Henry 'Buddy' Bernier was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lyricist

Lyricist

A lyricist is a songwriter who specializes in lyrics. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-composer, who composes the song's melody.-Collaboration:...

, mainly active during the 1940s and 50s.

Born in Watertown, New York, Bernier is perhaps best remembered for Poinciana, written with composer Nat Simon, first introduced in the 1952 film Dreamboat

Dreamboat (film)

Dreamboat is a 1952 comedy film starring Clifton Webb as a college professor with a mysterious past.-Plot:The respectable lives of Professor of English literature Thornton Sayre and his daughter Carol are severely disrupted when it is revealed that he was once a matinee idol known as "Dreamboat"...

which subsequently became a standard covered by artists including Johnny Mathis

Johnny Mathis

John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...

, Vic Damone

Vic Damone

Vic Damone is an American singer and entertainer.- Early life :Damone was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York to French-Italian immigrants based in Bari, Italy—Rocco and Mamie Farinola. His father was an electrician; and his mother taught piano. His cousin was the actress and singer...

, Percy Faith

Percy Faith

Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...

, The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...

 and Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal

Ahmad Jamal is an innovative and influential American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. According to Stanley Crouch, Jamal is second in importance in the development of jazz after 1945 only to Charlie Parker...

 (as the first track on an eponymous album

Poinciana (album)

Poinciana is an album by jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, recorded while live on tour from The Pershing Hotel's nightclub in Chicago.-Track listing:...

), and which featured again in the 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County

The Bridges of Madison County (film)

The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 American romantic drama film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller. It was produced by Amblin Entertainment and Malpaso Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment...

.

He was also the lyricist on The Night Has a Thousand Eyes

The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (jazz standard)

"The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" is a song composed by Jerry Brainin, with lyrics by Buddy Bernier. The song was written for the 1948 film Night Has a Thousand Eyes....

(not to be confused with the Bobby Vee

Bobby Vee

Robert Thomas Velline , known as Bobby Vee, is an American pop music singer. According to Billboard magazine, Vee has had 38 Hot 100 chart hits, 10 of which hit the Top 20.-Career:...

 song of the same name) co-written with Jerry Brainin and covered by John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

 and Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte

Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

amongst others.