Early life

Bergen was born Candice Patricia Bergren in Beverly Hills, California. Her mother, Frances Bergen (née Westerman), was a Powers model who was known professionally as Frances Westcott. Her father, Edgar Bergen (originally Bergren), was a famous ventriloquist, comedian, and actor. Her paternal grandparents were Swedish-born immigrants who anglicized their surname, which was originally Berggren. As a child, Candice was irritated at being described as "Charlie McCarthy's little sister" (referring to her father's star dummy).

Bergen began appearing on her father's radio program at a young age, and in 1958, at age 11, 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. She later attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she was elected both Homecoming Queen and Miss University, but, as Bergen later acknowledged, she failed to take her education seriously and after failing two courses in art and opera, she was asked to leave at the end of her sophomore year. She ultimately received an honorary doctorate from Penn in May 1992.

She worked as a fashion model before she took up acting, featured on the covers of Vogue.

Career

Early years

In 1966, Bergen made her screen debut playing a university student in The Group, which delicately touched on the then-forbidden subject of lesbianism. The same year, she played the role of Shirley Eckert, an assistant school teacher in The Sand Pebbles (1966) opposite Steve McQueen. The movie was nominated for several Academy Awards. She was featured in a 1970 political satire, The Adventurers, playing a frustrated socialite. In 1975 she starred with Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion, as a headstrong American widow kidnapped in the Moroccan desert.

She appeared in 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. Another Western she starred in was the highly controversial Soldier Blue, a worldwide hit, but a failure in its homeland. It led to Bergen's being voted by British exhibitors as the seventh most popular star at the British box office in 1971.

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. In 1982, Bergen appeared in the Oscar-winning film Gandhi in which she portrayed documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White. Bergen was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Turning to television, Bergen appeared in the 1985 miniseries Hollywood Wives. In addition to acting, Bergen has written articles, a play, and a memoir, Knock Wood (1984). She has also studied photography and worked as a photojournalist.

Murphy Brown

In 1988, she took the lead role in the sitcom Murphy Brown, in which she played a tough television reporter. The series provided her with the opportunity to show her little-seen comic talent, and although primarily a conventional sit-com, the show did tackle important issues. 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."

Quayle's remarks became comedic fodder and were written into the show, with Murphy shown 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. The show ran for ten seasons and between 1989 and 1998, Bergen was nominated for an Emmy Award seven times and won five. After her fifth win, she declined future nominations for the role. Her five Emmy wins tie her with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Mary Tyler Moore for the most wins for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Throughout the same time frame as Murphy Brown, Bergen also appeared as the main spokesperson for a Sprint telephone ad campaign.

Later career

After playing the role of Murphy Brown, Bergen was offered a chance to work as a real-life journalist. 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, including Miss Congeniality, where she played villainous pageant host Kathy Morningside; she also portrayed the mayor of New York in Sweet Home Alabama. In 2003, she appeared in the Gwyneth Paltrow flight-attendant comedy, View from the Top.

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. She was also the first woman to join the Five-Timers Club, when she hosted for the fifth time in 1990. 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 had an occasional role on House as Lisa Cuddy's mother, starting in Season 7, including the 2011 episodes "Larger Than Life" and "Family Practice".

In 2010, she appeared in a one-night only concert semi staged reading of Evening Primrose by Stephen Sondheim. She has also appeared on Broadway in the 2012 revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man and the 2014 revival of Love Letters.

Personal life

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 shutdown. In 1972, she served as a fundraiser and organizer for George McGovern's presidential campaign.

Bergen and former boyfriend Terry Melcher 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 August 9, 1969 by followers of Charles Manson. There was some initial speculation that Melcher may have been the intended victim, although Melcher, his former roommate Mark Lindsay, and Vincent Bugliosi have all indicated Manson was aware that Melcher was no longer living at that address at the time of the murders.

On September 27, 1980, she married French film director Louis Malle. They had one child, a daughter named Chloe, in 1985. The couple were married until Malle's death from cancer on Thanksgiving Day in 1995.

Bergen has traveled extensively and speaks French fluently. She is now 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

Television Academy Hall of Fame:

• Inducted in 2010

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966	Group, TheThe Group	Lakey
1966	Sand Pebbles, TheThe Sand Pebbles	Shirley Eckert	Nominated—Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress
1967	Day the Fish Came Out, TheThe Day the Fish Came Out	Electra Brown
1967	Vivre pour vivre	Candice	aka Live for Life (US)
1967	Flash 02	Herself
1968	Magus, TheThe Magus	Lily
1968	Wedding of the Doll	Herself
1970	Adventurers, TheThe Adventurers	Sue Ann Daley
1970	Getting Straight	Jan
1970	Soldier Blue	Kathy Maribel Lee, 'Cresta'
1971	Carnal Knowledge	Susan
1971	Hunting Party, TheThe Hunting Party	Melissa Ruger
1971	T.R. Baskin	T. R. Baskin	aka A Date with a Lonely Girl (UK)
1974	11 Harrowhouse	Maren Shirell
1975	The Lion Roars Again	Herself	Uncredited
1975	Wind and the Lion, TheThe Wind and the Lion	Eden Pedecaris
1975	Bite the Bullet	Miss Jones
1977	Domino Principle, TheThe Domino Principle	Ellie Tucker	aka The Domino Killings (UK)
1978	Night Full of Rain, AA Night Full of Rain	Lizzy
1978	Oliver's Story	Marcie Bonwit
1979	Starting Over	Jessica Potter	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1981	Rich and Famous	Merry Noel Blake
1982	Gandhi	Margaret Bourke-White	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1984	2010	SAL 9000	voice only (credited as Olga Mallsnerd)
1985	Stick	Kyle McClaren
1989	Frames from the Edge	Herself
1996	Belly Talkers	Herself
1997	Who Is Henry Jaglom?	Herself
2000	Miss Congeniality	Kathy Morningside	Nominated—Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy
2002	Sweet Home Alabama	Mayor Kate Hennings
2003	View from the Top	Sally Weston
2003	In-Laws, TheThe In-Laws	Judy Tobias
2008	Sex and the City	Enid Frick
2008	Women, TheThe Women	Catherine Frazier
2009	Bride Wars	Marion St. Claire	Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress
2010	Romantics, TheThe Romantics	Augusta
2014	Merry Friggin' Christmas	Donna Mitchler
2016	Rules Don't Apply	Nadine Henly	Completed

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	You Bet Your Life	Herself	Episode: "7.34"
1965	What's My Line	Herself	Episode: "Sept. 12, 1965"
1967	Coronet Blue	Enid Toler	Episode: "The Rebels"
1969	The Kraft Music Hall	Various	Episode: "The Woody Allen Special"
1975-2013	Saturday Night Live	Herself	6 episodes
1976	The Muppet Show	Herself/Clara Cartwell	Episode: "#1.15"
1985	Hollywood Wives	Elaine Conti	2 episodes
1985	Arthur the King	Morgan le Fay	Television movie
1985	Murder: By Reason of Insanity	Ewa Berwid	Television movie
1987	Trying Times	Barbara	Episode: "Moving Day"
1987	Mayflower Madam	Sydney Biddle Barrows	Television movie
1988-1998	Murphy Brown	Murphy Brown	247 episodes Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
1992	Seinfeld	Murphy Brown	Episode: "The Keys"
1994	Understanding Sexy	Narrator	Television movie
1995	Understanding	Narrator	2 episodes
1996	Mary & Tim	Mary Horton	Television movie
1997	Ink	Murphy Brown	Episode: "Murphy's Law"
2000	Family Guy	Gloria Ironbox	2 episodes
2002	Sex and the City	Enid Mead	2 episodes
2003	Footsteps	Daisy	Television movie
2004	Sex and the City	Enid Splick	Episode: "Splat!"
2004	Law & Order	Judge Amanda Anderlee	Episode: "The Brotherhood"
2004	Will & Grace	Herself	Episode: "Strangers with Candice"
2005	Law & Order: Trial by Jury	Judge Amanda Anderlee	3 episodes
2005-2008	Boston Legal	Shirley Schmidt	84 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
2011	House	Arlene Cuddy	3 episodes
2013	The Michael J. Fox Show	Mike's Mom	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
2014	Beautiful & Twisted	Bernice Novack	Television movie
2015	Battle Creek	Constance	Episode: "Mama's Boy"

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Candice Bergen Charities

Candice Bergen supports the following charitable causes: WWF, Children.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]