Raised in a Navy family, Bergman was born in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and had a peripatetic childhood before spending the bulk of his youth in New York state. Drawn to the theater, he worked in construction for a year in order to afford his studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan. He appeared Off-Broadway and helped to found the theatre company, New York Acting Unit. Bergman's initial brush with the small screen came with a 1976 guest turn in a two-part episode of the CBS primetime series "Kojak" but his real breakthrough came in 1979 when he joined "All My Children". Within a year, he had been voted "Most Promising Newcomer" by Soap Opera Digest magazine and in the early 1980s enjoyed attention as part of one of daytime's most publicized young lovers. Following on the heels of the success of the Luke and Laura storyline on "General Hospital", the writing staff at "All My Children" promoted the star-crossed romance of Bergman's doctor Cliff Warner with Taylor Miller's rich girl Nina Cortlandt. At the height of the storyline in 1983, the actor earned his first Daytime Emmy nomination. Having played out the various permutations of soap opera, romance, divorce, reconciliation, etc., Bergman tired of the character and opted not to continue on the series.
Unlike those actors who leave daytime hoping to secure a spot in primetime or in films, Bergman chose to decamp to the West Coast and join another daytime serial. In 1989, he assumed the role of ruthless businessman and ladykiller Jack Abbott. Over more than a decade in the role, the actor has made the character his own, equal parts shark and lamb. Bergman has received 13 straight Best Actor Daytime Emmy nominations for his work on the soap (as of 2002), taking home the statue in 1991 and 1992.
Since appearing on "Y&R", Bergman has also moonlighted in a handful of primetime appearances, including playing a soap opera actor on a series in which the cast is being murdered one by one in the 1982 ABC movie "Fantasies". He also appeared as a dashing detective in "Almost Partners" (PBS, 1987), a drama about a teenage girl seeking the cremated remains of her aunt, and was seen in both "Money, Power, Murder" (CBS, 1989), and "Danielle Steel's 'Palomino'" (NBC, 1991).