John Beradino

John Beradino

as Steve Hardy in General Hospital, 1964.
Born Giovanni Berardino
(1917-05-01)May 1, 1917
Los Angeles, U.S.
Died May 19, 1996(1996-05-19) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Southern California
Occupation Actor, baseball player
Years active 1939–1996
Known for Steve Hardy (General Hospital)
Spouse(s)
  • Jeanette Nadine Barritt (m. 1941; div. 1963)
  • Marjorie Binder (m. 1971; his death 1996)
Children 4
Johnny Berardino
Second baseman / Shortstop
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 22, 1939, for the St. Louis Browns
Last MLB appearance
September 19, 1952, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
MLB statistics
Batting average .249
Home runs 36
Runs batted in 387
Teams

John Beradino (May 1, 1917 – May 19, 1996) was an American infielder in Major League Baseball and an actor. Known as Johnny Berardino[1] during his baseball career, he was also credited during his acting career as John Berardino, John Baradino, John Barardino or John Barradino.

Early life and education

Publicity photo for the 10th Anniversary of General Hospital, 1973.

Beradino was born Giovanni Berardino in Los Angeles.[2] He grew up near Hollywood.[1] Beradino attended Belmont High School, located in downtown Los Angeles. Beradino won a football scholarship to the University of Southern California in 1936.[2] He soon switched to baseball.[2]

Beradino is often mentioned as having appeared in the silent Our Gang comedies produced by Hal Roach as a child actor but has not been identified as having appeared in any of the existing films.[2]

Baseball career

After attending the University of Southern California, where he played baseball under coach Sam Barry and was member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, Beradino was a major league player from 1939 to 1952,[2] except for three years of military service in the U.S. Naval Reserve[3][4] during World War II, from 1942 to 1945. He played second baseman and shortstop for the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians, and Pittsburgh Pirates, winning the World Series with the Indians in 1948.[5] He also played first and third base. After injuring his leg and being released by Pittsburgh in 1952, he retired from baseball and returned to acting, having appeared in his first film in 1948.

Acting career

Beradino appeared briefly in an uncredited role as a state trooper in the 1954 thriller Suddenly, starring Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden, and later performed as a policeman who allows Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) to make a phone call to his mother in the 1959 Hitchcock thriller, North by Northwest.

Beradino had a cameo role in the 1954 sci-fi thriller Them!. He also had a guest role in a 1956 episode of the television series, Adventures of Superman titled "The Unlucky Number". He played a small-time criminal who struggled with his life-style and wanted to reform. At that point he was still being billed as "John Berardino".

Beradino appeared twice on the Western series Annie Oakley, with Gail Davis—as Gorman in "Annie Rides the Navajo Trail" and as Roscoe Barnes in "Amateur Outlaw" (both 1956). He appeared as one of the outlaws in the opening scenes of Budd Boetticher's "Seven Men From Now," with Randolph Scott, in 1956. He guest starred as well on John Bromfield's syndicated crime drama with a modern Western setting, Sheriff of Cochise, and Bromfield's successor series, U.S. Marshal. He was also cast in an episode of David Janssen's crime drama series Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

On December 2, 1959, Beradino was cast as Al, a professional baseball player, in the episode, "The Third Strike" of the syndicated adventure series, Rescue 8, starring Jim Davis and Lang Jeffries. In the story line, the player loses consciousness when struck by a wild pitch and soon awakes with short-term amnesia.[6]

After appearing in more than a dozen B-movies, as well as supporting roles, as FBI agent Steve Daniels in the espionage series I Led Three Lives and as LAPD Sergeant Vince Cavelli in The New Breed,[2] he was offered the role of Dr. Steve Hardy on the soap opera General Hospital.[7] Beradino also played a version of his General Hospital character on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Recognition

For his contribution to the television industry, Beradino has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame[2] at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. He has also been inducted into the University of Southern California Athletic Hall of Fame.

He is the only person to have won a World Series (1948) and have his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1993).

Beradino received three Daytime Emmy Award nominations for best actor in a daytime drama.[2]

In tribute to the actor, General Hospital left Beradino's image with that of Rachel Ames in its opening sequence for a year-and-a-half after his death, through several updates.[8] Though that image was finally removed in early 1998 (leaving Ames with a new solo image), an "action" clip of Beradino's Steve Hardy in the hospital remained in the sequence until the sequence's 2004 retirement.

Personal life and death

Beradino married Jeanette Nadine Barritt in 1941 and divorced in 1963.[2] Together they had 2 children: Toni and Cindy. He married Marjorie Binder in 1971. Together they had 2 children: Katherine Ann and John Anthony.[2] He played Hardy from General Hospital's inception in 1963 until becoming ill from pancreatic cancer in 1996.[2] Beradino died on Sunday, May 19, 1996 in Los Angeles in his home.[1][2][3]

Filmography

John and Marjorie Beradino, 1971.

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1954 Suddenly Trooper
Them! Patrolman Ryan
1959 North by Northwest Sergeant Emile Klinger
1961 The Right Approach Rod
1982 Young Doctors in Love Uncredited Comedy film spoofing soap operas and directed by Gary Marshall.[14]

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1954 I Led Three Lives Special Agent Steven Daniels Recurring from 1954–56
1956 Sheriff of Cochise Walt Harris Episode: "Deputy's Wife" (S 2:Ep 6)
Annie Oakley Gorman Episode: "Annie Rides the Navajo Trail"(S 3:Ep 25)
Adventures of Superman Dexter Brown Episode: "The Unlucky Number" (S 4:Ep 2)
Annie Oakley Henchman Roscoe Barnes Episode: "Amateur Outlaw" (S 3:Ep 28)
1957 Richard Diamond, Private Detective Marty Stopka Episode: "The Torch Carriers" (S 1:Ep 9)
1958 Tales of Wells Fargo Kendall Episode: "The Counterfeiters" (S 3"Ep 13
1959 Rescue 8 Al Episode: "The Third Strike" ( S 2:Ep 11)
Bronco Turk Hansen Episode: "The Belles of Silver Flat" (S 1:Ep 14)
1960 U.S. Marshal Carl Tabor Episode: "Backfire" (S 2:Ep 25)
Lawman Walt Carmody Episode: "Dilemma" (S 3:Ep 7)
Checkmate Floyd Venner Episode: "The Dark Divide" (S 1:Ep 9)
1961 Tales of Wells Fargo Virgil McCready Episode: "Border Renegades" (S 5:Ep 15)
Route 66 Police Lieutenant Fielding Episode: "Sleep on Four Pillows: (S 1:Ep 18)
Dante Phil Diamond Episode: "Not as a Canary" (S 1:Ep 20)
COronado 9 Andre Machado Episode: "Caribbean Chase" ( S 1:Ep 24)
Michael Shayne Danny Fleck Episode: "The Body Beautiful" (S 1:Ep 25)
COronado 9 Will Episode: "Excursion to Algiers" (S 1:Ep 26)
Miami Undercover Tom Dane Episode: "The Tom Dane Story" (S 1:Ep 11)
Surfside 6 Granger Episode: "Circumstantial Evidence" (S 1:Ep 29)
The Brothers Brannagan Don Girard Episode: "Treasure Hunt" (S 1:Ep 33)
Whispering Smith Claude Denton
  • Episode: "The Mortal Coil" (S 1:Ep 12)
  • credited as John Berardino
The New Breed Sgt. Vince Cavelli Contract role from 1961–62
Cain's Hundred Al Krajac Episode: "Crime and Commitment: Part 1" (S 1:Ep 1–Pilot)
Bronco Ross Kinkaid Episode: "The Cousin from Atlanta" (S 4:Ep 1)
1963 General Hospital Steve Hardy Contract role from 1963–96
1968 Batman Doctor Episode: "Penguin's Clean Sweep" (S 3:Ep 20)
1971 Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate Det. Hallum Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Ted Post[15] and the screenplay adapted by John D. F. Black from a novel of the same name by Doris Miles Disney.[16]
1972 Moon of the Wolf Dr. Druten Gothic horror Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Daniel Petrie.[17]
1978 A Guide for the Married Woman Doctor Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Hy Averback.[18]
1981 The Love Boat Dr. Cotts Episode: "Black Sheep/Hometown Doc/Clothes Make the Girl" (S 4:Ep 21)
Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige Jake Wells Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Richard A. Colla[19] and based on Leroy's autobiography, Don't Look Back : Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball.[20]
1992 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Dr. Harding Episode: "Ill Will" (S 2:Ep 18)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Oliver, Mynra (May 22, 1996). "John Beradino; 'General Hospital' Star". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Publishing). Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Grimes, William (May 22, 1996). "John Bernadino, 79, an Enduring Soap Opera Star". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). p. 21. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Markusen, Bruce (August 26, 2011). "Cooperstown Confidential: Hollywood meets Mr. Boggs". Hard Ball Times. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Baseball in Wartime.com". Baseball in Wartime. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  5. ↑ SOD 2009, p. 67.
  6. ↑ "The Third Strike, Rescue 8, December 2, 1959". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  7. ↑ Kearney, Buchanan 1976, pp. 17–24, 53–55.
  8. ↑ DiGiacomo, Robert (July 16, 1996). "`General Hospital' To Pay Tribute To Member Of Original 1963 Cast Dr. Hardy Was A Stalwart Character On The Soap Opera For 33 Years.". Philadelphia Daily News (Interstate General Media). Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  9. ↑ Selby 1984, p. 184.
  10. ↑ "Suddenly". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Them!". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  12. ↑ "North by Northwest". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  13. ↑ "The Right Approach". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Young Doctors in Love". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  16. ↑ Disney, Dorris Miles (1970). Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate. New York City: Doubleday. ISBN 978-9997406316.
  17. ↑ "Moon of the Wolf". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  18. ↑ "A Guide for the Married Woman". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy 'Satchel' Paige". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  20. ↑ Ribowsky, Mark (2000). Don't Look Back : Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0306809637.

Sources

External links

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John Beradino at Find a Grave

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