Biography

Burton Field Brinckerhoff was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Howard Brinckerhoff (1883-1957) and his wife Marion (née Field, 1903-1997). Burt's interest in acting developed while performing in school plays after the family had moved to New York. Following his graduation, he studied drama under Wendell K. Phillips and Milton Katselas and then acted in summer stock. He was eventually spotted by a New York agent and this led him to being cast in an episode of the The Philco Television Playhouse (1948). Tall and youthful-looking, Brinckerhoff continued to play teens in TV anthology dramas all through the fifties, but he considered himself more of a serious stage actor. His career was briefly interrupted in 1959 by military service in the U.S. Army National Guard.

Brinckerhoff's 1958 Broadway debut as Arthur Bartley in Blue Denim, caused the New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson to compare him to Anthony Perkins. In fact, during his early years in show biz the young actor was often mistaken for Perkins in appearance. Lauren Bacall later described her Tony Award-nominated co-star of Cactus Flower (1965-67) as "a good actor".

By 1962, Brinckerhoff had also begun to work as a stage director at the Wyndham Playhouse. Two years later, he co-founded the Triangle Theatre in Manhattan, where he continued to both direct and produce. All through the sixties, he resumed taking on acting assignments on TV. Having a predilection for westerns and crime dramas, he made guest appearances in, among others, Naked City (1958), Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), Laramie (1959), The Virginian (1962), The Fugitive (1963), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Gunsmoke (1955) and Rawhide (1959). Starting in the early seventies, Brinckerhoff became a prolific director of serial television, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for episodes of Lou Grant (1977).

A member of the Directors Guild of America, the Actors' Equity Association, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Screen Actors Guild, Brinckerhoff plied his craft until his retirement in 2002.
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis