Frances Bergen

Frances Bergen (née Westerman;[1] September 14, 1922 – October 2, 2006) was an American actress and fashion model. She was the wife of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the mother of actress Candice Bergen and film and television editor Kris Bergen.

Frances Bergen
Bergen at the 62nd Academy Awards, March 1990
Born
Frances Westerman

(1923-09-14)September 14, 1923
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
DiedOctober 2, 2006(2006-10-02) (aged 83)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm, television actress, model
Years active1953–1998
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1945; died 1978)​
Children2, including Candice Bergen

Early life

Bergen was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the daughter of Lille Mabel (née Howell) and William Westerman. Her paternal grandparents were both from German families.[2] 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.[3]

In 1936, at age 13, she suffered a skull fracture in an auto accident. While recuperating, she was given a Charlie McCarthy doll to cheer her up.

Career
X Brands, Bergen, and Jock Mahoney

While in New York City, she became a successful John Robert Powers model. She was "the Chesterfield Girl" and "the Ipana Girl" in magazines and on billboards. She was thereafter professionally known as Frances Westcott.

As an actress, Bergen had supporting or minor roles in a number of films. She made her debut in Titanic (1953), after which she appeared in Robert Z. Leonard's Her Twelve Men (1954), and Douglas Sirk's Interlude (1957). During the 1958-1959 television season, Frances became the recurring love interest on the western show Yancy Derringer as Madame Francine,[4] 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, MacGyver, and Murder, She Wrote.

She returned to films in the 1980s, with small roles in American Gigolo (1980), The Sting II (1983), The Star Chamber (1983), The Muppets Take Manhattan (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, her daughter's hit show, including Part One of the series finale in 1998.

Personal life
Candice Bergen and Frances Bergen, 1990

In 1941, Frances Westerman met Edgar Bergen after a radio program when he was 39 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, Candice Bergen. 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 83, Bergen died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center 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. She was survived by daughter Candice Bergen, son Kris, and granddaughter Chloé Françoise Malle (b. 1985).

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1953TitanicMadeleine Astor
1954Her Twelve MenSylvia Carlin
1957InterludeGertrude Kirk
1980American GigoloMrs. Laudner
1981Rich and FamousLiterary Party Guest
1983The Sting IILady Dorsett
1983The Star ChamberMrs. Cummins
1984The Muppets Take ManhattanLeonard Winesop's Receptionist
1986The Morning AfterMrs. Harding
1990EatingWhitney
1993Made in AmericaWhite Woman #2

References
  1. Lentz, Harris M., III (2008). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2006: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. ISBN 9780786452118. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  2. McClure, Rhonda R. (March 27, 2003). "Ancestry of Candice Bergen". Genealogy.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2008.
  3. McLellan, Dennis (October 5, 2006). "Frances Bergen, 84, dies". The Daily Herald. California, Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times. p. 22. Retrieved September 11, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Terrace, Vincent (2011). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010 (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 1201. ISBN 978-0-7864-6477-7.
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