BERINTHIA BERENSON - PERKINS ("BERRY")
Born in New York on 14th April 1948, she was the daughter of the late Robert L. Berenson, a United States Foreign Service officer, and Gogo Schiaparelli. Her father was of Lithuanian Jewish descent and her mother had Italian, Swiss, French and Egyptian ancestry. Her elder sister, Marisa Berenson, became a well-known model and actress, starring in Cabaret (1976). Her maternal grandmother was the Italian-born French fashion designer/coutourier Elsa Schiaparelli, and her maternal grandfather was Count Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor, a Theosophist and psychic medium. She also was a great-grand-niece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer who believed he had discovered the supposed canals of Mars, and a great-grand-niece of art expert Bernard Berenson and his sister Senda Berenson, an athlete and educator who was one of the first two women elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Following a brief modeling career in the 1960s, Berenson became a freelance photographer. By 1973, she had seen her photographs published in Life, Glamour, Vogue, and Newsweek, and during the 70s established herself as a successful fashion photographer, shooting many covers for Life magazine. She was Perkins' self-professed "biggest fan" and spent her spare time collecting clippings from magazines of her idol. She finally got to meet Anthony in the early 1970s in New York while he was filming Play It As It Lays. They married on 9th August 1973 in Wellfleet, Massachusetts when she was 25 and he was 41. With Anthony's encouragement and support she even appeared in a few films, two of which were with him (Remember My Name in 1978 and Winter Kills in 1979). She also had a small role in the remake of Cat People (1982), starring Malcolm MacDowell (A Clockwork Orange). During the latter part of her life she completed a book on the designer Halston, and moved to Jamaica where she ran a bar with her boyfriend. One day before the 9th anniversary of Tony's death, she was returning to her California home to join her sons following a holiday on Cape Cod. Tragically the flight she was on was the first plane used in the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center. She was 53 years old.
"I'm so delighted with my life. I have this fabulous husband, the man I always wanted to marry. I have two fabulous children, which I always wanted, and we're all so happy."
For more beautiful pictures of Berry check out the
Jack Robinson Archive.
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