Frances Bergen, Passes at 84

[Fozzie Bear]

One of my friends e-mailed this to me (it's old news, but related to Muppets):

Frances Bergen
Actress, mother of Candice Bergen
By VARIETY STAFF
Actress Frances Bergen, widow of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and mother of Candice Bergen, died Oct. 2 in Los Angeles after a prolonged illness. She was 84.
Bergen was born Frances Westerman in Birmingham, Ala. At the age of 19, she caught the eye of 39-year old Edgar Bergen while in the audience of his radio program and he asked to meet her. The couple married in Mexico, and Edgar Bergen died in 1978.
The couple moved to New York where she modeled and then moved into acting. Bergen appeared in films including the 1953 "Titanic," "Made in America," "The Morning After," "The Muppets Take Manhattan," "The Sting II" and "American Gigolo." On television, she also appeared in "Barnaby Jones," "Murder She Wrote," and on an episode of "Murphy Brown" with her daughter.
In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a son Kris and a granddaughter, Chloe Malle.
Donations may be made to either the American Heart Association or the Arthritis Foundation.

and
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/u...8bcc51534d2ab2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

October 8, 2006
Frances Bergen, 84, Actress and Model, Dies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7 (AP) — Frances Bergen, a model and actress who married the ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and was the mother of the actress Candice Bergen, died here on Monday. She was 84.

Her death followed a prolonged illness, said Heidi Schaeffer, a publicist for Candice Bergen, said Tuesday. She declined to specify the illness.

Born Frances Westerman in Birmingham, Ala., she moved to Los Angeles with her mother after her father died of tuberculosis.

When she was 19, she attended a recording of “The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show” and caught the attention of the star, then 39, who with his impish, top-hatted dummy Charlie, was host of radio’s highest-rated programs at the time.

The two married after more than a year of courtship. She later started a successful modeling career and became the face of the Chesterfield Girl and Ipana Girl in advertisements.

The birth of her first child, Candice, was headline news in 1946.

The Bergens had a son, Kris, born in 1962, who also survives, along with a granddaughter, Chloe Malle, Candice Bergen’s daughter with the filmmaker Louis Malle. Edgar Bergen died in 1978 at 75.

Like her husband, Frances Bergen appeared in several movies, playing small roles in the 1953 rendition of “Titanic,” “American Gigolo” and “The Muppets Take Manhattan.” She also appeared on “Murphy Brown,” her daughter’s hit sitcom.

 

[travellingpat]

her Muppet Wiki page

"
Frances Bergen (1922-2006) was an actress and a former model in the 1930s, the wife of Edgar Bergen, and mother of Candice Bergen. She made a cameo appearance in The Muppets Take Manhattan as Leonard Winesop's secretary.
Bergen's other film credits range from the 1953 version of Titanic to Made in America (1993, with Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson). In television, she appeared on The Jack Benny Program (both solo and with husband Edgar) and on Murphy Brown with daughter Candice. "