What's Happening: Fred Berry AKA Rerun

Fred Berry: What's Happening was his claim to fame

Whats Happening!! was a sitcom that ran on ABC from 1976-1979. The stars were Mabel King (Mabel Thomas), Ernest Lee Thomas (Roger Thomas), Danielle Spencer (Dee Thomas), Haywood Nelson (Dwayne Clements), Shirley Hemple (Shirley Wilson), and Fred Allen Berry (Freddie Rerun Stubbs). The cast minus King also starred in Whats Happening Now!! from 1985 to 1988. Berry was fired after the first season of the second series because he demanded more money than the other cast and was turned down.

As Rerun, Berry was popular because of his trademark red beret, suspenders, and dance moves which he learned as a street dancer. He was a member of The Lockers, a Los Angeles-based dance troupe that appeared on the third episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. Berry appeared on Soul Train, and was featured dancing down the popular Soul Train line doing the early 1970s dance step "the slo-mo."

Additional Roles

Berry made apperances in films as well as other television shows and they include the following.

The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and Battle of the Network Stars III (1977)

Vice Squad (1982)

A Stroke of Genius (1984)

Alice (1984)

I Wonder Who She's Seeing Now" music video by The Temptations (1988)

The Howard Stern Show (1992)

In Living Color and Martin (1993)

Murder Was the Case: The Movie (1995) as Rerun (music video short)

Bum Runner (2002) Movie short

Scrubs (2003)

In the Land of Merry Misfits (released after the actor's death in 2007.

Fred Berry's personal life

The actor was born on March 19, 1951, and his first acting role was as a dancer on the television series Hammer in 1972. He was married 6 times and wed two of his wives twice each. He has three children: DeShannon, Portia, and Freddy, who goes by Fred Berry Jr.

Berry struggled with drug and alcohol misuse, and during a 1996 interview with People, he said the following: “I was a millionaire by the time I was 29, but then the stress of success got to me. The fat jokes got to me. And I got heavily into drugs and alcohol.” Berry admitted that he had been experimenting with drugs and alcohol since he was a teenager and said the more money he made the more drugs he purchased.

Berry also stated that he attempted suicide three times, and upon recovery began visiting different churches. After being released from a substance-abuse treatment program, he did not get many offers to work. For a few years, the actor struggled financially and earned money from shopping mall appearances,

Berry became a motivational speaker and Baptist minister, during the 1990s, and lost 100 lbs after a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. In 1998 he appeared in the film In the Hood and in 2000 he had a role in Big Money Hustlas. In 2003 he did a cameo in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star on the syndicated reality show Classmates.

On the show, Berry appeared with Charles Bradshaw, a football player and former classmate whom he thanked for defending him when he was teased by other children because of his weight. This was his final television appearance and came just weeks before he died.

Berry was found dead on October 21, 2003, at his Los Angeles home, where he had been recovering from a stroke and his cause of death was listed as natural causes. His widow Essie Berry has said that the reason Whats Happening!! and Whats Happening Now!! both only lasted 3 years is because her husband was paid the money he desired.