Sheldon Leonard Berman (February 3, 1925 – September 1, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, writer, teacher, and lecturer.

[7] His career began with an acting company in Woodstock, Illinois,[5] and in 1949 he and his wife made their way to New York City.

[12] While performing improvised sketches with Compass, Berman began to develop solo pieces, often employing an imaginary telephone to take the place of an onstage partner.

[2] He starred on Broadway in A Family Affair and continued with stage work in The Odd Couple, Damn Yankees, Where's Charley?, Fiddler on the Roof, Two by Two, I'm Not Rappaport, La Cage aux Folles, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and Guys & Dolls.

[16] Berman performed both comedic and dramatic roles on television, including appearances on episodes of The Twilight Zone (both radio and TV versions), Rawhide, Bewitched, Peter Gunn, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Adam-12, Emergency!, Brothers, Night Court, MacGyver, L.A. Law, Friends, Walker, Texas Ranger, The King of Queens, Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, Lizzie McGuire, Hannah Montana, CSI: NY and the revived Hawaii Five-0.

[17][18][19] He made some appearances as a panelist and one as the "Mystery Guest" on the CBS game show What's My Line in the early and mid-1960s.

[3] Among Berman's film credits are Dementia (1955, with Shorty Rogers), The Best Man (1964, with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson), Divorce American Style (1967, with Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds), Every Home Should Have One (1970, with Marty Feldman), Beware!

[22] Berman and his wife were supporters of the Motion Picture and Television Fund (located in Woodland Hills, California), a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries with little or no resources, and contributed their time and resources to benefit the facilities and the residents.

[23] In a 2012 podcast interview with Marc Maron, Berman alleged that comedian Bob Newhart plagiarized his improvisational telephone routine style, describing its genesis and saying it was a "very special technique that couldn't really be imitated.

'"[25]Newhart cited other influences on his comedy, rather than Berman -- most notably Jack Benny and Bob and Ray.

[27] Berman died from complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Bell Canyon, California, in the early morning of September 1, 2017.

[28] Comedian Steve Martin praised Berman on Twitter, thanking him for "changing modern stand-up [comedy]".