Berry was born in London. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to the theatre booking-agency Keith, Prowse and Co., through which he had access to free seats for
West End plays and musical shows. He became fascinated with the theatre, and got a job as assistant business manager to the actor-manager
Wilson Barrett at the old
Globe Theatre. In 1898, Barrett gave up the Globe, and left England to tour Australia, leaving Berry unemployed. After this, Berry was seen in a string of shows including
Havana (1908),
A Waltz Dream (1908),
The Dollar Princess (1909),
The Count of Luxembourg (1911),
Gipsy Love (1912),
High Jinks (1916), and his greatest success,
The Boy (1917), in which he played Mr. Meebles, the respectable magistrate who finds himself at the centre of farcical uproar. He played Christian Velt in
Lilac Time in several revivals in the 1920s and 1930s. He appeared in
Princess Charming in 1926. As one of the earliest broadcasters, Berry first appeared on radio in 1922 in the BBC's first months. Among his radio achievements,
The Times singled out his later broadcast as
Mr. Micawber in 1938. Kitty Berry died in 1947. At the age of 77, Berry married Agnes Lyndon, who had nursed him through a serious illness. Berry died at his home in
Herne Bay on the coast of
Kent, at the age of 81. ==Notes==