Candice Bergen

 ( 1946 Births ) 

She guest-starred on an episode of Coronet Blue, whose director Sam Wanamaker recommended her for the comedy The Day the Fish Came Out (1967), which was directed by Michael Cacoyannis and distributed by Fox. The film was a box-office flop; nevertheless, Fox signed her to a long-term contract.

Bergen went to France to appear in Claude Lelouch's romantic drama Live for Life (1967) opposite Yves Montand, popular in France but not the US.

In 1968, she played the leading female role in The Magus, a British mystery film for Fox starring Michael Caine and Anthony Quinn that was almost universally ridiculed and was another major flop.

She played a frustrated socialite in a 1970 political satire, The Adventurers, based on a novel by Harold Robbins. Her salary was $200,000. The film received negative reviews, and while it did respectably at the box office, it did not help her career. Bergen called it a "movie out of the 1940s."

Bergen played Elliott Gould's girlfriend in Getting Straight (1970), a counterculture movie which drew another spate of bad reviews but was commercially profitable. She said it took her career in "a new direction... my first experience with democratic, communal movie making."

She also starred in the controversial Western Soldier Blue (1970), an overseas success but a failure in America. The film's European success led to Bergen's being voted by British exhibitors as the seventh-most popular star at the British box office in 1971.Peter Waymark. "Richard Burton top draw in British cinemas." Times London, 30 Dec. 1971: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012. Bergen appeared with Oliver Reed and Gene Hackman in The Hunting Party (1971), a violent Western which drew terrible reviews and flopped.

Bergen received some strong reviews for her supporting role in Carnal Knowledge (1971), directed by Mike Nichols. She then had the lead role in the drama T.R. Baskin (1971) and earned the best reviews of her career up to that time. She described the latter as the first role "that is really sort of a vehicle, where I have to act and not just be a sort of decoration" saying she had decided "it was time for me to get serious about acting."

Bergen was absent from screens for a few years. She returned with a supporting part in a British heist film, 11 Harrowhouse (1974), then did a Western with Gene Hackman and James Coburn, Bite the Bullet (1975). Both films were modest successes. In 1975, she replaced Faye Dunaway at the last minute to co-star with Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion (1976), as a strong-willed American widow kidnapped in the Moroccan desert. The film drew mixed reviews and broke even at the box office.

Bergen was reunited with Hackman in The Domino Principle (1977) for Stanley Kramer, another failure.At the Movies Flatley, Guy. New York Times 10 Dec 1976: 62.

She appeared in A Night Full of Rain (1978) for Lina Wertmüller and was the love interest of Ryan O'Neal's character in the Love Story sequel, Oliver's Story (1978), but both films failed critically and financially.

Bergen appeared with Burt Reynolds in the romantic comedy Starting Over (1979), for which she received Academy Awards and Golden Globe Award nominations for best supporting actress.

She portrayed a best-selling author in Rich and Famous (1981) with Jacqueline Bisset.'The Cool, Elegant Woman?: This Isn't Me The Times of India 22 Mar 1981: 16. A remake of the Bette Davis film Old Acquaintance; the film was not a success.

In 1982, Bergen appeared in the Oscar-winning film Gandhi in which she portrayed documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White. Bergen was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

In 1984, Bergen joined the Broadway cast of Hurlyburly.

On television, Bergen appeared as Morgan Le Fay in Merlin and the Sword (1985) and in the miniseries Hollywood Wives (1985). She was Burt Reynolds' romantic interest in Stick (1985), and for TV appeared in (1985) and Mayflower Madam (1987).

She portrayed an editor of Vogue on Sex and the City. Her daughter, Chloe Malle, joined the magazine in 2011 and became the head of editorial in 2024. Malle was named editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine by Anna Wintour on September 1, 2025, replacing Wintour who has been in the role since 1988.

In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle criticized prime-time TV for showing the Murphy Brown character "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice." Quayle's disparaging remarks were subsequently written into the show, with Brown shown watching Quayle's speech in disbelief at his insensitivity and ignorance of the reality of the lives of single mothers. A subsequent episode explored the subject of family values within a diverse set of families. The Brown character arranges for a truckload of to be dumped in front of Quayle's residence, an allusion to an infamous incident in which Quayle erroneously directed a school child to spell the word "potato" as "potatoe".

In reality, Bergen agreed with at least some of Quayle's observations, saying that while the particular remark was "an arrogant and uninformed posture", as a whole, it was "a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did."

Bergen's run on Murphy Brown was extremely successful. The show ran for ten seasons; between 1989 and 1998, Bergen was nominated for an Emmy Award seven times and won five. After her fifth win, she declined future nominations for the role.Candice Bergen, Straight Up: Murphy Brown explains herself—not that she has to. Rewriting Murphy's Law Everything that can go right seems to have gone right for Candice Bergen. Even her show is enjoying a renaissance. But then there's this thing called reality Newman, Bruce. Los Angeles Times 26 Nov 1995: F1

Subsequently, Bergen hosted Exhale with Candice Bergen on the Oxygen network.More Intriguing Guests, More Stimulating Conversation, and More Candice Bergen; "Exhale With Candice Bergen" Returns To Oxygen For Season Two Business Editors. Business Wire; New York 10 Oct 2000: 1. From 1991 to 1998, Bergen appeared as the main spokesperson for the Sprint long-distance phone company.

Bergen produced and starred in the TV movie Mary & Tim (1996). She also appeared in films including Miss Congeniality (2000), where she played veteran pageant host Kathy Morningside; portrayed the mayor of New York in Sweet Home Alabama (2002); and appeared in the Gwyneth Paltrow flight-attendant comedy, View from the Top (2003).

She had roles in the remake of The In-Laws (2003), Footsteps (2003), a thriller, and appeared in three episodes of Sex and the City and one episode in the sequel series And Just Like That... as Enid Frick, Carrie Bradshaw's editor at Vogue."Candice Bergen's Casting Problem" Hepola, Sarah. New York Times 25 May 2003: 2.9 Bergen also appeared as Frick in a cameo for the 2008 movie version of Sex and the City.

She has also made guest appearances on many other TV shows, including Seinfeld (as herself playing Murphy Brown), Law & Order, Family Guy, and Will & Grace (playing herself). She has also featured in a long-running "Dime Lady" ad campaign for the Sprint Nextel phone company.

Bergen could be seen in The Women (2008) and Bride Wars (2009) as Marion St. Claire, New York's most sought-after wedding planner, who also serves as the narrator of the story.

From its launch in 2008, Bergen was a contributor for wowOwow.com, a website for women to talk culture, politics and gossip. The website closed in 2010.

She was in The Romantics (2010) and had an occasional role on House as Lisa Cuddy's mother, starting in Season 7, including the episodes "Larger Than Life" and "Family Practice".

In 2010, she appeared in a one-night only concert: a semi-staged reading of Evening Primrose by Stephen Sondheim. She also appeared on Broadway in the 2012 revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man and the 2014 revival of Love Letters.

Later performances included A Merry Friggin' Christmas (2014), Beautiful & Twisted (2015), Rules Don't Apply (2016), The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017), Home Again (2017) and Book Club (2018).

In 2000, Bergen became the host of her own talk show called Exhale on Oxygen. Guests included Anne Bancroft and Diane Keaton. It ran for one season and was produced by Scott Carter, future producer of Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.

In 2016, Bergen began painting, with paint pens, on handbags, with the business overseen by her daughter, Chloé Malle, and with the proceeds benefiting charity.

Bergen's father died in 1978. In her memoir A Fine Romance, she mentions that she was left out of his will, while he bequeathed $10,000 to his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, adding that she felt her father had a stronger bond with Charlie than with her. She later said:

On September 27, 1980, she married French film director Louis Malle. They had one child, a daughter named Chloe Françoise, in 1985. The couple were married until Malle's death from cancer on Thanksgiving Day in 1995.

In 2000 she married New York real estate magnate and philanthropist Marshall Rose. They remained married until his death from Parkinson's disease on February 15, 2025.

• Candice Bergen (2026). 9781476770130, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781476770130

• Candice Bergen at wowOwow