Her maternal grandmother was the Italian-born fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and her maternal grandfather was Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor, a Theosophist and psychic medium. Her elder sister, Marisa Berenson, became a well-known model and Actress. She also was a great-grandniece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian Astronomer who believed he had discovered the supposed canals of Mars, and a second cousin, once removed, of art expert Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) and his sister Senda Berenson (1868–1954), an athlete and educator who was one of the first two women elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Following a brief modeling career in the late 1960s, Berenson became a freelance Photographer. By 1973, her photographs had been published in Life, Glamour, Vogue and Newsweek.
On August 9, 1973, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Berenson married her Future Remember My Name costar Anthony Perkins. The couple had two sons: actor-musician Oz Perkins (born February 2, 1974) and folk/rock recording Artist Elvis Perkins (born February 9, 1976). They remained married until Perkins's death from AIDS-related complications on September 12, 1992.
She also appeared in several motion pictures, including Cat People with Malcolm McDowell. She starred opposite Anthony Perkins in the 1978 Alan Rudolph film Remember My Name and opposite Jeff Bridges in the 1979 film Winter Kills.
Berenson is survived by her two sons and two grandchildren, a grandson born in 2004 and a granddaughter born in 2008.
