John Berry

This New York-born son of a Polish immigrant began performing in public at the tender age of four. Before he hit his teen years, John Berry (ne Jak Szold) became a regular comic on the vaudeville circuit and at age 20 joined Orson Welles' Mercury Theater, acting in the troupe's productions of "Julius Caesar" (the now legendary modern-dress staging) and "Five Kings." He went on to serve as stage manager of the company and when Welles decamped to Hollywood, assumed the position of manager.