David Birney, Star of Controversial Sitcom ‘Bridget Loves Bernie,’ Dies at 83
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The actor, who died of Alzheimer’s, had pushed back on accusations from Jewish groups that his short-lived sitcom “Bridget Loves Bernie” stereotyped the faith.
David Birney, the actor whose TV, film, and stage career spanned nearly four decades, and included turns on the star-studded medical drama St. Elsewhere and the doomed sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie, has died. Michelle Roberge, a woman who identified herself as Birney’s life partner, told The New York Times that Birney died Friday at his Santa Monica home after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 83. The veteran actor shot to mainstream attention in 1972, after being cast as Bernie, a Jewish taxi driver, in CBS’ Bridget Loves Bernie. He played opposite his future wife, Meredith Baxter, to whom he was married from 1974 to 1989, for 24 episodes before the network axed the highly-rated show. Though no cause was ever given, Bridget Loves Bernie had attracted a wave of criticism from Jewish groups, who took issue with the positive portrayal of a Catholic-Jewish interfaith marriage, and accused the show of stereotypes. “Why does everybody want to know if I’m Jewish?” Birney, who was Irish Catholic, asked the Timesin 1972. “I really find it offensive, because I don’t know whether they’re asking about my religion or my background.”
