Frances Bergen (née Westerman; September 14, 1922 – October 2, 2006) was an American actress and fashion model. She was the wife of

ventriloquist Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters ...

and the mother of actress

Candice Bergen Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the CBS sitcom ''Murphy Brown'' (1988–1998, 2018). She is also kno ...

and film and television editor Kris Bergen.

Early life

Bergen was born in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% f ...

, the daughter of Lille Mabel (née Howell) and William Westerman. Her paternal grandparents were both from

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

families. In 1933, her father died of tuberculosis, when Frances was ten years old. Shortly after, her mother moved the family to Los Angeles. She graduated from

Los Angeles High School Los Angeles High School is the oldest public high school in the Southern California Region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are royal blue and white and the teams are called the Romans. Los Angeles High School is a pub ...

Career

As an actress, Bergen had supporting or minor roles in a number of films. She made her debut in ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...

'' (1953), after which she appeared in Robert Z. Leonard's ''

Her Twelve Men ''Her Twelve Men'' is a 1954 American comedy drama film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It stars Oscar-winning Greer Garson, and was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and written by William Roberts and Laura Z. Hobson. It was based on the best-sellin ...

'' (1954), and

Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for ...

's '' Interlude'' (1957). During the 1958-1959 television season, Frances became the recurring love interest on the western show '' Yancy Derringer'' as Madame Francine, the strong willed but beautiful owner of a members-only gambling house in New Orleans set in 1868. Bergen also made numerous other appearances on television, with guest starring roles on '' The Millionaire'', '' The Dick Powell Show'', ''

Barnaby Jones ''Barnaby Jones'' is an American detective television series starring Buddy Ebsen as a formerly retired investigator and Lee Meriwether as his widowed daughter-in-law, who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show was o ...

'', ''

MacGyver Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series ''MacGyver''. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot. In both p ...

'', and ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The seri ...

''. She returned to films in the 1980s, with small roles in ''

American Gigolo ''American Gigolo'' is a 1980 American neo-noir crime drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader, and starring Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton. It tells the story about a high-priced escort in Los Angeles (Gere) who becomes romantically ...

'' (1980), '' The Sting II'' (1983), ''

The Star Chamber ''The Star Chamber'' is a 1983 American crime thriller film starring Michael Douglas, Hal Holbrook, Yaphet Kotto, Sharon Gless, James B. Sikking, and Joe Regalbuto. The film was written by Roderick Taylor and Peter Hyams and directed by Hyams ...

'' (1983), ''

The Muppets Take Manhattan ''The Muppets Take Manhattan'' is a 1984 American musical comedy drama film directed by Frank Oz. It is the third theatrical film in ''The Muppets'' franchise. In addition to the Muppet performance, the film features special appearances by Ar ...

'' (1984), '' Hollywood Wives'' (1985), '' The Morning After'' (1986), and '' Made in America'' (1993). She also had a major part in Henry Jaglom's independently made film '' Eating'' (1990). She appeared on two episodes of ''

Murphy Brown ''Murphy Brown'' is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for ''FYI'', a ...

'', her daughter's hit show, including Part One of the

series finale A series finale is the final installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. It may also refer to a final theatrical sequel, the last part of a television miniseries, the last installment of a literary series, or ...

in 1998.

Personal life

In 1941, Frances Westerman met

after a radio program when he was 38 and she was 19. Westerman, who had graduated from Los Angeles High School the year before, was in the audience of Edgar Bergen's radio program as the guest of a member of his staff. Sitting in the front row, the young fashion model's long legs caught the attention of Bergen, who asked to meet her. On June 28, 1945, the two were married in Mexico, after years of long distance courtship. They remained happily married until Edgar's death on September 30, 1978, at age 75. On May 9, 1946, the couple welcomed their first child,

. Fifteen years later, on October 12, 1961, they had a son, Kris Edgar Bergen, who would later become a film and television editor.

Death

On October 2, 2006, aged 84, Bergen died at

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over ...

in Los Angeles of undisclosed causes following "a prolonged illness". She was not buried beside her husband Edgar Bergen, but rather cremated with her ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles.

Filmography

References

External links

* *
Frances Bergen, 84, Actress and Model, Dies
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on October 8, 2006
In Loving Memory Of Frances Bergen, 84, Actress and Model
Light a candle for her on ILMO.me {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergen, Frances 1922 births 2006 deaths Female models from Alabama American film actresses American people of German descent American television actresses Actresses from Birmingham, Alabama 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American women