Frances Bergen

Frances Bergen (née Westerman; 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.

Early life Bergen was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was in her early teens. In 1932, 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.

Career Bergen worked for an exclusive store in Los Angeles as a top fashion model before she moved to New York City. There she used the name Frances Wescott while she modeled for the John Robert Powers agency. retaining the Wescott stage name, 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, the strong willed but beautiful owner of a members-only gambling house in New Orleans set in 1868.

In 1955 Bergen successfully debuted a singing act at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans. Her first record album was The Beguiling Frances Bergen, on Columbia Records,

On June 23, 1945, the two were married in Ensenada, 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 84, Bergen died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of undisclosed causes following "a prolonged illness".

Filmography Year Title Role Notes1953 Titanic Madeleine Astor 1954 Her Twelve Men Sylvia Carlin 1957 Interlude Gertrude Kirk 1980 American Gigolo Mrs. Laudner 1981 Rich and Famous Literary Party Guest 1983 The Sting II Lady Dorsett 1983 The Star Chamber Mrs. Cummins 1984 The Muppets Take Manhattan Leonard Winesop's Receptionist 1986 The Morning After Mrs. Harding 1990 Eating Whitney 1993 Made in America White Woman #2