Corbin Dean Bernsen (born September 7, 1954) is an American actor and film director. He appeared as divorce attorney Arnold Becker on the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
drama series ''
L.A. Law'',
[Biography](_blank)
from a USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
website for ''Psych
''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observ ...
'' as Dr. Alan Feinstone in ''
The Dentist
''The Dentist'' is a 1996 American slasher film directed by Brian Yuzna and written by Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon, and Charles Finch. It stars Corbin Bernsen, Linda Hoffman and Ken Foree. It is the first installment in ''The Dentist'' film ser ...
'', as retired police detective
Henry Spencer
Henry Spencer (born 1955) is a Canadian computer programmer and space enthusiast. He wrote "regex", a widely used software library for regular expressions, and co-wrote C News, a Usenet server program. He also wrote ''The Ten Commandments for C ...
on the
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
series ''
Psych
''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observ ...
'', and as Roger Dorn in the films ''
Major League'', ''
Major League II
''Major League II'' is a 1994 American sports comedy film and sequel to the 1989 film '' Major League'' and it is the second installment in the ''Major League'' film series. The film stars most of the same cast from the original, including Charl ...
'', and ''
Major League: Back to the Minors''. He also appeared regularly on ''
The Resident'', ''
General Hospital
''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the list of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running American soap opera in pro ...
'', and ''
Cuts'', and has had intermittent appearances on ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...
''.
Early life
Bernsen was born in
North Hollywood
North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, the eldest son of Harry Bernsen Jr., a Hollywood producer, and veteran soap actress
Jeanne Cooper
Wilma Jeanne Cooper (October 25, 1928 – May 8, 2013) was an American actress, best known for her role as Katherine Chancellor on the CBS soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' (1973–2013). At the time of her death, she was eighth on the ...
, who appeared on ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City, Wi ...
''.
He graduated from
Beverly Hills High School
Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as Beverly or as BHHS) is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on B ...
in 1972. Bernsen is also a "double
Bruin
Bruin, (from Dutch for "brown"), is an English folk term for brown bear.
Bruin, Bruins or BRUIN may also refer to:
Places
* Lake Bruin, ox-bow lake of the Mississippi River located in northeastern Louisiana
** Lake Bruin State Park
* Bruin, Ke ...
," having received both a
BA in Theatre Arts in 1977 and an MFA in Playwriting in 1979 from the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(UCLA).
Career
Acting
After a two-year appearance on the soap opera ''
Ryan's Hope
''Ryan's Hope'' is an American soap opera created by Claire Labine and Paul Avila Mayer, airing for 13 years on ABC from July 7, 1975, to January 13, 1989. It revolves around the trials and tribulations within a large Irish-American family in th ...
'',
Bernsen was cast as lawyer Arnold Becker on the
Steven Bochco
Steven Ronald Bochco Masterson (December 16, 1943 – April 1, 2018) was an American television writer and producer. He developed a number of television series, including ''Hill Street Blues'', ''L.A. Law'', ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''Cop Rock'' ...
television series ''
L.A. Law
''L.A. Law'' is an American legal drama television series that ran for eight seasons on NBC, from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994.
Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it centers on the partners, associates and staff of a Los ...
'' in 1986. The series became a hit, and the role earned him
Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
and
Golden Globe
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
nominations, appearances on magazine covers, and guest-starring roles on ''
Seinfeld
''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...
'' and ''
The Larry Sanders Show
''The Larry Sanders Show'' is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. The series was created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein and aired from August 15, 1992, to May 31, 1998, on the HBO ...
''.
He remained on ''L.A. Law'' for the entire run of the show, until it ended in 1994.
Bernsen appeared with the British actor
Bruce Payne
Bruce Martyn Payne (born 22 November 1958) is an English actor, producer, screenwriter, film director and theatre director. Payne is best known for portraying villains, such as Charles Rane in ''Passenger 57'', Jacob Kell in '' Highlander: End ...
in the films ''
Kounterfeit'' and ''
Aurora: Operation Intercept''. He starred as the title character, Dr. Alan Feinstone, in the horror film ''
The Dentist
''The Dentist'' is a 1996 American slasher film directed by Brian Yuzna and written by Dennis Paoli, Stuart Gordon, and Charles Finch. It stars Corbin Bernsen, Linda Hoffman and Ken Foree. It is the first installment in ''The Dentist'' film ser ...
'' and its sequel. Bernsen was also cast as a ''prima donna'' third baseman, Roger Dorn, in the sports comedy ''
Major League'' and appeared in both of the film's sequels. Bernsen portrayed
John Durant on ''
General Hospital
''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the list of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running American soap opera in pro ...
'' from September 2004 until the character was murdered in May 2006.
Bernsen played Jack Sherwood on ''
Cuts'', appeared twice on ''
Celebrity Mole'', and played a lawyer on ''
Boston Legal
''Boston Legal'' is an American legal drama and comedy drama television series created by former lawyer and Boston native David E. Kelley, produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. The series aired from October 3, 2004, t ...
''. He appeared as
Q2 on ''
Star Trek: The Next Generation''. He also had a recurring role as Captain Owen Sebring on the military drama
''
JAG'' and played a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
senator on two episodes of ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the ...
''. He directed, produced, and appeared in the horror film ''
Dead Air
Dead air is an unintended period of silence that interrupts a broadcast during which no audio or video program material is transmitted.
Radio and television
Dead air occurs in radio broadcasting when no audio program is transmitted for an extend ...
''. Bernsen also co-starred in
USA's ''
Psych
''Psych'' is an American detective comedy-drama television series created by Steve Franks for USA Network. The series stars James Roday as Shawn Spencer, a young crime consultant for the Santa Barbara Police Department whose "heightened observ ...
'', playing the role of
Henry Spencer
Henry Spencer (born 1955) is a Canadian computer programmer and space enthusiast. He wrote "regex", a widely used software library for regular expressions, and co-wrote C News, a Usenet server program. He also wrote ''The Ten Commandments for C ...
, the father of the main character,
Shawn Spencer
Shawn Spencer is a fictional character and main protagonist on the American television comedy-drama ''Psych'' played by American actor James Roday Rodriguez. Taking advantage of his eidetic memory and keen observational skills, he poses as a p ...
(
James Roday
James Roday Rodriguez (born James David Rodriguez, April 4, 1976) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He is best known for starring on the USA Network series ''Psych'' as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn ...
). In the film ''
Rust
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH ...
'', Bernsen plays a former minister who returns to his hometown.
![Corbin Bernsen at the 39th Emmy Awards](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Corbin_Bernsen_at_the_39th_Emmy_Awards.jpg)
Bernsen appeared in ''
25 Hill'', a film he produced, directed and wrote, which is centered on the
All-American Soap Box Derby, and is planning a baseball movie about
zombies
A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in wh ...
, called ''Three Strikes, You're Dead''.
He also appeared as a guest star in ''
Switched at Birth'', the
ABC Family
The American cable television, cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and s ...
television series, in season 1, episode 22 (2012), "Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time." Bernsen currently appears as Kyle Nevin on the television series ''
The Resident''.
Producing
Bernsen was president and co-owner of
Public Media Works Public Media Works is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Van Nuys, California. Founded in 2000 by actor Corbin Bernsen, the company engages in the development, production, marketing and distribution of "tailor made" entertainment for specifica ...
, a
new media
New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...
company that develops entertainment for targeted
fan base
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant p ...
s. He directed and starred in ''Carpool Guy'', the company's first film; it was targeted at
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
fans and released on DVD in 2005.
Bernsen then went on to form
Team Cherokee Productions
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.
As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...
. According to the book ''
One Red Paperclip
One red paperclip is a website created by Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald, who traded his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of fourteen online trades over the course of a year. MacDonald was inspired by the childhood game ''B ...
'', in June 2006, Bernsen traded a role in the film ''
Donna on Demand
''Donna on Demand'' is a 2009 direct-to-video dark comedy film written, directed, co-produced by, and starring Corbin Bernsen. The film was released on DVD on September 15, 2009. It takes place in Los Angeles, California.
It is most notable for ...
'' to Kyle MacDonald for a snow globe of the band
KISS
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
. It was this role that MacDonald eventually traded for a two-story farmhouse.
In recent years, Bernsen focused on stories that explore aspects of faith in today's world and how that can contribute to, but also tends to divide our common humanity. His first such film was ''Rust'', released in 2010 by
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...
. Bernsen, along with producing partner
Chris Aronoff, formed
Home Theater Films, an independent
production company
A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...
that develops, produces, and markets films and television shows. ''25 Hill,'' the company's first title, was released in July 2012. This was followed by ''3 Day Test'' (2012), ''Beyond the Heavens'' (2013), and ''Life with Dog'' (2017). Their upcoming film ''Mary 4 Mayor'' is due out in the fall of 2020.
Writing
In October 2015, the Pelican Book Group released Bernsen's
debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
. The book, ''Rust: the Novel'', is an adaptation of Bernsen's 2010 feature film, ''Rust'', in which he played the main character and served as writer and director. Bernsen and his wife, Amanda Pays, have co-authored two books, ''Change Houses, Not Spouses'' and ''Open House: Reinventing Space for Simple Living'', a coffee table book featuring remodeling and design ideas they have learned from remodeling their own homes.
Personal life
Bernsen was married to Brenda Cooper from 1983 to 1987. Bernsen has been married to British actress
Amanda Pays
Amanda Pays (born 6 June 1959) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Theora Jones in the film and television series '' Max Headroom'' and as Christina "Tina" McGee in ''The Flash'' and reprised her role in the 2014 series of th ...
since 1988. They have five sons: Oliver, Angus, Bunsen, Henry and Finley. Pays and Bernsen moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York in 2019 where he now focuses on film and television projects that can be shot locally.
Bernsen has one of the largest
snow globe
A snow globe (also called a waterglobe, snowstorm, or snowdome) is a transparent sphere, traditionally made of glass, enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort, often together with a model of a town, neighborhood, landscape or figure. The sphe ...
collections in the world, with 9,000 globes.
[Bernsen cited this number in an interview on '']Marie
Marie may refer to:
People Name
* Marie (given name)
* Marie (Japanese given name)
* Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973
* Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tr ...
'' by Marie Osmond
Olive Marie Osmond (born October 13, 1959) is an American singer, actress, television host, and a member of the show business family the Osmonds. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a country and pop ...
on January 21, 2013.
Filmography
Film
Television
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernsen, Corbin
1954 births
Male actors from Los Angeles
American male film actors
American game show hosts
American male soap opera actors
American male television actors
Living people
Participants in American reality television series
UCLA Film School alumni
People from North Hollywood, Los Angeles