Sara Berner (Lillian Herdan)

Sara Berner

Born Lillian Herdan in Albany, New York, the first of the five children of Sam Herdan and Sarah Herdan (née Berner), Sara Berner was a drama student at University of Tulsa for two years. Described as having “an extensive knowledge of dialects,” Berner was also active as a radio and cartoon voice talent, working primarily with the Warner Bros. animation department but receiving no screen credit; Mel Blanc was the only voice actor contracted to receive on-screen voice credits at that time. Examples include the uncredited voice of Mama Buzzard in The Bashful Buzzard and Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid, the singing voice of one-time character A. Flea in the 1943 short, An Itch in Time and an uncredited role as the female voices in 1946’s Book Revue. In the 1943 propaganda short Tokyo Woes, she voiced the titular character, modeled after Japanese radio announcer “Tokyo Rose”. She worked for the Walter Lantz studios as the title character in a number of Andy Panda shorts, as well as voicing Chilly Willy in his first film appearance. For MGM she voiced Jerry Mouse a few times, most notably in the fantasy dance sequence with Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. A newspaper article in 1950 described Berner as “one of radio’s most versatile actresses.” Her roles on radio programs included waitress Dreamboat Mulvany on Arthur’s Place, Mrs. Horowitz on Life with Luigi, the Italian housekeeper on The Jimmy Durante Show, and Mabel Flapsaddle on The Jack Benny Program. Her other radio work included roles on Arthur’s Place (1947), Burns and Allen and The Baby Snooks Show. Berner had her own program, Sara’s Private Caper, (“a satire on private detective stories”) on NBC beginning June 15, 1950. Berner died on December 19, 1969 at aged 57. She was buried at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

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Born

  • January, 12, 1912
  • USA
  • Albany, New York

Died

  • December, 19, 1969
  • USA
  • Van Nuys, California

Cemetery

  • Mount Sinai Memorial Park
  • Los Angeles, California
  • USA

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