| John Beradino | |
|---|---|
Beradino and Emily McLaughlin (right) at the 10th anniversary of General Hospital, 1973 |
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| Born | May 1, 1917 Los Angeles, California |
| Died | May 19, 1996 (aged 79) Los Angeles, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actor, baseball player |
| Known for | General Hospital, TV show |
| Johnny Berardino | |
|---|---|
| Second baseman/Shortstop | |
| Batted: Right | Threw: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| April 22, 1939 for the St. Louis Browns | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 19, 1952 for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .249 |
| Home runs | 36 |
| Runs batted in | 387 |
| Teams | |
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John Beradino (May 1, 1917 – May 19, 1996) was an American infielder in Major League Baseball and an actor. Known as Johnny Berardino during his baseball career, he was also credited during his acting career as John Baradino, John Barardino or John Barradino.
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He was born Giovanni Berardino in Los Angeles, California. He attended Belmont High School, located in Downtown, Los Angeles.
Beradino is often mentioned as having appeared in the silent Our Gang comedies produced by Hal Roach as a child actor, but has not been identified as having appeared in any of the existing films.
After attending the University of Southern California where he played baseball under coach Sam Barry and was member of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, Beradino was a major league player from 1939 to 1953 (except for three years of military service during World War II from 1942 to 1945). He played second base and shortstop for the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians, and Pittsburgh Pirates, winning the World Series with the Indians in 1948.[1] After injuring his leg and being released by Pittsburgh in 1952, he retired from baseball and returned to acting, having appeared in his first film in 1948.
He appeared briefly in an uncredited role as a state trooper in the 1954 thriller "Suddenly" starring Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden. He had a cameo role in the classic 1954 sci-fi thriller Them. He had a guest role in a 1955 episode of the TV series Adventures of Superman, in an episode called "The Unlucky Number". He played a small-time criminal who struggled with his lifestyle and wanted to reform. His low-key acting style served him well in that show.
After appearing in more than a dozen B-movies, as well as supporting roles, as FBI agent Steve Daniels in the espionage series I Led Three Lives and as LAPD Sergeant Vince Cavelli in The New Breed, he was offered the role of Dr. Steve Hardy on the soap opera General Hospital. He also played a version of his General Hospital character Dr. Steve Hardy on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He played the role from the show's inception in 1963 until his death from pancreatic cancer on Sunday, May 19, 1996 in Beverly Hills, California.
For his contribution to the television industry, Beradino has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. He has also been inducted into the University of Southern California Athletic Hall of Fame.
He is the only person to have won a World Series (1948) and have his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1993).
In tribute to the actor, General Hospital left Beradino's image with Rachel Ames in its opening sequence for a year-and-a-half after his death, through several updates. Though that image was finally removed in early 1998 (leaving Ames with a new solo image), an "action" clip of Beradino's Steve Hardy in the hospital remained in the sequence until the sequence's 2004 retirement.
