Bernie McInerney

Bernie McInerney is an American character actor born on December 4, 1936, in Wilmington, Delaware. His father worked as an auditor for the DuPont Company. McInerney attended the University of Delaware, where he participated in E-52 Student Theatre, and graduated in 1959. He has described his early ambition as becoming a sports announcer, a path he traced back to riding through his neighborhood on his bicycle calling out the results of the 1946 World Series, in which the Boston Red Sox were defeated. Theatre ultimately drew him away from that pursuit. He lives in Rutherford, New Jersey, with his second wife Leilani, an opera singer, their son Danny, and their dog Buddy. A second son, Bernard, resides with his family in Virginia, and his daughter Kathleen, a voice actress, lives in New York City with her daughter.

McInerney's Broadway career spanned from 1971 to 1999. He played James in That Championship Season at the Booth Theatre in 1972, a role he also performed on a major tour of the production. He appeared as an M.P. officer in Streamers at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in 1976. In 1982 he took on the role of John Joseph "JoJo" Finn in The Curse of an Aching Heart. He portrayed Endicott in The Front Page at the Vivian Beaumont Theater from 1986 to 1987. In 1996 he played three roles — Reverend, Dr. Buchanan, and Papa — in Summer and Smoke at the Criterion Theatre. His final Broadway engagement of the decade was The Rainmaker at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre from 1999 to 2000, a production that subsequently moved to the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles in 2000.

Additional stage work included Carl Evert in Digby at Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I in 1985, and Judge and pharmacist in Everybody's Ruby at the Joseph Papp Public Theater's Anspacher Theatre in 1999. Off-Broadway and regional credits encompass Ted Quinn in The American Clock at the Clurman Theatre and the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina; Wally in Losing Time at Manhattan Theatre Club in 1979; Fran Hogan in Father Dreams at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew at the White House in Washington, D.C.; productions of How He Lied to Her Husband and Winners at the Roundabout Theatre; The Welsh Plays and New England at Manhattan Theatre Club; and Jim in Humble Boy at Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I in 2003. He also toured as Harry in Company and appeared in A Letter from Ethel Kennedy at MCC Theater in 2002. His earliest recorded stage credit was the role of Russian ambassador in Romanoff and Juliet at the Adelphi Summer Playhouse in Garden City, New York, in 1960.

McInerney built an extensive film career across several decades. His credits include King of the Gypsies (1978), So Fine (1981), Trading Places (1983), The Natural (1984), Invasion U.S.A. (1985), Suspect (1987), Masquerade (1988), The Mighty Quinn (1989), See You in the Morning (1989), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), Livin' Large! (1991), Sliver (1993), The American President (1995), The Associate (1996), The Peacemaker (1997), Academy Boyz (1997), The Tavern (1999), Nola (2003), Duane Hopwood (2005), Four Lane Highway (2005), The Great New Wonderful (2005), The Thing About My Folks (2005), Dan in Real Life (2007), Pistol Whipped (2008), and Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009).

On television, McInerney held recurring daytime roles as Mark Faraday on The Edge of Night beginning in 1975, Dr. Will Vernon on One Life to Live in 1977, and Rex Whitmore on As the World Turns. He also appeared in the miniseries The Kennedys of Massachusetts (1990) as Dr. Bowles. His television movie credits include Hustling (1975), Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye (1977), Fighting Back: The Story of Rocky Bleier (1980), Out of the Darkness (1985), Day One (1989), and The Jackie Presser Story (1992). Among his episodic television appearances, he recurred as Judge Michael Callahan on Law & Order across multiple episodes from 1991 through 2001. Additional episodic credits include Spenser: For Hire (1986), Kate & Allie (1987), L.A. Law (1994), Chicago Hope (1994), Nowhere Man (1995), Strangers with Candy (2000), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2006), and 30 Rock (2012). He also appeared in series including Ryan's Hope, The Hamptons, Feds, All My Children, Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, and Another World, among others.