The Troubled Life of 'Murphy Brown' Actor Robert Pastorelli: 20 Years After His Tragic Death

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It's been twenty years since Murphy Brown TV sitcom actor Robert Pastorelli was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home from what was ruled an accidental drug overdose. He was only 49 years old, and this is his tragic story.

A Closer Look

Robert Pastorelli was born June 21, 1954, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In his youth, the future actor had dreams of being a boxer. But a near-fatal nightmare car crash on his 19th birthday cut short that demanding athletic aspiration.

Subsequently, Pastorelli redirected his energy into acting, which included appearances in movies like Outrageous Fortune and Beverly Hills Cop II (both released in 1987), and Dances With Wolves (1990).

Murphy's Law

Robert Pastorelli's breakthrough role arrived via television, in Murphy Brown (CBS, 1988-1998; and briefly rebooted in 2018). He played the procrastinating Eldin Bernecky, an off-the-wall housepainter for Candice Bergen's fabricated and demanding TV news journalist. Eldin always somehow managed to ignore whatever paint job he was working on, mostly due to his high eccentric perfectionist standards. Instead, he spent most of his time serving as a kind of quasi-life-coach/guru to Murphy and her personal life.

Pastorelli stayed with Murphy Brown from 1988 to 1994 and left the series the same year as its creator, Diane English.

For one TV season from 1997 to 1998, Pastorelli took the title role as a police psychologist in the ABC series Cracker.

One Tragedy After the Next

In 1999, Robert Pastorelli's 25-year-old girlfriend, Charemon Jonovich (with whom he had one daughter Gianna Li Pastorelli), was found shot to death, a demise authorities deemed an accident.

Pastorelli had a second daughter, Giannina Marie Pastorelli, born in 2000, with his then-girlfriend, Jalee Carder.

Four years later, Pastorelli was found dead at the age of 49 at his home in the Hollywood Hills on March 8, 2004, from a narcotics overdose. The Coroner's Office said he died of a "fatal blood concentration of morphine"

The actor had just finished working with John Travolta in the movie Be Cool, the sequel to the comedy Get Shorty. He played a hitman.

Lasting Impression

Robert Pastorelli's performance as Eldin Bernecky on Murphy Brown is a lasting comedic professional legacy as opposed to the horrific personal life off-screen.