Biography for
Candice Bergen More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

9 May 1946, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA

Birth Name

Candice Patricia Bergen

Nickname

Candy

Height

5' 7½" (1.71 m)

Mini Biography

One cool, eternally classy lady, Candice Bergen was elegantly poised for trendy "ice princess" stardom when she first arrived on the 60s screen, but she gradually reshaped that débutante image in the 70s both on- and off-camera. A staunch, outspoken feminist with a decisive edge, she went on to take a sizable portion of these contradicting qualities to film and, most particularly, to late 80s TV. The daughter of famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and former actress and "Chesterfield Girl" Frances Bergen, the Beverly Hills born-and-bred Candice was surrounding by Hollywood glitter and glamor from day one. At the age of 6, she made her radio debut on her father's show. Of extreme privilege, she attended Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles, the Cathedral School in Washington D.C. and then went abroad to the Montesano (finishing) School in Switzerland. Although she began taking art history and creative drawing at the University of Pennsylvania, she did not graduate due to less-than-stellar grades. In between studies, she also worked as a Ford model in order to buy cameras for her new passion--photography. Her Grace Kelly-like glacial beauty deemed her an ideal candidate for Ivy League patrician roles, and Candice made an auspicious film debut while still a college student portraying the Vassar-styled lesbian member of Sidney Lumet's The Group (1966) in an ensemble that included the debuts of other lovely up-and-comers including Joan Hackett and Joanna Pettet. Film offers started coming her way, both here and especially abroad (spurred on by her love for travel). Other than her top-notch roles as the co-ed who comes between Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel in Carnal Knowledge (1971) and her prim American lady kidnapped by Moroccan sheik Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion (1975), her performances were deemed a bit too aloof to really stand out among the crowd. During this time, she found a passionate second career as a photographer and photojournalist. A number of her works went on to appear in an assortment of magazines including Life, Playboy and Esquire. Most of Candice's 1970s films were either unmemorable or dismissed altogether, including the campus comedy Getting Straight (1970) opposite the hip counterculture star of the era -- Elliott Gould; the disturbingly violent Soldier Blue (1970); the epic-sized bomb The Adventurers (1970); T.R. Baskin (1971); Bite the Bullet (1975); The Domino Principle (1977), Lina Wertmüller's long-winded and notoriously long-titled Italian drama La fine del mondo nel nostro solito letto in una notte piena di pioggia (1978) [The End of the World in Our Usual Bend in a Night Fall of Rain]; and the inferior sequel to the huge box-office soaper Love Story (1970), entitled Oliver's Story (1978) alongside original star 'Ryan O'Neal (I)'. Things picked up toward the second half of the decade, however, when the seemingly humorless Candice took a swipe at comedy. She made history as the first female guest host of "Saturday Night Live" (1975) and then showed an equally amusing side of her in the dramedy Starting Over (1979) as Burt Reynolds tone-deaf ex-wife, enjoying a "best supporting actress" Oscar nomination in the process. She and Jacqueline Bisset also worked well as a team in George Cukor's Rich and Famous (1981), in which her mother Frances Bergen could be glimpsed in a Malibu party scene. Candice also made her Broadway debut in 1985 replacing Sigourney Weaver in David Rabe's black comedy Hurlyburly (1998). In 1980 Candice married Louis Malle, the older (by 14 years) French director. They had one child, Chloe. In the late 80s, Candice hit a new career plateau on comedy television as the spiky title role on "Murphy Brown" (1988), giving great gripe as the cynical and competitive anchor/reporter of a TV magazine show. With a superlative supporting cast around her, the CBS sitcom went the distance (ten seasons) and earned Candice a whopping five Emmys and two Golden Globe awards. TV-movie roles also came her way as a result with colorful roles ranging from the evil Arthurian temptress "Morgan Le Fey" to an elite, high-classed madam -- all many moons away from her initial white-gloved debs of the late 60s. Malle's illness and subsequent death from cancer in 1995 resulted in Candice maintaining a very low profile for quite some time. Since then, however, she has returned with a renewed vigor (or should I say vinegar) on TV, with many of her characters enjoyable extensions of her "Murphy Brown" curmudgeon. Lightweight fare such as Miss Congeniality (2000), Sweet Home Alabama (2002) and The In-Laws (2003/I) have had her chomping again at the comedy bit. In 2005, she joined the cast of "Boston Legal" (2004) playing a brash, no-nonsense lawyer while trading barbs with a much less serious William Shatner, earning an Emmy nomination the following year. Her second husband (since 2000) is Marshall Rose, a Manhattan real estate developer.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Marshall Rose	(15 June 2000 - present)
Louis Malle	(27 September 1980 - 23 November 1995) (his death) 1 child

Trivia

Daughter of Edgar Bergen

Mother is Frances Westerman (Frances Bergen), a former model, brother is Kris Bergen a film and TV editor

Born at 9:52pm-PDT

First female host of "Saturday Night Live" (1975).

Auditioned for the role of "Elaine Robinson" in The Graduate (1967).

Daughter, Chloe Malle (b. 1985)

She was kicked out of the University of Pennsylvania after failing 2 subjects. She said that she failed one of those classes, art, because she simply couldn't get to her 8 am class on time.

2000 - New husband Marshall Rose is a New York real estate magnate.

Is a vegetarian.

She came to Sidney Lumet's attention for The Group (1966) when the director spotted her in a Revlon advertisement hawking lipstick. He thought she was clutching a leopard, though it was really just a leopard print pillow.

Measurements: 33-24-34 (as starlet), 34-25-35 (during "Murphy Brown" (1988)) (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

In the late 1960s, she was the companion of Columbia record producer Terry Melcher. In 1968, they lived together at a house at 10050 Cielo Drive, Beverly Hills. In 1969, they moved to Malibu, and the house at 10050 Cielo Drive was leased to Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate. On Aug. 9, 1969, it was the site of the grisly Manson murders, where Tate and four other people were murdered while Polanski was out of the country. The fact that Melcher had talked to Charles Manson about a record deal that did not go through led to initial speculation that Melcher was the intended target of the killers. However, it was later learned that Manson knew Melcher no longer lived there but wanted to "send a message". Manson had told his followers to "kill anyone they found there". The house has now been demolished.

Is good friends with actress Christine Kaufmann.

In 1995, after receiving her 5th Emmy Award for her role as Murphy on "Murphy Brown" (1988), she declined any future nominations for that role. She received a total of 7 consecutive nominations for the role.

Is fluent in French

A photographer and photojournalist as well, Candice had a brief but telling cameo as famed photographer Margaret Bourke-White in Richard Attenborough's grand-scale biopic Gandhi (1982).

She made instant headlines in 1992 when then Vice President Dan Quayle criticized "Murphy Brown" (1988) for creating the storyline of Murphy having a baby out of wedlock. Quayle suffered a fair amount of backlash and ridicule for his remarks and "Murphy Brown" continued to be a highly popular show, right up to its last season in 1998.

Hospitalized for high blood pressure. She stayed in hospital for a few days for observation. [September 2006]

Appeared in Miss Congeniality (2000) with her "Boston Legal" (2004) co-star William Shatner.

Appeared on Groucho Marx's "You Bet Your Life" (1950) game show at age 12 and actually sang with Groucho on the show.

The French language dubbing of Miss Congeniality (2000), when aired in Quebec, Canada contains both hers and William Shatner's voices.

She is step-mother of Manuel Cuotemoc Malle - son of her first husband Louis Malle.

At nine years of age she auditioned for a role as one of the original Mousketeers on "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955). Although her father, Edgar Bergen, personally lobbied his friend Walt Disney on her behalf, she wasn't hired.

Personal Quotes

[Talking about Burt Reynolds]: "I have always said Burt's sensitivity and generosity were in great measure responsible for my Academy Award nomination for Starting Over (1979)".

...Hollywood has been vulgarized, mostly by television, which vulgarizes everything.

I may not be the greatest actress but I've become the greatest at screen orgasms. Ten seconds of heavy breathing, roll your head from side to side, simulate a slight asthma attack and die a little.

On her less-than voluptous figure; "I'd LIKE to have tits."

Acting has never done anything for me except encourage my vanity and provoke my arrogance.

People see you as an object, not as a person, and they project a set of expectations onto you. People who don't have it think beauty is a blessing, but actually it sets you apart.

[On Elliott Gould] He was the first person to teach me to enjoy acting. He never throws a tantrum, never gets into a snit.

[On Gene Hackman] When acting is done well it is an extraordinary craft, and there are some who approach it like a job. It is breathtaking and inspiring to see someone like Gene Hackman, who is absolutely unpretentious and has never gone through the imbecilities and self-aggrandizement of other actors.

[On Lee Marvin] He was everything I hoped and feared he would be -- as unpredictable, honest, intimidating and inflammable as I had imagined. He is unusually interesting in the way that was more interesting than peace. I thought if I got out of there merely disfigured I'd be lucky.

There are moments when I perceive us as being on the brink of another dark age, a media blitzkrieg of mindlessness.

It takes a long time to grow up. Longer than they tell you.

Where Are They Now

(1984) Release of her autobiography, "Knock Wood".

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