“Forgotten Hollywood”- Dynamo Polly Bergen Has Died…
Manny P. here…
Polly Bergen was an actress, singer, television host, and entrepreneur. She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for her lead performance in The Helen Morgan Story. For her stage work, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical as Carlotta Campion in Follies in 2001. Her film work included the original Cape Fear and 1963’s The Caretakers, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. And, she played a fictional president opposite Fred MacMurray in Kisses for My President.
Alternating between television and motion pictures for much of her career, Bergen had roles in three Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy films: At War with the Army, That’s My Boy, and The Stooge. She was a regular panelist on the CBS game show, To Tell the Truth, during its original run. She also hosted her own variety show for one season, The Polly Bergen Show. She co-starred with Doris Day and James Garner in the film comedy, Move Over Darling. And, Polly earned an Emmy nomination for her role as the wife of Capt. “Pug” Henry (played by Robert Mitchum), in two ABC miniseries, The Winds of War, and its sequel, War and Remembrance. POLLY BERGEN ————>
Other guest stints on the small screen included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, a panelist on What’s My Line, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Murder She Wrote, Jake and the Fatman, and Touched by an Angel. More recently, Bergen appeared as on HBO’s The Sopranos, the former fictional mistress of Tony Soprano’s father, and John F. Kennedy. She had a guest role in Desperate Housewives, which earned her another Emmy nomination.
Other endeavors kept her busy. Signed to Columbia Records, she enjoyed a successful recording career in the 1950s. Bergen also was known as The Pepsi Cola Girl, having done a series of commercials for that product. She walked out of early contracts with Paramount and MGM because she thought her film roles were inadequate. As a celebrated author, she wrote three books on beauty, fashion, and charm.
A little dynamo, Polly Bergen was 84.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Saturday, September 20th, 2014 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
You must be logged in to post a comment.