Candice Bergen Bio
Candice Patricia Bergen (born May 9, 1946) is an American actress, photographer, author, and producer whose career has stretched across film, television, and theater for more than six decades. She first drew attention in the mid-1960s and went on to win five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her title role in the long-running NBC sitcom Murphy Brown (1988–1998, 2018). Bergen also earned an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA nomination for her film work, and she has remained a familiar presence on American screens through both comedic and dramatic projects.
The daughter of the famous ventriloquist and comedian Edgar Bergen, she grew up surrounded by the entertainment industry and built a varied résumé that includes bestselling memoirs, photography, and Broadway performances. Bergen is widely respected for her dry wit, her poise, and her willingness to take on roles that mix humor with sharp observation. She continues to be regarded as one of the most versatile actresses of her generation.
Early Life and Background
Candice Patricia Bergen was born on May 9, 1946, at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Frances Bergen, was a Powers model known professionally as Frances Westcott, and her father, Edgar Bergen, was a celebrated ventriloquist, comedian, and actor. Through her father, Bergen’s paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants who had anglicized their original surname from Berggren, meaning “mountain branch.” She was raised in Beverly Hills, California, and attended the Westlake School for Girls.
Growing up in a show-business household, Bergen appeared on her father’s radio program at a young age. In 1958, when she was eleven, she joined her father as a guest on Groucho Marx’s quiz show You Bet Your Life, billed as Candy Bergen. She later recalled that at that age she still wanted to become a clothing designer, and she was occasionally irritated by being called “Charlie McCarthy’s little sister,” a reference to her father’s most famous puppet partner.
After high school, Bergen enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was elected Homecoming Queen and Miss University. She has acknowledged that she did not take her studies seriously, and after failing two courses in art and opera, she was asked to leave at the end of her sophomore year. The university later awarded her an honorary doctorate in May 1992. Before fully committing to acting, she worked as a fashion model and appeared on the cover of Vogue, and she later received professional acting training at the HB Studio in New York City.
Path to Acting
Bergen’s screen career began in 1966 when she was cast as a university student in the ensemble film The Group, directed by Sidney Lumet, who was a family acquaintance. The film, which handled sensitive subject matter, was both a critical and financial success, and its reception helped launch her career. The same year, she appeared alongside Steve McQueen in The Sand Pebbles, a 20th Century Fox production that earned several Academy Award nominations. Encouraged by these early films, Bergen left college to focus on acting full time.
Her early film work in the late 1960s and early 1970s was uneven but helped her develop range. She worked in France opposite Yves Montand in Claude Lelouch’s romantic drama Live for Life (1967), took the lead in the British mystery The Magus (1968) with Michael Caine and Anthony Quinn, and appeared in the political satire The Adventurers (1970). Although some of these films flopped, the European success of the controversial Western Soldier Blue (1970) brought her recognition abroad, and British exhibitors voted her the seventh-most popular star at the British box office in 1971.
Stronger notices came with Mike Nichols’s Carnal Knowledge (1971) and the drama T.R. Baskin (1971), which earned the best reviews of her career to that point. Bergen has described T.R. Baskin as the first role in which she had to carry a film through acting rather than appearance, and she has pointed to it as the moment she became serious about her craft.
Candice Bergen Career
Early Career (1966–1975)
After her successful debut in The Group and The Sand Pebbles, Bergen signed a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox. Her Fox contract led to a string of films through the early 1970s, including the comedy The Day the Fish Came Out (1967) and the counterculture drama Getting Straight (1970) opposite Elliott Gould, which drew negative reviews but was commercially profitable. The European success of Soldier Blue in 1970 helped establish her as an international attraction, and she was named by British exhibitors as the seventh-most popular star at the British box office in 1971.
Other early projects included the violent Western The Hunting Party (1971) with Oliver Reed and Gene Hackman, and the heist film 11 Harrowhouse (1974). In 1975, she replaced Faye Dunaway at the last minute to co-star with Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion (1976), playing a strong-willed American widow kidnapped in the Moroccan desert. The film drew mixed reviews and broke even at the box office, but it kept her visible during a transitional period in her career.
Breakthrough (1979–1988)
Bergen’s major breakthrough came with the romantic comedy Starting Over (1979), in which she starred opposite Burt Reynolds. Her performance earned her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress, signaling her arrival as a leading dramatic talent. She followed this with a role in the remake Rich and Famous (1981) with Jacqueline Bisset, and in 1982 she portrayed the documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White in Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning film Gandhi, a performance that brought her a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
During the 1980s, Bergen also expanded into television and stage work. She made her Broadway debut in 1984 in David Rabe’s play Hurlyburly and guest-starred on The Muppet Show in its first season. She appeared in the miniseries Hollywood Wives (1985) and played Morgan Le Fay in the television film Merlin and the Sword (1985). She also became a frequent guest host of Saturday Night Live, becoming the first woman to host the show and later the first woman inducted into the show’s Five-Timers Club.
The defining breakthrough of her career arrived in 1988, when she was cast as the title character in the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown. She played a tough television reporter in a series that ran for ten seasons and earned her seven Emmy nominations and five wins, along with two Golden Globe Awards. After her fifth Emmy win, she declined future nominations for the role.
Notable Works and Milestones
Beyond Murphy Brown, Bergen is known for her film roles in Starting Over (1979) and Gandhi (1982), and for playing the pageant host Kathy Morningside in Miss Congeniality (2000). She earned two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Shirley Schmidt on Boston Legal (2005–2008) and made a memorable appearance as Enid Frick on Sex and the City.
Candice Bergen Award Nominations
Bergen has earned recognition from major entertainment organizations throughout her career, including nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and multiple Emmy Awards. Her Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations came for her supporting role in Starting Over (1979), and her BAFTA nomination was for her work in Gandhi (1982). She was nominated seven times for the Primetime Emmy Award for her role on Murphy Brown, and she received two additional Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Boston Legal.
Candice Bergen Awards Won
Bergen has won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of Murphy Brown on the NBC sitcom of the same name. She is also recognized for her induction as the first woman into the Saturday Night Live Five-Timers Club in 1990. Her career-long achievements have established her as one of the most honored comedic actresses in American television history.
Candice Bergen Family
Candice Bergen is the daughter of the celebrated ventriloquist and actor Edgar Bergen and the model Frances Bergen, who worked professionally as Frances Westcott. Her father’s famous puppet partner, Charlie McCarthy, became a recurring reference in her childhood, and she has written about the complicated bond she shared with her father in her memoir A Fine Romance. Bergen was raised in Beverly Hills, California, and her family background in entertainment shaped her early path into the industry.
Personal Life
Bergen married French film director Louis Malle on September 27, 1980, and the couple had one daughter, Chloe Malle, born in 1985. They remained married until Malle’s death from cancer on Thanksgiving Day in 1995. In 2000, she married New York real estate magnate and philanthropist Marshall Rose, and they remained together until his death from Parkinson’s disease on February 15, 2025. Bergen has been a political activist at various points in her life, including serving as a fundraiser and organizer for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign.