Remembering Beryl Bernay

Age 94, New York City
Passed away on March 29, 2020

Beryl Bernay (March 2, 1926 March 29, 2020) was a journalist and children's television creator, as well as a painter, photographer, actor and fashion designer.

Bernay was born Beryl Bernstein in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Russian immigrants. Her father was a garment worker, and her mother, Sade, sold stockings and taught kindergarten. Her father changed the family name to Berney when Beryl was a child, but Beryl changed the spelling to Bernay when she reached adulthood.1

Bernay took acting classes with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof. She appeared on Broadway in Tonight in Samarkand in 1955 and later that year in ANTA's Paris production of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth with Helen Hayes and Mary Martin.2 She returned to Broadway in 1957 as the narrator in The Dancers of Bali and toured with the production in the United States and Canada.3 She appeared on stage,4 television5 and radio6 from the late 1950s through the 2000s.7 Her last television appearance was in 1983 as the librarian in a Law and Order episode (Season 3, Episode 13), her last stage performance was as Aunt Ev in the 2010 production of The Miracle Worker at The Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, New York.8

While she was in Paris in the mid-1950s, she went to the south of France to take portraits of Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso. She sent the photos to Harper's Weekly, with an article she wrote, and which was published.

Bernay wrote and broadcast articles on domestic and international events, first as an independent photojournalist and later as a United Nations correspondent.9 As an independent journalist, Bernay wrote about women in politics,14 human rights abuses,9 and politically sensitive topics.15 Her United Nations journalism primarily focused on Southeast Asia.16 Her articles and photographs have appeared as cover stories or features in numerous publications, including Newseek,3 Time, Parade, the New York Times.,9 the Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, and the UN Observer.17

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