Shelley Berman

Shelley Berman was an American comedian and actor who trained at Chicago's Goodman School of Drama and worked in stock companies before joining the Compass Players in the mid-1950s. In that improv group, forerunner of The Second City, he developed solo pieces around an imaginary telephone. A 1957 booking at Mister Kelly's led to nightclubs and a Verve Records contract; his first album, Inside Shelley Berman, received the inaugural Grammy for spoken comedy in 1959, and he later earned gold records. In 1961 he was the first stand-up comic to play Carnegie Hall. His film roles included The Best Man (1964), Divorce American Style (1967), Teen Witch (1989), and Meet the Fockers (2004). From 2002 to 2009 he played Larry David's father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, a part that brought an Emmy nomination in 2008. He spent over two decades on the University of Southern California faculty teaching humor writing.