Berlinger was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, of Jewish heritage, the son of Frieda (née Shapkin) and Elias Berlinger, a building contractor. His family owned Berlinger's Glass Store on Avenue D. He and his late wife, Actress Betty Lou Keim (1938–2010) had four children. He is the nephew of Milton Berle.
Berlinger performed in the original 1946 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun, with Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. He guest-starred on the original Howdy Doody television show, with roles following on Kraft Television Theatre and other programs. He also guest-starred on John Cassavetes's detective series, NBC's Johnny Staccato.
Berlinger appeared in both the Broadway stage and Hollywood movie productions of Blue Denim (winning a Theatre World Award for the stage version), and also Happy Time, Anniversary Waltz (later adapted as the movie Happy Anniversary), and Come Blow Your Horn in 1961. He also performed in the 1963 London stage production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying at the Shaftesbury Theatre, His career as a character actor began in 1956 with the film Teenage Rebel. Then in the movies Because They're Young (1960), The Wackiest Ship In The Army (1960) Billie (1965) and Thunder Alley (1967).
In 1965, Berlinger was the star of Kilroy, a segment of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. In 1966, he played Phillip Short in the movie Spinout. Later appearances included episodes of Charlie's Angels, Happy Days (including an appearance as "tough-as-nails" United States Army recruiter Sergeant Bechler), on Marlo Thomas' TV show That Girl, as Thomas' stingy cousin Howard in Season 1, Episode 27.Love, American Style, Operation Petticoat, Friends, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote. In 1973, he was a regular cast member of the short-lived situation comedy A Touch of Grace. His other films include The Long Goodbye (1973), The Girl Most Likely to... (1973), Lepke (1975), I Will, I Will... for Now (1976), The Shaggy D.A. (1976), The Magician of Lublin (1979), The Cannonball Run (1981), The World According to Garp (1982), Ten Little Indians (1989), Hero (1992) and That Thing You Do! (1996).
In 2006, Berlinger marked his 60th anniversary in show Business. He has been both honorary mayor and honorary sheriff of Chatsworth, California.
