Polly Bergen | Actress and singer, 84
Emmy-winning actress and singer Polly Bergen, 84, who in a long career played the terrorized wife in the original Cape Fear and the first woman president in Kisses for My President , has died, according to her publicist.
Emmy-winning actress and singer Polly Bergen, 84, who in a long career played the terrorized wife in the original Cape Fear and the first woman president in Kisses for My President, has died, according to her publicist.
Ms. Bergen died Saturday of natural causes at her home in Southbury, Conn., surrounded by family and close friends, publicist Judy Katz said.
Ms. Bergen, who had a sultry singing voice, was a household name from her 20s onward. She made albums and played leading roles in films, stage musicals, and TV dramas. She also hosted her own variety series, was a popular game show panelist, and founded a thriving beauty products company that bore her name.
In recent years, she played Felicity Huffman's mother on Desperate Housewives and a past mistress of Tony Soprano's father on The Sopranos.
In 1953, Ms. Bergen made her Broadway debut with Harry Belafonte in the revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac. She won an Emmy in 1958 portraying the tragic singer Helen Morgan on the famed anthology series Playhouse 90.
She published the first of her three advice books, The Polly Bergen Book of Beauty, Fashion and Charm in 1962. That led to her cosmetics company, which earned her millions.
She sold the company in 1973 to Faberge. - AP