David de Berry was a U.S. composer of theater music as well as an actor and music director.

De Berry is best known for the score of a 1987 adaptation of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

's A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...

, on which he collaborated with playwright Richard Hellesen

Richard Hellesen

Richard Hellesen is a West Coast playwright.His works have been performed by regional theater companies including South Coast Repertory in Orange County, California, the LA Rep , the Denver Center Theatre Company, Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, City Theatre in Miami, Florida, and Geva Theatre...

 and director Dennis Bigelow. Originally commissioned for the Sacramento Theatre Company

Sacramento Theatre Company

The Sacramento Theatre Company is a Regional Professional Theatre in the Northern California city of Sacramento.- History :The theater was originally formed as the Sacramento Civic Repertory Theatre in 1942, an ad hoc troupe formed to entertain locally stationed troops during World War II.Realizing...

, the work has been widely seen, with perennial productions in Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

, Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...

, Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, among other communities.

The resident composer and musical director of the Sacramento Theatre Company, de Berry wrote original music for many productions there and at other companies, including the Portland Center Stage in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a regional repertory theatre in Ashland, Oregon, United States. The festival annually produces eleven plays on three stages during a season that lasts from February to October...

 in Ashland, Oregon

Ashland, Oregon

Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, near Interstate 5 and the California border, and located in the south end of the Rogue Valley. It was named after Ashland County, Ohio, point of origin of Abel Helman and other founders, and secondarily for Ashland, Kentucky, where other...

. His scores graced many classic works by Shakespeare and Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

 as well as contemporary plays. He was also co-author of the musical A Cappella, also written with Hellesen.

As an actor, the 6-foot-5 (196 cm) de Berry specialized in comic, often oversized roles.He gave a memorable performance in the title role of a Sacramento Theatre Company production of The Imaginary Invalid. The role of a hypochondriac was written by Molière—who, it turned out, was really ill, and who died shortly after a performance in the title role. De Berry put every ounce of himself into the role, knowing that for him, too, it was almost certainly his last time on stage. He died shortly thereafter in Oregon, where he was working on a score.

De Berry grew up in Redding, California

Redding, California

Redding is a city in far-Northern California. It is the county seat of Shasta County, California, USA. With a population of 89,861, according to the 2010 Census...

 and was a graduate of the University of California, Davis

University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...

 and Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

.