Berry Berenson


Berinthia "Berry" Berenson-Perkins was an American photographer, actress, and model. Berenson, who was married to 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 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 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".
Berenson's 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 and his sister Senda Berenson, 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.
Berenson studied acting at New York's The American Place Theatre with Wynn Handman along with Richard Gere, Philip Anglim, Penelope Milford, Robert Ozn, Ingrid Boulting and her sister Marisa.
Berenson also appeared in several motion pictures. She starred opposite Anthony Perkins in the 1978 Alan Rudolph film Remember My Name, and appeared with Jeff Bridges in the 1979 film Winter Kills and Malcolm McDowell in Cat People.

Personal life and death

On August 9, 1973, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Berenson, three months pregnant, married her future Remember My Name costar Anthony Perkins. The couple raised two sons: actor-musician Oz Perkins and folk/rock recording artist Elvis Perkins. They remained married until Perkins's 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's 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.