HERSHEL BERNARDI

This fine actor-singer in movies and on TV may never have been a household name, but he was certainly a household voice. For years he put words in the mouth of such iconic advertising characters as "Charlie the Tuna" and "The Jolly Green Giant." Bernardi also turned up in countless dramas on TV and on stage ("Fiddler on the Roof," to name one). 
     I met him in the '70s at a Hollywood recording studio, and we had a very strange conversation. I had been directing a radio commercial that morning and was taking a short break in the coffee room. In walked Bernardi, whom I had been told was doing voice tracks for Pillsbury commercials that day with another engineer down the hall. We looked at each other and nodded and before I could introduce myself, he said, "Don't I know you?" "No sir," I replied, "but I certainly know you," to which he responded, "Why should you know me?" I replied -- and by now we both were having fun with the exchange -- "Everybody knows you, Mr. Bernardi." He chuckled and said, "Surely not everybody. There must be somebody who doesn't know me." 
     We both laughed, shook hands, and returned to our respective projects.