Abner Biberman
Born on April 1, 1909 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Abner Biberman was an American director and actor. He starred in nine Broadway productions from 1934 to 1938 and was part of the the original cast production of "Winterset" in 1935. During this period, Biberman was a member of The Group Theatre, Inc. company, whose members included Stella Adler, Clifford Odets and Lee J. Cobb. During World War Two, Biberman served in the U.S. Army Air Corp as a pilot and a flight instructor, returning to acting after the war. As an actor, his short, thin, exotic-looks parlayed him as a character actor capable of portraying anything from a South Seas islander to an Indian bandit to a Japanese army officer, but he was mostly cast as a hood or a convict, such as Louie in "His Girl Friday," but his best known roles were for the movies, "The Virginian" in 1962, "Gun for a Coward" in 1957 and "The Golden Mistress." He went on to have a busy later second career as a TV director, guiding episodes of "Gunsmoke," "Maverick," "Wagon Train," "The Untouchables," "The Outer Limits," "The Twilight Zone," Gilligan's Island, "The Fugitive," "Hawaii 5-0," "The Virginian" and "Ironsides." Towards the end of his career, he was appointed head of the casting department at Universal Pictures, responsible for casting most of the roles in its film and television productions. He was previously married to film editor Sibil Kamban. He died on June 20, 1977 in San Diego, California, survived by his second wife, Helen Churchill Dalby, and his two children by Sibil Kamban.
