She is best known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown (1988–1998), for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal (2004–2008), for which she was nominated for two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She starred in several major films throughout the mid 1960s to early 1980s such as The Sand Pebbles, Carnal Knowledge, The Wind and the Lion, and Gandhi, receiving an Oscar nomination for her role in Starting Over. Her later career includes character roles in Miss Congeniality and Sweet Home Alabama.
Early life
Bergen was born in Beverly Hills, California. Her mother, Frances Bergen (née Westerman), was a Powers model who was known professionally as Frances Westcott.[1] Her father, Edgar Bergen, was a ventriloquist, comedian, and actor. Her paternal grandparents were Swedish-born immigrants who anglicized their surname. As a child, Bergen was irritated at being referred to as Charlie McCarthy's little sister, Charlie McCarthy being her father's star dummy.
Career
Bergen began appearing on her father's radio program at a young age, and in 1958, at age eleven, with her father on Groucho Marx's quiz show You Bet Your Life as Candy Bergen. She said that when she grew up she wanted to design clothes.
Bergen made her screen debut playing an aloof university student in The Group (1966), which delicately touched on the then-forbidden subject of lesbianism. Her second film in 1966 was The Sand Pebbles, in which she played Shirley Eckert, an assistant school teacher and missionary opposite Steve McQueen. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards. After starring in the French film Live for Life (1967) and The Magus (1968) with Michael Caine and Anthony Quinn, she was featured in a 1969 political satire, The Adventurers, playing a frustrated socialite who has a lesbian affair. In 1975 she starred with Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion, as a headstrong American widow kidnapped in Morocco in 1904 along with her two young children.
Despite initial rocky reviews, she appeared in such films as Mike Nichols' provocative Carnal Knowledge (1971) and the Burt Reynolds romantic comedy Starting Over (1979), for which she received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actress.
Bergen had roles in Western films including The Hunting Party and Bite the Bullet, both of which starred Gene Hackman. She was the love interest of Ryan O'Neal in the Love Story sequel, Oliver's Story, and portrayed a best-selling author in Rich and Famous (1981) with Jacqueline Bisset.
Bergen has written articles, a play, and a memoir, Knock Wood (1984). She has also studied photography and worked as a photojournalist. Considered one of Hollywood's most beautiful women, Bergen worked as a fashion model before she took up acting.
Turning to television and given a chance to show her little-seen comic talent, Murphy Brown, Bergen played a tough television reporter. Primarily a conventional sit-com, the show did tackle important issues: TV star Murphy Brown, a recovering alcoholic, became a single mother and later battled breast cancer. In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle criticized prime-time TV for showing the Murphy Brown character "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice." His remarks became comedic fodder, and were written into the show as if he were talking about the Murphy Brown character, who was depicted watching Quayle's speech. A subsequent episode explored the subject of family values within a diverse set of families. The Brown character arranges for a truckload of potatoes to be dumped in front of Quayle's residence, an allusion to an infamous incident in which Quayle erroneously directed a school child to spell the word "potato" as "potatoe". In reality, Bergen agreed with at least some of Quayle's observations, saying that while the particular remark was "an arrogant and uninformed posture", as a whole, it was "a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did." Bergen's run on Murphy Brown was extremely successful: between 1989 and 1995 she was nominated for an Emmy Award seven times and won five. After her fifth win, she declined future nominations for the role.
After playing the role of the successful journalist, Bergen was offered a chance to work as a real-life one. After the run of Murphy Brown ended in 1998, CBS approached her to cover stories for 60 Minutes, an offer she declined, with the conviction that she didn't personally want to blur the lines between actor and journalist at the time.
After Murphy Brown, Bergen hosted Exhale with Candice Bergen on the Oxygen network. She also appeared in character roles in films, most notably Miss Congeniality (2000) as a former beauty queen who rivals Sandra Bullock; and as the mayor of New York who disapproves of her son marrying Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama (2002). She also appeared in the comedies View from the Top with Gwyneth Paltrow and The In-Laws with Michael Douglas, both released in 2003.
In January 2005, Bergen joined the cast of the television series Boston Legal as Shirley Schmidt, a founding partner in the law firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. She played the role for five seasons. In 2006 and 2008, she received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
A frequent host on NBC's Saturday Night Live, she was the first woman to host the show and the first host to do a second show. Bergen guest-starred on The Muppet Show in its first year, appearing in several skits, an episode now available in a DVD collection. She was also featured in a long-running "Dime Lady" ad campaign for the Sprint phone company.
She has also made guest appearances on many other TV shows, including Seinfeld (as herself playing Murphy Brown), Law & Order, Family Guy, Will & Grace (playing herself), and Sex and the City, where she played Enid Frick, Carrie Bradshaw's editor at Vogue. More recently she appeared in the 2009 movie Bride Wars as Marion St. Claire, New York's most sought-after wedding planner, who also serves as the narrator of the story.
Since its launch in 2008, Candice Bergen has been a contributor for wowOwow.com, a website for women to talk culture, politics and gossip.
Bergen is set to guest-star in Season 7 of House.
Personal life
Candice Bergen attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she was elected both Homecoming Queen and Miss University, but acknowledges that her failure to take her education seriously resulted in her being asked to leave.
During the 1960s, Bergen and then-boyfriend Terry Melcher, the son of Doris Day, lived at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, which was later occupied by Sharon Tate and her husband, Roman Polanski. Tate and four others were murdered in the home in 1969 by followers of Charles Manson. There was some initial speculation that Melcher may have been the intended victim.
A political activist, Bergen accepted a date with Henry Kissinger. During her activist days she participated in a Yippie prank when she, Abbie Hoffman, and others threw dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1967, leading to its temporary shut-down.
On September 27, 1980, she married French film director Louis Malle (Bergen herself has traveled extensively and speaks French fluently). They had one child, a daughter named Chloe Malle, in 1985. The couple were married until Malle's death from cancer on Thanksgiving Day in 1995.
Since June 15, 2000, she has been married to New York real estate magnate and philanthropist Marshall Rose.
Awards won
Emmy Awards:
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for: Murphy Brown (1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995) 5 wins
Golden Globe Awards:
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical for: Murphy Brown (1989, 1992) 2 wins
Filmography
[
Features
Year Title Role Additional notes
1966 The Group Lakey
The Sand Pebbles Shirley Eckert
1967 The Day the Fish Came Out Electra Brown
Vivre pour vivre Candice aka Live for Life (US)
1968 The Magus Lily
1969 The Adventurers Sue Ann Daley
1970 Getting Straight Jan
Soldier Blue Kathy Maribel Lee, 'Cresta'
1971 Carnal Knowledge Susan
The Hunting Party Melissa Ruger
T.R. Baskin T. R. Baskin aka A Date with a Lonely Girl (UK)
1974 11 Harrowhouse Maren Shirell
1975 The Wind and the Lion Eden Pedecaris
Bite the Bullet Miss Jones
1977 The Domino Principle Ellie Tucker aka The Domino Killings (UK)
1978 A Night Full of Rain Lizzy
Oliver's Story Marcie Bonwit
1979 Starting Over Jessica Potter
1981 Rich and Famous Merry Noel Blake
1982 Gandhi Margaret Bourke-White
1984 2010 SAL 9000 voice only (credited as Olga Mallsnerd)
1985 Stick Kyle McClaren
2000 Miss Congeniality Kathy Morningside
2002 Sweet Home Alabama Mayor Kate Hennings
2003 View from the Top Sally Weston
The In-Laws Judy Tobias
2008 Sex and the City Enid Frick
The Women Catherine Frazier
2009 Bride Wars Marion St. Claire
2010 The Romantics Augusta
Short subject
Unusual Occupations: Film Tot Holiday (1947)
Flash 02 (1967)
The Lion Roars Again (1975)
Documentary
Wedding of the Doll (1968)
Frames from the Edge (1989)
Belly Talkers (1996)
Who Is Henry Jaglom? (1997)
Television
Coronet Blue (1 episode, 1967)
The Kraft Music Hall (1 episode, 1969)
Saturday Night Live (1975)
The Muppet Show (1976)
Arthur the King (1985) (aka Merlin & the Sword) .... Morgan le Fay
Murder: By Reason of Insanity (1985)
Hollywood Wives (1985) (miniseries)
Mayflower Madam (1987)
Trying Times (1 episode, 1987)
Murphy Brown (247 episodes, 1988–1998) (also executive producer)
Seinfeld (1 episode, 1992)
Understanding Sex (1994) .... Narrator
Understanding (2 episodes, 1995) .... Narrator
Mary & Tim (1996) (also co-executive producer)
Ink (1 episode, 1997)
Family Guy (2 episodes, 2000) as Gloria Ironbox
Footsteps (2003)
Sex and the City (3 episodes, 2004) as Vogue editor Enid Frick
Law & Order (1 episode, 2004) .... Judge Amanda Anderlee
Will & Grace (2004) as herself
Law & Order: Trial by Jury (3 episodes, 2005) .... Judge Amanda Anderlee
Boston Legal (78 episodes, cast member from 2005–2008)
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(source:wikipedia)
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