Bernie was born June 21, 1933 and raised in Brooklyn, went to Erasmus High and then went
on to NYU where he majored in Dramatic Art.
Following his graduation, Bernie fulfilled his military obligation in the United States Navy which curiously assigned him to be the librarian at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia, and later sent him out to sea aboard the USS Iowa, where Bernie got his first taste of life aboard a sea faring vessel. Driving his taxi in 1958, Bernie got an unexpected "break". He picked up Dick Einfeld who was about to produce The Oregon Trail at 20th Century Fox. Bernie managed to convey to Dick during the ride to the airport that he was really not a "cab driver", but a temporarily misplaced actor. Einfeld cast Bernie as President Polk's secretary! Bernie got his SAG card and two entire lines –– "Yes, sir." –– "No, sir." In the early 1960's, Bernie became associated with the Players' Ring Theater in Los Angeles. It was here that he performed a variety of character roles and discovered his facility for accents and dialects. His television debut was in 1961 as a Cuban heavy on the CBS soap The Brighter Day. This role lasted for three months. In retrospect, it hardly seems conceivable that Bernie spent his first four years in the business almost exclusively as a Latin! He played a Mexican on The Danny Thomas Show, The Jack Benny Show and The Steve Allen Show. He was a Puerto Rican dentist on the Flying Nun, a Mexican small town mayor, hotel owner and bartender on My Favorite Martian and a Mexican divorce lawyer on the Dick Van Dyke Show. His most memorable work in front of the camera includes his work in television's Get Smart, as Conrad Siegfried (Agent of KAOS); That Girl, as Ann's neighbor and Don's coworker at Newsview Magazine, Jerry Bauman; and his many roles on Bewitched –– including a 100-year old apothecary, a Viennese psychiatrist, a blonde hippie, and a German submarine captain. His specialty was accents and dialects and he could handle Russian, German, Mexican and almost all others with ease. Then, finally, as Doctor Adam Bricker on The Love Boat. Bernie starred as Lenny Ganz in Neil Simon's Rumors at The Burt Reynolds' Jupiter Theater. He then continued with Rumors on a vary successful tour. On the Travel Channel, Bernie enjoyed hosting the very popular Railway Adventures Across Europe. In LA he starred in the World Premier of A History of Shadows, and a well received revival of Death of a Salesman. Bernie and Catrina Honadle opened their production of Neil Simon's Rumors at the Whitefire Theater in Los Angeles in June of 1996. It got marvelous reviews, sensational word of mouth, and ran for a phenomenal 11 months. Three weeks before closing, Bernie starred in Dick Van Dyke's Diagnosis Murder. In the Diagnosis Murder set, Bernie worked with his old pals Jack Klugman, Wayne Rogers and of course Dick Van Dyke. They'd all heard about Rumors, had been planning to come, and took this opportunity to make a party of it. They all came together and that same night Neil Simon came as well! It was the best performance ever. Neil Simon was ecstatic and said "This should have been my New York production!" In his private life, last year Bernie married producer-actress Catrina Honadle. On Halloween, October 31st, Bernie and Catrina celebrated the birth of their son, Adam Alexander. Adam is Bernie's first child and he is besotted with Adam. "Catrina and I are so grateful to be blessed with this amazing and gorgeous boy. People stop us in the market and say things like "Oh, what a beautiful child." Obviously Adam is the most important "production" in Catrina and Bernie's life! Bernie is a health and fitness devotee and works out faithfully with a jump rope. He is the California Chairman of the American Heart Association's "Jump Rope for Heart" program. He frequently participates in and has won many celebrity tennis tournaments benefiting worthy charities around the world. Here is Bernie Kopell's Filmography:
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