Caroline Burke

Caroline Flora Burke (née Berg; July 7, 1913December 5, 1964) was an American actress, theater producer, television producer, writer, and art collector. She appeared in several films in the early 1940s before becoming a theater producer in New York City, notably producing several stage productions of Harold Pinter plays and Broadway productions. She also worked as a producer for NBC in the 1950s, and at the time was the company's only female producer. The daughter of a prominent Portland, Oregon businessman, Burke studied art history at Bryn Mawr College before embarking on a short-lived career as an actress. Her first role was a starring part in The Mysterious Rider (1942), which she followed with three minor film appearances before retiring from film acting. In the 1950s, she transitioned into executive and production work for NBC, as well as theatre producing for various Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. In addition to her career in entertainment, Burke also taught television production at Columbia University, and was the founder of the art history department at Reed College. She died of undisclosed causes in 1964 while in the midst of producing a second Harold Pinter stage production, which opened the week following her death. Burke and her husband, business executive Erwin Swann, owned a significant art collection of modernist paintings and sculpture—including works by Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, and Auguste Rodin—which has showed at several national art museums. Additionally, the couple's collection of cartoon and caricature artwork is owned by the U.S. Library of Congress. Early life Burke was born Caroline Flora Berg on July 7, 1913 in Portland, Oregon to a Jewish family. Her mother was Saidee (née Rosenberg), and her father, Charles F. Berg, was a prominent Portland news radio executive and President of the Pacific Coast Advertising Men's Association. Her father, a native of San Francisco, also founded the Charles F. Berg Company, a local Portland women's clothing chain, and co-produced "The Hoot Owls," a pioneering radio sketch show for KGW. The Charles F. Berg Building, an Art Deco building in downtown Portland that served as one of the Berg storefronts, is named for her father, who died there of a heart attack in 1932. She had one elder brother, Forrest Talbott Berg, from her father's previous marriage.