Frances Bergen, born Frances Westerman (September 14, 1922 - October 2, 2006) was an American actress and fashion model. She was the wife of famous ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the mother of actress Candice and Kris Bergen.
She was born in Birmingham, Alabama to William and Lillie Mae Westerman. While in New York City, she became a successful John Robert Powers model. She was "the Chesterfield Girl" and "the Ipana Girl" in magazines and on billboards. As a Powers model she was known as Frances Westcott.
In 1941, Frances met Edgar Bergen when she was 19 years old, while attending a recording of one of his famous radio programs with Charlie McCarthy. Edgar Bergen was two decades older than she. All the same, they married on June 28, 1945. She had found the right person with Edgar, and together they built a loving and passionate relationship that was envy of Hollywood until Edgar's death in 1978 at age 75.
As an actress, Frances Bergen had supporting or minor roles in a number of films. She made her debut in Titanic (1953), after which she appeared in Robert Z. Leonard's Her Twelve Men, and Douglas Sirk's Interlude (1957).
During the 1958-1959 television season, Frances became the recurring love interest on the cult western show Yancy Derringer as Madame Francine, the strong willed but beautiful owner of a members-only gambling house in New Orleans set in 1868.
Frances also made numerous other appearances on television, with guest starring roles on The Millionaire, The Dick Powell Show, Barnaby Jones, MacGyver, and Murder, She Wrote.
She returned to films in the 1980s, with small roles in American Gigolo, The Sting II, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Morning After, and Made in America, among others. She had a major part in Henry Jaglom's independently made film Eating (1990).
She also appeared on two episodes of Murphy Brown, her daughter's hit show, including Part One of the series finale in 1998. She dated actor Craig Stevens after the death of his wife of many years, Alexis Smith.
Frances Bergen died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of undisclosed causes on October 2, 2006, aged 84.
References
^ http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/15671633.htm
External links
Frances Bergen at the Internet Movie Database
Frances Bergen at Allmovie
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Bergen"
Categories: 1922 births | 2006 deaths | American female models | American film actors | American television actors | People from Birmingham, Alabama | People from Los Angeles County | Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery
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