Dehl Berti

Dehl Berti (January 17, 1921 – November 26, 1991) was an American actor of Chiricahua Apache descent, born in Pueblo, Colorado. He built a career spanning stage, film, and television across five decades, with a particular presence in Western productions. In 1944, he married Francis Cummins Collins.

Berti's stage career brought him to Broadway between 1943 and 1953, where he appeared in a range of productions including the drama Manhattan Nocturne, as well as Thank You, Svoboda, The Strong Are Lonely, Hickory Stick, and King Richard II.

On television, Berti accumulated guest appearances across numerous programs from the 1950s through the 1980s, with Western series representing the bulk of his work. His credits in the genre included Bonanza, Bat Masterson, and Gunsmoke. In 1960, he portrayed Joe Maybe in the Cheyenne episode "The Long Rope," and in 1963 he played Little Buffalo in "The Day of the Flying Dutchman," an episode of ABC's The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, which starred child actor Kurt Russell. In 1982, he took on the role of One Feather in the short-lived NBC drama Born to the Wind. His most sustained television role came with the CBS Western series Paradise, which ran from 1988 to 1991 and starred Lee Horsley as reformed gunfighter Ethan Allen Cord; Berti appeared throughout the series as John Taylor. His final television appearance came in a 1990 episode of Saved by the Bell.

Since 1982, Berti's voice has been featured at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Florida, where he portrays Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce in The American Adventure attraction.

His film work extended from the mid-1950s through the late 1980s and included Toughest Man Alive (1955), Apache Warrior, Hell Bound, Under Fire, and Undersea Girl (all 1957), Ritual of Evil (1969), Wolfen (1981), Second Thoughts (1983), Invasion USA (1985), Bullies (1986), Laguna Heat (1987), and an episode of the CBS series Simon and Simon titled "Ancient Echoes" (1987). Earlier films included Seven Alone, Sweet Hostage, and The Shaman's Last Raid (all 1975), Scott Free (1976), and The Last of the Mohicans (1977).

Berti died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, on November 26, 1991, at the age of 70. He is interred at Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.