Polly Bergen

Polly Bergen, born Nellie Paulina Burgin on July 14, 1930, in Knoxville, Tennessee, was an American actress, singer, television host, writer, and entrepreneur whose career spanned more than five decades. She died on September 20, 2014, at her home in Southbury, Connecticut, of natural causes, having been diagnosed with emphysema and other ailments in the late 1990s. Her parents were Lucy (née Lawhorne) and William Hugh Burgin, a construction engineer who also possessed singing talent and later appeared with Bergen in several episodes of her television variety program.

Bergen's screen career began in earnest in the early 1950s, when she appeared opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in three comedy films: At War with the Army, That's My Boy, and The Stooge. She also appeared in a number of Westerns during that decade, among them Warpath, Arena, and Escape from Fort Bravo, as well as the horse-racing comedy Fast Company. Her most prominent film role came in the original Cape Fear (1962), in which she starred alongside Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. That same period produced additional notable film work, including The Caretakers (1963), which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, a romantic comedy role opposite James Garner and Doris Day in Move Over, Darling, and the comedy Kisses for My President, in which she played the first female president of the United States. A later film credit came with John Waters's Cry-Baby, in which she played Mrs. Vernon-Williams.

Television brought Bergen significant recognition as well. She received an Emmy Award in 1958 for her portrayal of the title subject in the Playhouse 90 episode Helen Morgan. She hosted The Polly Bergen Show, an 18-episode comedy and variety program that aired during the 1957–1958 television season, in which her father Bill Bergen also appeared. During the same era she became known as the Pepsi-Cola Girl through a series of commercials for the product, and she was a regular panelist on the game show To Tell the Truth during its original run, as well as an occasional panelist and three-time mystery guest on What's My Line. She also appeared on the interview program Here's Hollywood. Bergen earned two additional Emmy Award nominations for her portrayal of Rhoda Henry in the miniseries The Winds of War and its sequel War and Remembrance. Later television work included the role of Fran Felstein on HBO's The Sopranos beginning in 2004, a recurring role as Stella Wingfield on Desperate Housewives from 2007 to 2011 that brought her another Emmy nomination, a semi-regular part on Commander-in-Chief in 2006, and an appearance in the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Candles on Bay Street that same year.

Bergen maintained a recording career alongside her screen work, signing with Columbia Records and releasing multiple albums. Her 1957 release Bergen Sings Morgan reached number ten on the Billboard 200, and The Party's Over reached number twenty on the same chart that year. She and her father recorded the duet album Polly and Her Pop in 1958. Her discography also included the cast recording First Impressions, made with Farley Granger and Hermione Gingold in 1959.

Her Broadway career extended from 1953 to 2003 and encompassed productions including Champagne Complex, the musical First Impressions, and Follies, among others. In 2001, Bergen starred in a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the Belasco Theater, playing Carlotta Campion, a role for which she received both a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. Two years later, at the same theater, she starred in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks opposite Mark Hamill, taking over the role from Rue McClanahan.

Beyond performing, Bergen founded the Polly Bergen Company cosmetics line in 1965, also known as Oil of the Turtle, and created additional lines of jewelry and shoes. She operated retail stores in Knoxville and Gatlinburg bearing her name and authored three books on beauty, fashion, and charm. Bergen was married three times: to actor Jerome Courtland from 1950 to 1955, to Hollywood agent-producer Freddie Fields from 1957 to 1975, with whom she adopted two children, Pamela Kerry Fields and Peter William Fields, and also raised his daughter Kathy Fields, and to entrepreneur Jeffrey Endervelt in the 1980s. She converted from Southern Baptist to Judaism upon marrying Fields. Bergen's niece is television producer Wendy Riche.