Early life and career

Berry was born in Moline in Rock Island County in northwestern Illinois, one of two children of the accountant, Darrell Berry, and his wife, Bernice. Berry is of Swedish-English descent.

Berry 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 dreamed of starring in movie musicals and would go to the movie theater to see Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in some of his favorite films including Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, On the Town, and Summer Stock.

Berry immediately started tap dance class and, at age 15, won a local talent competition sponsored by radio and television big band leader Horace Heidt. Heidt asked Berry to join his traveling performance ensemble, "The Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program", a popular touring group. He toured the U.S. and Europe for 15 months with the program, dancing and singing for the public and at post-World War II United States Air Force bases overseas. Berry made lasting relationships with several of his co-cast members and Horace's son, Horace Heidt Jr., who later launched a big band and radio career.

Army service

After high school graduation, Berry volunteered for induction into 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 division, where his sergeant announced a post talent contest. The winner would go to New York City to appear on Arlene Francis' Soldier Parade. 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 was as a part of the Special Services Corps, under the command of Sergeant Leonard Nimoy. 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, looking 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.

Film career

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 Twentieth Century Fox and a screen test at Universal Studios. He signed with an agent as soon as he arrived in Hollywood.

Berry 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 GI Bill of Rights, 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 to Tony Randall and Janet Leigh, 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 returned to Las Vegas where he opened for and joined Abbott & Costello in their stage act, performing sketches and song and dance routines at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. While working with Abbott & Costello, he met Dee Arlen, an actress whom he credits 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, along 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 Review

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. This show was where he met famed composer-impresario Billy Barnes who was the play's composer. Barnes would bring Berry into The Billy Barnes Review ensemble, his next break, and he would perform in many of Barnes' shows in the coming years.

While performing with Barnes, Berry worked with other performers including Berry's future wife, Jackie Joseph, as well as 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 their 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; the press dubbed him "another Fred Astaire" and "the next Gene Kelly". His talent was also compared to that of Flamenco Dancer José Greco, legend Donald O'Connor, Ray Bolger, and Jack Donahue.

Television career

Arthur Godfrey

From 1946 to 1958, Arthur Godfrey had an evening television show called Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. The show was a talent contest, and the winner would get a week's work on Godfrey's morning television program, which was simulcast on radio. One week in 1957, Berry won, 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 stock yard, in Seattle at a lumber camp, at the Boeing aircraft plant, and at the San Diego Zoo. Berry was responsible for coming up with a new routine for every show, which were aired daily.

Carol Burnett

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, Ken and Carol appeared together in the 1972 color remake of Burnett's Broadway hit, Once Upon A Mattress for CBS

A notable dramatic performance by Berry was 1982's TV movie Eunice, which was based on The Carol Burnett Show sketch, The Family. The Family was somewhat 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 Long Beach theatrical production of From the Top.

Lucille Ball

Berry's tenure with 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 she was starting 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 ten 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.

In 1968, Ball asked Berry to guest star on The Lucy Show, where he played a bank client needing a loan to start a dance studio. Ken performed a tribute to the Fred Astaire number "Steppin' Out with My Baby" and a duet with Ball for a rendition of "Lucy's Back in Town".

Additional television roles

After numerous smaller roles, Berry was cast as one of three comic relief characters on Dr. Kildare, from 1961 to 1966. A regular on the series, Berry played Dr. Kapish.

F-Troop and Mayberry R.F.D.

Berry continued doing guest roles, but while performing a small part on the short-lived George Burns-Connie Stevens sitcom Wendy & Me, both Burns and Stevens recommended him for the pilot of F-Troop for ABC, a western spoof where he played the accident-prone Captain Parmenter—his first weekly role starring in a sitcom.

Berry's co-stars were Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch. Berry called his time on F-Troop "two years of recess" as the entire cast spent time between takes trying to make each other laugh. His grace and agility allowed him to perform choreographed pratfalls over hitching posts, sabers, and trash cans.

In 1967, during the second year of F-Troop, Dick Linke - who was Berry's manager, and also managed Andy Griffith and Jim Nabors - pitched an F-Troop stage show to Bill Harrah, founder of Harrah's Entertainment, which included a casino and hotel in Reno, Nevada. Harrah went for it and Berry, Larry Storch, Forrest Tucker, and James Hampton put together a show, hiring writers and a choreographer to assist. While performing the Reno show they received word that F-Troop had been canceled due to a financial dispute between the production company and the studio.

The next year Berry was cast in the featured role of Sam Jones, a widowed farmer, on the last few episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. He would take over the lead role on the spin-off Mayberry R.F.D.. In September 1968, Berry led the cast of Mayberry R.F.D., as Griffith's character receded. Most of the regular characters stayed with the show. Andy and wife Helen left after a few episodes into season two. Series writers used Berry's "trouper" talents in stories about church revues and talent contests. On the 1970 Mayberry R.F.D. episode "The Charity", he and co-star Paul Hartman performed a soft shoe routine. Berry would sometimes end a show on the porch at dusk, serenading others with such songs as "Carolina Moon". In spite of finishing 15th place for season three, Mayberry R.F.D. was canceled in 1971 in what was called "the rural purge", where shows set in a bucolic locale (The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, and Petticoat Junction) were replaced with the more "hip" fare of Norman Lear (All In The Family) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

After Mayberry R.F.D., Berry starred in several made for TV movies, and his own summer replacement variety show on ABC called The Ken Berry 'Wow' Show in 1972, which ran for five episodes. This show was an opportunity for future stars Steve Martin, Cheryl Ladd and Teri Garr.

Later television

In 1973 Sherwood Schwartz wrote a Brady Bunch spin-off called Kelly's Kids, which featured Berry as the adoptive father of three diverse boys (black, white, and Asian). The pilot failed to interest ABC.

Over the next two decades Berry guest starred on many shows, including The Bob Newhart Show, The Julie Andrews Hour, several Mitzi Gaynor specials, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Donny & Marie Show, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, CHiPs, and The Golden Girls.

Mama's Family

In 1983, Berry was cast as Vinton Harper in Mama's Family, a spin-off from The Carol Burnett Show with comic-actors including Vicki Lawrence, Dorothy Lyman, Rue McClanahan, Betty White, and Beverly Archer during six seasons of the show. Mama's Family aired on NBC from 1983 to 1984 and in repeats until 1985. It was then picked up for first-run syndication from 1986 to 1990. The run totaled 130 episodes.

During and after Mama's Family, Berry toured the U.S. in various theatrical performances, including multiple performances of Sugar with co-stars such as Donald O'Connor, Mickey Rooney, Soupy Sales, and Bobby Morse, The Music Man with Susan Watson (Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi were in the chorus), I Do! I Do! with Loretta Swit, and Gene Kelly's A Salute to Broadway with Howard Keel and Mimi Hines. Kelly, Berry's idol, was to direct the production, but fell ill.

Commercials

In his younger years, Berry signed with a modeling agency that put him in a variety of spots, including advertisements for tissues, cigarettes, cereal, and a car commercial.

Years later, after signing with a commercial agent, Berry was a spokesman in commercials for Kinney Shoes from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, singing and dancing to the "Great American Shoe Store" jingle.

Record albums

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. They divorced in 1976.

Berry has "loved cars and anything with wheels" since he was a young child, particularly smaller cars, and maintains a 1966 Mini Moke. An avid motorcyclist, he would camp and ride the local Los Angeles mountain ranges.

Credits

List of television series credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1961-1966	Dr Kildare	Dr. Kapish
1964-1965	No Time for Sergeants	Joe Dalrymple
1965-1967	F Troop	Captain Parmenter
1968-1971	Mayberry RFD	Sam Jones
1968-1978	The Carol Burnett Show	Himself
1970	The Art Linkletter Show	Himself
1972	Ken Berry WOW Show	Himself	5 episodes
1983-1990	Mama's Family	Vinton Harper	130 episodes

List of other television appearances

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	Talent Patrol	Himself
1959	Playboy's Penthouse	Himself	With The Billy Barnes Review cast
1960	Harrigan and Son	Himself	As Curtis Decker
1960-1961	The Ann Sothern Show	Woody	10 episodes
1961	Hennesey	Ensign Mayberry	He played a character "Mayberry" seven years before he was cast in the lead in Mayberry, RFD
1961	The Asphalt Jungle	Doctor (uncredited)
1961	The Garry Moore Show	Himself
1962	GE True	Fiancé
1962	The Bob Newhart Show	various
1962	Mrs. G. Goes to College	Oscar
1962-1963	Ensign O'Toole	Lt. Melton / Calucci
1963	Burke's Law	Clyde (fella at party)
1964	Calhoun: County Agent	Otis Sorenson
1964	Combat!	Motor Sergeant
1964	The Dick Van Dyke Show	Tony Daniels (choreographer)
1964	Hazel	Phil Merrick
1964	The Rogues
1964-1965	Twelve O'Clock High	Major Bragg / Captain
1965	Rawhide	Lt. Tendall
1965	The Hollywood Palace	Himself
1966	Carol & Company	Himself
1967	Dateline: Hollywood	Himself
1967	Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In	Himself
1967	The Danny Thomas Hour	Skip
1967	The Woody Woodbury Show	Himself
1967	You Don't Say	Himself	Game show
1968	The Andy Griffith Show	Sam Jones
1969	Allen Ludden's Gallery	Himself
1969	The Ed Sullivan Show	Himself
1969	The Leslie Uggams Show	Himself
1969	Wake Me When the War is Over	Lt. Roger Carrington	Made-for-TV movie
1969-1971	The Andy Williams Show	Himself	Guest performer
1971	The First Nine Months are the Hardest	First husband
1971	The Reluctant Heroes	Lt. Parnell Murphy
1971	This Is Your Life: Andy Griffith	Himself
1971-1973	Love American Style	Various roles
1972	Arthur Godfrey's Portable Electric Medicine Show	Himself
1972	Every Man Needs One	David Chase	Made-for-TV movie
1972	Once Upon a Mattress	Dauntless the Drab
1972	The Julie Andrews Hour	Himself
1973	Letters from Three Lovers	Jack
1973 & 1974	Miss Teenage America Pageant	Himself, Master of Ceremonies
1973	Mitzi - The First Time	Himself
1973	The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast of Wilt Chamberlain	Himself
1973	The Mouse Factory	Himself
1974	The Brady Bunch	Ken Kelly	Episode used as the pilot for Kelly's Kids (which went unsold)
1974	Stand Up and Cheer	Himself
1974	Tattletales	Himself	Game show/5 episodes during one week with wife Jackie
1974	The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour	Himself
1975	Medical Center	Allan Ronston
1975	Mitzi and a Hundred Guys	Himself
1975	The Jim Stafford Show	Himself
1976	Ellery Queen	DJ Paul Parker / Buddy
1976	Mitzi - Roarin' in the Twenties	Himself
1976	Over and Out	Capt. Paddy Patterson
1977	Dinah!	Himself
1977	The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams	Will Boker
1977	The Love Boat II	Dr. Jim Berkley
1977	Valentine's Second Chance	Jimmy Valentine
1978	Apple Pie
1978	CBS: On the Air	Himself
1978-1982	Fantasy Island	Various
1979	Featherstone's Nest	Dr. Charlie Featherstone
1979	Little House on the Prairie	London
1979	The Love Boat	Robert Noble
1980	CHiPS	Kelly
1980	The Big Show	Himself
1982	Eunice	Phil Harper
1983	Just Men!	Himself	Game show hosted by Betty White
1983	Texaco Star Theatre: Opening Night	Himself
1985	Gimme a Break!	Dave
1986	Small Wonder	Buddy O'Conner
1992	The Golden Girls	Thor Anderson
1992	Vicki! Mama's Family Reunion	Himself
1993	Intimate Portrait: Vicki Lawrence	Himself
1997	The New Adventures of Batman	Seymour Grey
1999	Maggie Winters	Sheriff Riley
2000	E! True Hollywood Story: Andy of Mayberry	Himself
2000	Inside TV Land: The Andy Griffith Show	Himself
2006	CMT: The Greatest Country Comedy Shows	Himself
2006	My First Time: Variety is the Spice of Life	Himself

List of film credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1962	Two for the Seesaw	Larry	Dancing with Shirley MacLaine, uncredited
1964	The Lively Set	Hotel room service waiter	Uncredited
1969	Hello Down There	Mel Cheever	Film later re-released as Sub A Dub Dub
1974	Herbie Rides Again	Willoughby Whitfield
1976	Guardian of the Wilderness	Zachary More
1978	The Cat from Outer Space	Frank

List of theater credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	In League with Ivy	Himself
1958	Billy Barnes Review	Himself
1960	Billy Barnes' People	Himself
1960	Vintage '60	Himself
1961	Billy Barnes' Hollywood	Himself
1961	Little Mary Sunshine	Captain 'Big Jim' Warington
1961	The Billy Barnes Review	Himself
1963	Billy Barnes' LA	Himself
1964	The Best of Billy Barnes	Himself
1974	The Music Man	Prof. Harold Hill
1975	Gene Kelly's Salute to Broadway	Himself
1984	Run for Your Wife	John Smith
1993	From the Top	Various characters	With Carol Burnett
Multiple years	George M!	George M. Cohen
Multiple years	I Do! I Do!	Michael Snow
Multiple years	Sugar	Joe

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[ Source: Wikipedia ]