Barbara Berjer

Barbara Berjer (June 12, 1920 – October 20, 2002) was an American actress born Barbara Elinor Berger in Seattle, Washington. Her father, Knute Eystein Berger (1890–1949), was a mechanical engineer who had emigrated from Norway, and her mother, Thomasina Sutherland (1892–1970), was of Scottish origin. She had one older brother, Knute Eystein Berger Jr. Berjer attended Cornish College of the Arts, where she studied ballet and met her future husband, choreographer Lee Foley, whom she married in 1942. The couple had one son, Thomas Michael Foley. Early in her career, audiences and colleagues frequently mispronounced her surname as "burger," which led her to adopt the spelling Berjer.

Berjer appeared on Broadway between 1957 and 1964, with credits including the comedy The Tunnel of Love, the political drama The Best Man, and the play Dylan. Alongside her stage work, she built a substantial television career, becoming particularly well known to daytime audiences through a succession of prominent soap opera roles. Her first daytime role was Lynn Franklin, an alcoholic actress on From These Roots, which she played from 1959 until the serial concluded in 1961. Actor Henderson Forsythe appeared alongside her on that program and would later play Dr. David Stewart on As the World Turns, her character's on-screen son-in-law. In 1962, Berjer appeared in the Armstrong Circle Theatre episode "Patterns of Hope," which also featured Douglass Watson, who would later become her co-star on Another World. A small role as a wife in a 1963 episode of The Doctors preceded her joining The Edge of Night in 1964 as Irene Eagon Wheeler, a part she held through the following year.

After leaving The Edge of Night, Berjer was cast as the fifth actress to portray Claire English on As the World Turns. The character navigated widowhood, remarriage, a husband's infidelity with a younger woman, and alcoholism during Berjer's tenure. She played Claire until 1971, when the character was written out through death. Her co-star Eileen Fulton, who portrayed Claire's love rival Lisa, later disclosed in an interview that the producers' decision stemmed from the rapid on-screen aging of Claire's grandson Dan Stewart, whose new child had made Claire a great-grandmother. Producers chose to kill off the character rather than retain that status for her. The episode prompted Fulton to negotiate what became known as the "granny clause" in her own contract, a provision preventing the writers from making Lisa a grandmother.

Immediately following her exit from As the World Turns, Berjer took over the role of Barbara Norris Thorpe on Guiding Light from actress Augusta Dabney, playing the part from 1971 to 1981. She returned briefly for a few episodes in 1989 and then appeared on a recurring basis from 1995 to 1996. In 1983, she made a single-day appearance on All My Children as a secretary whom Erica Kane contacts unsuccessfully in an attempt to reach Adam Chandler. Beginning in 1985, Berjer portrayed Scottish nanny Bridget Connell on Another World, continuing in the role until the character was killed off in 1996. She subsequently made guest appearances as Bridget's ghost through 1998. Her simultaneous work on both Guiding Light and Another World made her one of the few actresses to appear on two daytime serials concurrently. In 1997, she guest-starred on Law & Order as Mrs. Gannett in the episode "Passion."

Berjer died of pneumonia in New York City on October 20, 2002. She was survived by her son Thomas Michael Foley of Manhattan, her sister-in-law Margi Berger of Bainbridge Island, Washington, and several nieces, nephews, and cousins.