Comedian David Birney, known mainly for having been the hero of the Serpico series, died on April 29 at his home in Santa Monica, at the age of 83. The news was announced by his girlfriend.
The actor made famous in the 1970s by the series Serpico, successfully broadcast in France in 1978 on TF1 then on the late La Cinq, had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for many years.
In 1976, three years after the success of Sidney Lumet’s film, New York cop Franck Serpico became a serial hero. To take over the role held in the cinema by Al Pacino, the production calls on David Birney, an actor from the world of Shakespearean theater, made popular in the United States by the sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie, in which he plays a taxi driver Jew married to a devout Catholic.
The series will be stopped after a single season despite its good ratings. He gives the reply to Meredith Baxter, who will become his wife for 14 years and with whom he will have three children, before divorcing in 1989.