{{Short description|British comedian and musician (1930–1991)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}} {{Use British English|date=November 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Bernie Winters | image = Memorial to Bernie Winters, Golders Green Crematorium.JPG | caption = Memorial to Bernie Winters, Golders Green Crematorium | birth_name = Bernie Weinstein | birth_date = {{birth date|1930|09|06|df=y}}<ref name="oxforddnb.com">https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-109255</ref> | birth_place = Islington, London, England, UK | death_date = {{death date and age|1991|05|04|1930|09|06|df=y}} | death_place = London, England, UK | occupation = Comedian, musician, actor, TV presenter | years_active = 1957−1990 | spouse = Siggi Winters | partner = | children = 1 | parents = Samuel Weinstein<br>Rachel Bloomfield | relatives = Mike Winters | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Bernie Winters''' (born '''Bernie Weinstein'''; 6 September 1930<ref name="oxforddnb.com">https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-109255</ref> – 4 May 1991) was an English comedian, actor, musician and TV presenter, and the comic foil of the double act Mike and Bernie Winters with his older brother, Mike. Winters later performed solo, often with the aid of his St Bernard dog, '''Schnorbitz'''.
==Early life== Bernie Winters was born Bernard Weinstein at the now demolished Salvation Army Maternity Home on Old Street in Islington, London on 6 September 1930.<ref name="oxforddnb.com">https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-109255</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=July 2001) |first=Laurence Marcus & Peter Henshuls (19 |title=Mike and Bernie Winters |url=https://televisionheaven.co.uk/biographies/mike-and-bernie-winters |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=Television Heaven |language=en}}</ref> His father, Samuel, was a bookmaker and boxer, and his mother Rachel worked in the circus.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Barker |first=Dennis |date=2013-08-26 |title=Mike Winters obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/aug/26/mike-winters |access-date=2026-04-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> One of his grandfathers had emigrated to the UK from Russia.<ref name=":0" /> When Bernie was three, the family moved to Tottenham, where they were neighbours with Harrison Marks.
== Career ==
=== Mike and Bernie Winters === Winters served in the merchant navy and performed as a musician at dances and weddings before forming the double act Mike & Bernie Winters with his brother Mike. In October 1957, the duo appeared on ''Six-Five Special''<ref>{{Cite web |title=TV Pop Diaries - Mike and Bernie Winters |url=http://www.tvpopdiaries.co.uk/winters.html |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=www.tvpopdiaries.co.uk}}</ref> and were described in the ''Daily Mirror'' as top comics for Britain's teenage TV audience.<ref>{{Citation | last = Davis | first = Clifford | title = Tops for Teens | newspaper = Daily Mirror | page = 10 | date =1957-10-05 }}</ref> They had been recommended to the show's presenter Josephine Douglas by Tommy Steele, with whom they had been on a stage tour. They both left the show the same day she did, 10 May 1958.
The brothers became popular in the 1960s, they appeared on the ''Royal Variety Performance'' and hosted their own show from 1965 to 1973. One of Bernie's gimmicks would be to poke his head through a curtain and say "Eeeeh!", followed by him pulling Mike's cheeks and calling him "choochy-face".<ref name="Times">The Times Obituary Mike Winters, 27 August, p47</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10266468/Mike-Winters.html|title=Mike Winters Daily Telegraph Obituary|newspaper=Daily Telegraph|date=26 August 2013 |access-date=27 August 2013}}</ref> Bernie also had the catchphrase "I'll smash yer face in".<ref name="DTO">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10266468/Mike-Winters.html Daily Telegraph Obituary]. Retrieved 27 August 2013</ref>
By the late 1970s, Winters was having an affair with a dancer twenty years his junior,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Roche |first=Elisa |date=2013-08-27 |title=Comic Mike Winters kept them laughing until the end at 82 |url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/424892/Comic-Mike-Winters-kept-them-laughing-until-the-end-at-82 |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=Express.co.uk |language=en}}</ref> Dinah May, which reportedly started when she was eighteen and Bernie was forty.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Guide |first=British Comedy |date=2022-11-06 |title=There's two of 'em! - The Winters and their discontent - Comedy Chronicles |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy_chronicles/mike-and-bernie-winters/ |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=British Comedy Guide |language=en}}</ref> When he was named in Dinah's divorce suit, Mike, who was also involved in an affiar, openly mocked Bernie, which strained their relationship.<ref name=":1" /> The two brothers split up the double act in 1978.
=== Solo === Bernie Winters was briefly under contract to Warwick Productions.<ref name="warwick">{{cite magazine|date=8 December 2025|access-date=8 December 2025|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-cubby-broccoli-and-irving-allen/|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Cubby Broccoli and Irving Allen}}</ref>
Winters hosted his own comedy show for Thames Television, ''Bernie'' (1978–1980), for ITV, which had two series and a total of thirteen episodes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Guide |first=British Comedy |title=Bernie - ITV1 sketch show |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/bernie/ |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=British Comedy Guide |language=en}}</ref> In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Winters also presented ''The Big Top Variety Show'', a television series of variety shows from a circus ring; while on this show, Winters was accompanied by his St Bernard dog, Schnorbitz.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BFI Screenonline: Big Top Variety Show (1979-82) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1341867/index.html#:~:text=BFI%20Screenonline:%20Big%20Top%20Variety%20Show%20(1979-82)&text=Series%20of%20specials%20interspersing%20variety,under%20Billy%20Smart's%20Big%20Top.&text=TV%20saw%20circus%20as%20a,or%20Easter,%20from%20the%201950s. |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=www.screenonline.org.uk}}</ref> In 1984 he presented the second series of the game show ''Whose Baby?''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Whose Baby? {{!}} UKGameshows |url=https://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Whose_Baby%3F |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=www.ukgameshows.com}}</ref> He became a regular on shows such as ''Punchlines'' and ''Give Us a Clue'' and gave an impression of Bud Flanagan on television and later on stage, with Leslie Crowther as Flanagan's partner Chesney Allen.
Winters appeared as himself in the London Weekend Television sitcom ''Bottle Boys'' in 1985.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Guide |first=British Comedy |title=Bottle Boys: Series 1, Episode 5 - One Good Turn |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/bottle_boys/episodes/1/5/ |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=British Comedy Guide |language=en}}</ref>
== Personal life == Although he fell out with Mike, the brothers reconciled in 1985, when Mike returned from America for an operation.<ref name=":1" /> Winters was a member of the showbusiness fraternity the Grand Order of Water Rats.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gowr.co.uk/all-water-rats/v/42|title=Biography of a Water Rat}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bernie Winters |url=https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/bernie-winters/ |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=London Remembers |language=en}}</ref> Mike died in 2013.
== Death == On 14 August 1990, after several months of discomfort and stomach pains, he had a nine-hour operation on his stomach to remove a tumour. Though he was never told, Winters' condition was already terminal, and he died on 4 May 1991 at The London Clinic, aged 60.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mike & Bernie Winters |url=https://www.memorabilia-uk.co.uk/p/mike-bernie-winters |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=Memorabilia UK |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-08-27 |title=Mike Winters |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13120026.mike-winters/ |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=The Herald |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-08-27 |title=Obituary: Michael Winters, comic |url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-michael-winters-comic-1563427 |access-date=2026-04-26 |website=The Scotsman |language=en}}</ref>
He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London on 8 May and his ashes interred in the Garden of Remembrance. Mourners included Ronnie Corbett, Jimmy Tarbuck, Des O'Connor, Bob Monkhouse, Henry Cooper, Ted Rogers, Su Pollard, Alfred Marks, John Inman and Rose-Marie.<ref>Daily Post (3 a.m. ed.) Thu, May 09, 1991 ·Page 19</ref><ref>[https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/actor-john-inman-singer-rose-marie-bernie-1947455a Actor John Inman And Singer Rose Marie At Bernie Winters Funeral - Shutterstock]</ref> A memorial plaque was erected in the crematorium's West Memorial Court.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|935903}} *The 1967 album [https://downstairslounge.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/mike-and-bernie-winters: ''Mike and Bernie Winters in Toyland'']
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Winters, Bernie}} Category:1932 births Category:1991 deaths Category:British Jews Category:English male television actors Category:English male comedians Category:Jewish English male actors Category:Jewish English comedians Category:Male actors from London Category:Deaths from stomach cancer in England Category:Actors from the London Borough of Islington Category:People cremated at Golders Green Crematorium Category:20th-century British male actors Category:20th-century English comedians Category:Comedians from the London Borough of Islington Category:People from Islington (district)