Milton Berle

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Milton Berle publicity still
Background information
Born as:	Mendel Berlinger
Other names:	Mr. Television, Uncle Miltie, Mr. Tuesday Night
Born	Jul 12, 1908 Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Died	Mar 27, 2002 - at age 94 Los Angeles, California, U.S. Malignant colon cancer
Buried:	Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery
Spouse(s):	Joyce Mathews (1941 - 1947) divorced Joyce Mathews (remarried) (1949 - 1950) divorced Ruth Cosgrove Rosenthal (1953 - 1989) died Lorna Adams (1992 - )
Children:	3
Occupation:	Actor, comedian (1913–2000)
Editor's note about articles in this category

Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger; July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. His career as an entertainer spanned over eight decades, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948–1953), he was the first major American television star and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during the first Golden Age of Television. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in both radio and TV.

Early life

Milton Berle was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. His given name was Mendel Berlinger, but he adopted the professional name Milton Berle at the age of 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1872–1938), was of German-Jewish descent and worked as a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954), who was of Polish-Jewish ancestry, changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous. He had three older brothers (from oldest to youngest): Phil, Frank, and Jack Berle. For many years, the latter two worked on Berle's TV production staff, while Phil served as a programming executive at NBC.

Child actor

Berle entered show business in 1913 at the age of five when he won a children's Charlie Chaplin contest. He also worked as a child model and was "Buster Brown" for Buster Brown shoes. He appeared as a child actor in silent films. He claimed The Perils of Pauline as his first film appearance, playing the character of a young boy, although this has never been independently verified. In "Milton Berle: An Autobiography," he explained that the director told him he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. He said, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. This is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment, they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that."

According to Berle, he continued to play child roles in various films: Bunny's Little Brother, Tess of the Storm Country, Birthright, Love's Penalty, Divorce Coupons, and Ruth of the Range. Berle recalled, "There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, with Mary Pickford; The Mark of Zorro, with Douglas Fairbanks Sr.; and Tillie's Punctured Romance, with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand, and Marie Dressler." However, Berle's claim of having appeared in Tillie's Punctured Romance has been disputed by film historians, including Glenn Mitchell, who writes in his book, "The Chaplin Encyclopedia", that child actor Gordon Griffith most likely played the role Berle alleged.

In 1916, Berle enrolled in the Professional Children's School.

Career

Wikipedia article: Milton Berle Career

Purported penis size

Milton Berle gained significant notoriety in the entertainment industry due to the widely circulated rumors pertaining to the size of his genitalia. Phil Silvers recounted an anecdote of standing beside Berle at a urinal, glancing down, and humorously remarking, "You'd better feed that thing, or it's liable to turn on you!". In the short story A Beautiful Child, Truman Capote depicted Marilyn Monroe stating, "Christ! Everybody says Milton Berle has the biggest schlong in Hollywood." During a memorial service for Berle at the New York Friars' Club, Freddie Roman gravely announced, "On May 1st and May 2nd, his penis will be buried. " In 2023, on episode 1478 of WTF with Marc Maron, Arnold Schwarzenegger reminisced about how he jokingly remarked during Berle's eulogy, saying, "Look, even though the son of a bitch is dead, they still had a difficult time putting the top on his casket. "

Radio shock jock Howard Stern bombarded Berle with a series of penis questions during his appearances on Stern's morning talk show in 1988 and 1996. In Berle's 1988 appearance, while taking phone calls, Stern deliberately instructed his producer to only air callers whose questions related to Berle's penis. In his autobiography, Berle recounts an encounter with a man in a steam bath who challenged him to compare sizes, prompting a bystander to comment, "Go ahead, Milton, just take out enough to win". Berle credited this line to comedian Jackie Gleason and remarked, "It was maybe the funniest spontaneous line I ever heard". In the oral history Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, SNL writer Alan Zweibel recounts how Berle opened his bathrobe in his dressing room to show his penis size to Zweibel, only for cast member Gilda Radner to walk into an awkward situation.

Personal life

After marrying and divorcing showgirl Joyce Mathews twice, Berle married publicist Ruth Cosgrove (née Rosenthal) in 1953; she died of cancer in 1989. In 1989, Berle stated that his mother was behind the breakup of his marriages to Mathews. He also said that she managed to damage his previous relationships: "My mother never resented me going out with a girl, but if I had more than three dates with one girl, Mama found some way to break it up." He married a fourth time in 1992 to Lorna Adams, a fashion designer 30 years his junior. He had three children: Victoria (adopted by Berle and Mathews), William (adopted by Berle and Cosgrove), and a biological son, Bob Williams, with showgirl Junior Standish (née Jean Dunne Arthur; 1925–2006). Berle had two stepdaughters from his marriage to Adams: Leslie and Susan Brown. He also had three grandchildren: Victoria's sons James and Mathew, and William's son Tyler Daniel Roe, who died in 2014.

Berle's autobiography contains many tales of his sexual exploits. He claimed relationships with numerous famous women, including Marilyn Monroe, Betty Hutton, columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. The veracity of some of these claims has been questioned. The McPherson story, in particular, has been challenged by McPherson's biographer and her daughter, among others.

In later life, Berle found comfort in Christian Science and subsequently characterized himself as "a Jew and a Christian Scientist." Oscar Levant, when queried by Jack Paar about Berle's adoption of Christian Science, quipped, "Our loss is their loss."

Final role and death

Berle guest-starred as Uncle Leo in the Kenan & Kel special "Two Heads Are Better than None", which premiered in 2000. This would be his last acting role.

In April 2001, Berle announced that a malignant tumor had been found in his colon, but he declined surgery. Berle's wife stated the tumor was growing so slowly that it would take 10 to 12 years to impact him significantly or in a life-threatening manner. However, one year after the announcement, on March 27, 2002, Berle died in Los Angeles from colon cancer. He passed away on the same day as Dudley Moore and Billy Wilder.

Berle reportedly left arrangements to be buried alongside his second wife, Ruth, at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank. However, his body was cremated and interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City. (Warren Cowan, Berle's publicist, told The New York Times, "I only know he told me he bought plots at Hillside, and it was his idea.") In addition to his third wife, Lorna Adams, Berle was survived by his three children and extended family.

Honors and awards

• Berle won the Emmy for Most Outstanding Kinescoped Personality in 1950, the same year his show, the Texaco Star Theater, won the Emmy for Best Kinescope Show.
• He was twice nominated for Emmys for his acting, in 1962 and 1995.
• In 1979, Berle was awarded a special Emmy Award, titled "Mr. Television."
• The Hollywood Walk of Fame, on February 8, 1960, inducted Berle with two stars, for television and radio.
• Berle was in the first group of inductees into the Television Hall of Fame in 1984.
• On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Berle into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.

Filmography

Wikipedia article: Milton Berle Filmography

External links

More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Milton_Berle ]

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