Candice Bergen(I)

Candice Bergen, born Candice Patricia Bergen on July 24, 1945, in Beverly Hills, California, is the daughter of famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and former actress and model Frances Bergen (née Westerman). She has a younger brother, Kris. Of Swedish, German, and English descent, she began her career at a young age, making her radio debut at age six on her father's show. She attended Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles, the Cathedral School in Washington D.C., and later the Montesano (finishing) School in Switzerland. Though she began taking art history and creative drawing at the University of Pennsylvania, she did not complete her studies. In between, she worked as a Ford model to fund her passion for photography.

Bergen made her film debut in 1966 as a Vassar-styled lesbian in Sidney Lumet's *The Group*, a film that also featured the debuts of Kathleen Widdoes, Carrie Nye, Joan Hackett, and Joanna Pettet. Her early film roles included the co-ed who comes between Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel in *Carnal Knowledge* (1971) and the prim American lady kidnapped by Sean Connery in *The Wind and the Lion* (1975). During this period, she also pursued a career as a photographer and photojournalist, with her work appearing in magazines such as *Life*, *Playboy*, and *Esquire*.

Her 1970s filmography included *Getting Straight* (1970), *Soldier Blue* (1970), *The Adventurers* (1970), *T.R. Baskin* (1971), *Bite the Bullet* (1975), *The Domino Principle* (1977), *A Night Full of Rain* (1978), and *Oliver's Story* (1978), alongside Ryan O'Neal. The second half of the decade saw a shift in her career when she made a guest appearance on *Saturday Night Live* (1975) as the first female guest host and later earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in *Starting Over* (1979). She also co-starred with Jacqueline Bisset in George Cukor's *Rich and Famous* (1981), in which her mother Frances appeared in a party scene.

In 1985, Bergen made her Broadway debut in David Rabe's *Hurlyburly*, replacing Sigourney Weaver. She married French director Louis Malle in 1980, and they had one child, Chloe Malle. Her career reached a new peak in the late 1980s with her role as Murphy Brown in the CBS sitcom *Murphy Brown* (1988), which earned her five Emmys and two Golden Globe awards over ten seasons. The show's success led to TV-movie roles that ranged widely from the Arthurian temptress "Morgan Le Fey" to a high-class madam.

Following Malle's death from cancer in 1995, Bergen maintained a low profile for a period before marrying Manhattan real estate developer Marshall Rose in 2000. She returned to acting with a renewed vigor, often playing characters reminiscent of her *Murphy Brown* persona. She joined the cast of *Boston Legal* (2004) in 2005, playing a brash lawyer and earning an Emmy nomination. In 2018, she reprised her *Murphy Brown* role in a revival series, which was canceled after one season.

Bergen has also appeared in a number of romantic comedies in supporting roles, sometimes as a confidante and sometimes as a villain. These include *Miss Congeniality* (2000), *Sweet Home Alabama* (2002), *The In-Laws* (2003), *Sex and the City* (2008), *The Women* (2008), *Bride Wars* (2009), *A Merry Friggin' Christmas* (2014), *Rules Don't Apply* (2016), *The Meyerowitz Stories* (2017), *Home Again* (2017), and *Book Club* (2018).