Berry Berenson Biography

Berinthia "Berry" Berenson-Perkins (April 14, 1948 - September 11, 2001) was an American photographer, actress, and model. Perkins, who was the widow of actor Anthony Perkins, died in the September 11 attacks as a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11.

Early life

Berenson was born in Murray Hill, Manhattan. Her father, Robert Lawrence Berenson, was an American career diplomat turned shipping executive; he was of Lithuanian Jewish descent, and his family's original surname was Valvrojenski. Her mother was born Maria-Luisa Yvonne Radha de Wendt de Kerlor, better known as Gogo Schiaparelli, a socialite of Italian, Swiss, French, and Egyptian ancestry.

Her maternal grandmother was the Italian-born fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and her maternal grandfather was Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor, a Theosophist and psychic medium. Her elder sister, Marisa Berenson, became a well-known model and actress. She also was a great-grandniece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer who believed he had discovered the supposed canals of Mars, and a second cousin, once removed, of art expert Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) and his sister Senda Berenson (1868-1954), an athlete and educator who was one of the first two women elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Career

Following a brief modeling career in the late 1960s, Berenson became a freelance photographer. By 1973, her photographs had been published in Life, Glamour, Vogue and Newsweek.

She studied acting at New York's The American Place Theatre with Wynn Handman along with Richard Gere, Philip Anglim, Penelope Milford, Robert Ozn.Ingrid Bolting and her sister Marisa.

She also appeared in several motion pictures, including Cat People with Malcolm McDowell. She starred opposite Anthony Perkins in the 1978 Alan Rudolph film Remember My Name and opposite Jeff Bridges in the 1979 film Winter Kills.

Personal life and death

On August 9, 1973, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Berenson married her future Remember My Name costar Anthony Perkins. The couple had two sons: actor-musician Oz Perkins (born February 2, 1974) and folk/rock recording artist Elvis Perkins (born February 9, 1976). They remained married until Perkins' death from AIDS-related complications on September 12, 1992.

Berenson died at age 53 in the September 11 attacks aboard American Airlines Flight 11, one day before the ninth anniversary of Perkins' death. She was returning to her California home following a holiday on Cape Cod.

At the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Berenson is memorialized at the North Pool, on Panel N-76.

Berenson is survived by her two sons and two grandchildren, a grandson born in 2004 and a granddaughter born in 2008.