Berlin was born in New York City on August 7, 1907. By the late 1920s, he had teamed up Ken Brown as a comedy song/dance duo, who performed on both Broadway and on the Vaudeville circuit. The team had garnered the nickname the "Two Knights of Knonsense". In the 1930s, he moved to Hollywood, and was working as an assistant director on films by the end of the decade, many of them in the
Blondie franchise. His first film as 1939's
Blondie Takes a Vacation. Over the next six years, he would assist on nineteen movies. Outside of the
Blondie films, he would work on such notable productions as
Go West, Young Lady (1941),
City Without Men (1943),
Sahara (1943),
What a Woman! (1943),
The Boy from Stalingrad (1943),
The Impatient Years (1944), and
A Song to Remember (1945). In 1945, he was given the opportunity to helm his own picture,
Leave It to Blondie. It was the first film after Columbia re-booted the series. He directed a total of twelve feature films, nine of which were in the
Blondie franchise. His other features included the romantic comedy,
Father Is a Bachelor (1950; co-directed with
Norman Foster), which stars
William Holden and
Coleen Gray; and the 1950 crime drama,
Double Deal. With the advent of television, Berlin moved to the small screen, where he directed on numerous series, including
Blondie,
Lassie, and
The Ann Sothern Show. His direction of
William Bendix in transforming the radio program to the small screen, was credited with making
The Life of Riley a success. In 1965, he would return to the big screen one last time, as an assistant director on
The Great Sioux Massacre. ==Personal life==