Berry Berenson: Full obit
Posted: Friday, September 14th, 2001 10:31 pmBerry Berenson, aged 53, who was a passenger on the hijacked American Airlines flight 11 which crashed into the World Trade Centre, was a fashion photographer and accomplished Hollywood film actor. She was, however, known as much for her personal profile, having been married to Anthony Perkins for nearly 20 years until his death from Aids in 1992. A granddaughter of the fabled Italian couturier Elsa Schiaperelli, known for the promotion of shocking pink as a fashion shade, Berry showed she could lead a similarly colourful existence.
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Through her better-known sister, the actress Marisa (Death In Venice, Cabaret and Barry Lyndon), she came to photograph a roll-call of Hollywood stars: Tuesday Weld, Ray Brock, Pilar Crespi, Candice Bergen and more. The sisters were raised as socialites who entertained, and were entertained by, both the cream and the froth of society.
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In 1973, she married the actor Tony Perkins. She was three months pregnant, a condition that prompted her mother, the impressively titled Marquesa Gogo Berenson di Cacciapooti, to call her a “degenerate”. Despite Perkins’s homosexuality, Berry remained his wife, and cared for him in the last two years of his life.
During their marriage, she had carved out an alternative career path as an actor. …
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While Perkins summed up his personal tragedy, après Flaubert, with: “Face it gang, I am Norman Bates,” Berry Berenson has been given a very different memorial. In the wake of the horror of her death, her spokeswoman Susan Patricola commented: “She was one of the loveliest, greatest people on the earth, full of life.” At the time of her death, Berenson was returning home to Los Angeles after holidaying on Cape Cod. She is survived by her two sons by Anthony Perkins: Osgood, aged 27, and Elvis Perkins, aged 25.
Ronald Bergan writes: During therapy, for what he believed would “cure” his homosexuality, Anthony Perkins was asked what sort of woman attracted him. …
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Then, in 1990, Perkins was tested positive for HIV. …
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On September 2 1992, Perkins died with Berenson clutching her husband’s hand. “We had a very satisfying life together. It was a wonderful love affair. If anything else was happening, I certainly didn’t know about it, and I don’t think he intended to hurt me in any way.” … Read full obituary
