. The series also earned critical acclaim during its run, earning 13 Emmy Awards for its writing, acting, and directing. Elsewhere gained a small yet loyal following over its 6-season, 137-episode run the series also found a strong audience in Nielsen's 18-49 age demographic, a young demo later known for a young, affluent audience that TV advertisers are eager to reach. Known for its combination of gritty, realistic drama and moments of black comedy, St.
Elsewhere was filmed at CBS/MTM Studios, which was known as CBS/Fox Studios when the show began coincidentally, 20th Century Fox wound up acquiring the rights to the series when it bought MTM Enterprises in the 1990s. The series was produced by MTM Enterprises, which had success with a similar NBC series, the police drama Hill Street Blues, during that same time both series were often compared to each other for their use of ensemble casts and overlapping serialized storylines. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at a lightly-regarded Boston hospital who gave interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from Octoto May 25, 1988.