Details on Joseph Bernard

Monday, March 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

FAMILY: Married to Bina for 44 years. Has a daughter, Bella, a son, Sam, and a granddaughter, Molly.

JOY OF TEACHING: "Well, the joy I get is to watch the joy they receive when they do something that appeals to the audience. I get such a kick out of it. It was something they never did before. They touched those people, and those people reacted."

INSTRUCTION GOAL: Helping students to convey emotion without looking foolish.

METHOD ACTING: Bernard is an exponent of this style, which was formulated by Konstantin Stanislavski and expanded on in this country by Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Joshua Logan and Elia Kazan. It calls for an actor, through the five senses, to create reality where there is no reality. To feel heat or cold when there is neither, to create an image out of thin air. "Rod Steiger, when he worked he always played dust," says Bernard, demonstrating how the actor would pick a piece of dust off his jacket or flick it away as he recited his dialogue. "That's much more effective than just saying, 'Did you bring the money in?'"

A STAR IS ... MADE?: "If you make a commitment (to acting), then you can do it. You'll land work. Nobody is born with a SAG (Screen Actors' Guild) card. That's my favorite line. And nobody's born with talent. You take talent and you develop that talent."

REGARDING HENRY: Bernard's first directorial effort was in 1949 for a production of "Command Decision," with Henry Fonda and the cast of "Mister Roberts." Recalls Bernard: "Here I was, this big director, and he was on stage. One day I said, 'Damn, Henry, you are so dull.'" Bernard got that sinking feeling as soon as he said it. "I thought, 'What am I saying here? I told Henry Fonda he's dull.' I went to his dressing room and said, 'Hank, I'm awfully sorry. I lost my head.' He said, 'Listen, I know I'm dull. Help me, you're the director.' I have great reverence for him. He was such a wonderful man and actor."

EARLY BRANDO: "He would always do something nobody else did," Bernard says of Marlon Brando, who was student at Stella Adler's school in New York when Bernard was. "He would always get up and perform. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it wasn't. But he always performed. He was determined to lick this thing called acting. And, of course, he had the body and the looks."

JOSEPH AND JERRY: When was auditioning for a part in the recent Broadway production of "Damn Yankees," Jerry Lewis summoned his old friend Joe Bernard to help him prepare. "I was very honored. Of all the people, he came to me. I worked with him for three months in New York and six weeks in Las Vegas. We worked every day. He was the most dedicated, determined actor that I know, and it paid off. It was a smash success. Now he's on the road with it and he's having a great time."

AND MORE JERRY: Joe met Jerry in 1980 through Patrick Thompson, who was a student of Bernard's and a trombone player at the Sahara, where Lewis would perform. When Bernhard invited Lewis to speak at his school, they hit if off immediately -- in no small part due to some photographs on the wall. They showed Bernard in his first movie, "Murder Inc.," which happened to be one of Lewis' favorite films. "He said, you were in 'Murder Inc.?' Can I touch you?' He told me it was a cult classic among Hollywood people, and that he was one of those people. It was a sheer accident. We've been good friends ever since."

VEGAS PERFORMANCES: Bernard has appeared in three theatrical productions here, "I'm Not Rappaport," "The Price" and "The Sunshine Boys." His play, "Take Off Your Clothes, I'll Make You a Star," debuted in 1983 at the Union Plaza. "It has an X-rated title, but it's a G-rated play," he says. "It's about an acting school and the teacher who comes in and says that to all the girls. I said that to Shelley Winters once at the Strasberg Institute and she said, 'Promises, promises, promises.'"