Like most actors he changed to a stage name, Tom Berenger.
While in college he tried out and appeared in the classic play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? From this stage performance he signalled that acting had become his future goal by appearing in several regional theatre play productions. He joined the Milwaukee Repertory Company and toured for a while. By the mid-seventies he was off to New York for stardom.
Like most actors/actresses he started in daytime soaps. With his masculine good looks he was cast in the ABC daytime drama, One Life to Live (1975 – 1976 as Timmy Siegal).
With Off-Broadway productions and commercial spots (Close-up Toothpaste) his acting was being noticed. He landed a staring roll in his first movie called Rush It (1976) about a romance between two New York letter bike carriers.
Berenger progressed throughout the 70’s and 80’s appearing in at least one movie per year, his next step was a bit part in the scary movie The Sentinel (1977 – man at the end). That same year, Berenger had his first true character roll (Gary Cooper White) as a psychopathic killer in the near classic, Looking for Mister Goodbar, staring Diane Keaton who finds trouble in the bar pick-up nightlife.
One might remember his role in Butch and Sundance: The Early Years (1979) where he played Butch Cassidy; this was before the Robert Redford movie. From the Wild West to war mercenary in the The Dogs of War (1980), to the heart-felt movie The Big Chill (1983), Berenger was making head way as an established actor.
In the eighties he played the role of singing cowboy (comedy – Rustlers’ Rhapsody, 1985), wilderness tracker (Shoot to Kill, 1988, co-staring Sidney Poitier) and a baseball player in the comedy Major League (1989) with Charlie Sheen.
His first groundbreaking character role was in Platoon (1986) as Stg. Barns dealing with morality of murder in Vietnam.
Berenger has taken on sensitive, cruel and abrasive characters, which makes him likeable in movies. He fits the parts that he plays. His looks and charm makes him versatile in his roles. As an officer in the Civil War epic (Gettysburg, 1993), a sharp shooting sniper (Sniper, 1993), or a wilderness guide (Last of the Dogman, 1995) who finds romance, he is believable.
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