Bernard Schoenbaum was born and raised in New York City. After receiving his art education at Parsons School of Design, he was a freelance advertising illustrator for many years.
Appearing in The New Yorker since 1974, he became a contract cartoonist with more than four hundred cartoons published. His cartoons have been reprinted in books and periodicals worldwide and are also in many private collections.
His other endeavors included teaching the figure, life drawing, portrait sketching, sculpture, oil painting, and water colors. These have also been privately collected.
He and his wife, Rhoda, a retired librarian, resided in Whitestone, New York, with a winter residence in West Palm Beach, Florida.
His three grown daughters are Laura Schoenbaum-Rothenberg of Shirley, New York, a graphic designer; Audrey Tufano of East Meadow, New York, a computer technician; and Joyce Dara of Santa Monica, California, an instructional director in Los Angeles Unified School District, California. His granddaughter, Cassandra Tufano, is a graduate of SUNY Albany.