Bergman was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated in 1957 from
Shaker Heights High School in the Cleveland suburb. He studied economics at
Yale University, where he contributed to the campus humor magazine
The Yale Record. He taught economics as a Carnegie Fellow, and also attended the Yale School of Drama as a
Eugene O'Neill Playwriting Fellow, and wrote two musicals for the
Yale Dramatic Association with
Austin Pendleton, where he met acting student
Philip Proctor. He was also a Woodrow Wilson Scholar. After college he worked with
Tom Stoppard,
Derek Marlowe,
Piers Paul Read, and
Spike Milligan. He and Proctor witnessed the 1977
Golden Dragon Massacre in San Francisco. Stage versions of ''
Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him'', and "Temporarily Humboldt County" are published by
Broadway Play Publishing Inc. ==Death==