Sam Berman was born in 1906. His cartoons began appearing in his local paper, the Hartford Courant, while he was still at high school. After studying art in New York he was appointed staff cartoonist on the Newark Star Eagle.

In the 1930s his political watercolour cartoons began being published in Collier's Weekly. During the war he produced a series on Nazi leaders. After the Second World War Berman tended to concentrate on producing caricatures of radio and television stars.