Barney Bernard (2)

American comic actor (born August 17, 1877 in Rochester, NY - died March 21, 1924 in New York, NY) Bernard performed on stage, film, and record, usually playing aging, ethnically Jewish characters. From 1907, he acted on Broadway, including in the "Ziegfeld Follies of 1908", where he played a character named Mr. Wiseheimer, and in other musical revues, such as "La Belle Paree" (1911), "Vera Violetta" (1911), and "The Whirl of Society" (1912). In 1913, he had his breakthrough with the immensely successful comedy "Potash and Perlmutter," in which Bernard played Abe Potash and his friend Alexander Carr portrayed Mawruss Perlmutter, two business partners in New York's garment industry. The play ran for 441 performances on Broadway and then went on to London. On the wings of this success, Bernard starred in the silent movie comedies "Phantom Fortunes" (1916) and "A Prince in a Pawn Shop" (1916); he also played a minor, uncredited role as an attorney in D. W. Griffith's "Intolerance" (1916). In 1923, he and Carr co-starred in Samuel Goldwyn's film version of "Potash and Perlmutter." In 1916, Bernard also released two of his comic routines on Victor 18029, "Cohen at the Telephone" and "Goldstein goes in the Railroad Business." Bernard died of pneumonia in 1924 while filming a sequel to the "Potash and Perlmutter" movie.