Bergen, Candice

Candice Bergen, in full Candice Patricia Bergen, (born May 9, 1946, Los Angeles, California, U.S.), American actress, writer, and photojournalist who was best known for playing the smart but prickly and often unreasonable title character in the sitcom Murphy Brown (1988–98, 2018).

Bergen was born into Hollywood royalty. Her mother was a professional model, and her father was the ventriloquist and radio comedian Edgar Bergen. As a small child, Candice was on her father’s radio show, and her first screen appearance was with him in a 1958 episode of the comedy quiz show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx. She attended the University of Pennsylvania but was expelled after two years. Bergen’s first film role was as a lesbian in Sidney Lumet’s The Group (1966), based on a novel by Mary McCarthy. That same year, she appeared in The Sand Pebbles, playing an American missionary with whom a U.S. naval engineer (Steve McQueen) falls in love. Besides performing in movies during the 1960s, Bergen worked as a fashion model; indeed, at the time, she was noted more for her beauty than for her acting ability.

Bergen starred with Yves Montand in Claude Lelouch’s Vivre pour vivre (1967; Live for Life) and acted in the widely panned British film The Magus (1968), based on a John Fowles novel. She appeared as an object of desire in Mike Nichols’s Carnal Knowledge (1971) and starred as a small-town girl trying to make a life for herself in the big city in T.R. Baskin (1971). Bergen later starred with Sean Connery in the adventure film The Wind and the Lion (1975). Her comedic role as the protagonist’s ex-wife in Alan J. Pakula’s Starting Over (1979) won her favourable notice, including an Academy Award nomination.

Despite her flair for comedy, Bergen continued to pursue dramatic roles. She starred with Jacqueline Bisset in George Cukor’s melodrama Rich and Famous (1981) and played photographer Margaret Bourke-White in the epic biopic Gandhi (1982). Bergen herself had begun working as a photographer in the early 1970s, and her work appeared in such magazines as Esquire and Life. She later portrayed Morgan le Fay in the TV movie Arthur the King (1985) and took the part of the real-life Sidney Biddle Barrows in the TV movie Mayflower Madam (1987).

Candice Bergen in Murphy Brown

Murphy Brown

In 1988 Bergen assumed the role of the title character, a star television journalist, in Murphy Brown. The groundbreaking show was extremely popular and became a cultural touchstone. Bergen was nominated seven consecutive times for Emmy Awards for her performance, winning five times (1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1995); after her fifth win she declined further nominations. When Murphy became a single mother by choice in the 1991–92 season, Vice Pres. Dan Quayle gave a speech in which he deplored that decision, causing an uproar. The show ended in 1998 but was briefly revived in 2018.

Bergen appeared in the film comedies Miss Congeniality (2000), Sweet Home Alabama (2002), and The In-Laws (2003). She was cast as a high-powered lawyer in the series Boston Legal (2005–08) and received two more Emmy nominations. Bergen then returned to films, including Warren Beatty’s Rules Don’t Apply (2016), in which she played Howard Hughes’s secretary, and the romantic comedy Home Again (2017). She starred with Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, and Mary Steenburgen in the well-received Book Club (2018) and won plaudits for her performance in Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk (2020), in which she starred with Meryl Streep and Dianne Wiest.

Bergen’s autobiography, Knock Wood, was published in 1984. In her memoir A Fine Romance (2015), she chronicled her long marriage to French director Louis Malle.