Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen is “a beautiful actress who projects intelligence, humor, vulnerability, and self-reliance — all more or less simultaneously,” as noted by critic Vincent Canby in the New York Times. Bergen proved this every week for ten years as “Murphy” on the critically acclaimed CBS comedy Murphy Brown, for which she received five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Bergen had earlier received extraordinary response for her performances as a college student caught up in the turmoil of a campus revolt in Getting Straight; as the personification of the clean cut all-American dream girl of the ‘40’s in Mike Nichol’s Carnal Knowledge; and as the newly liberated wife in Starting Over, for which she also received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Bergen currently plays a lawyer opposite William Shatner on the hit television series Boston Legal. She recently portrayed the mayor of New York in the comedy Sweet Home Alabama with Reese Witherspoon and Patrick Dempsey, and appeared in A View From The Top with Gwyneth Paltrow. In 2000, Bergen appeared opposite Sandra Bullock in the hit comedy Miss Congeniality. Other film credits include co-starring with Jacqueline Bisset in Rich and Famous, appearing as “Margaret Bourke-White” in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, and starring opposite Burt Reynolds in Stick. On television, Bergen’s recent endeavor was hosting Exhale, a nightly one-hour talk show on the Oxygen Network.

The daughter of Frances and the late Edgar Bergen, Bergen attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in art history and creative writing. While still in college, she commuted to New York for modeling assignments. She was still a student at the University of Pennsylvania when she made her motion picture debut as the mysterious, glamorous “Lakey” in The Group.

Combining her acting career with an insatiable desire to see the world, Bergen traveled to Formosa to star opposite Steve McQueen and Sir Richard Attenborough in Robert Wise’s The Sand Pebbles; to Greece to appear in The Day The Fish Came Out; and to France to star with Yves Montand in Claude LeLouche’s Vivre Pour Vivre. She also starred in T.R. Baskin, The Adventurers, Soldier Blue, He Magus, The Hunting Party, 11 Harrow House, The Wind And The Lion, Bite The Bullet, The Domino Principal, A Night Full Of Rain, and Oliver’s Story.

When she is not acting, Bergen pursues her interests in writing and photography. She has produced magazine articles and photographic essays filled with intelligence and wit, observing the world with a keen eye for detail and humor.

Bergen has written a cover story for New York Magazine about working with Lina Wertmuller on A Night Full Of Rain, articles about the Masia Tribe of Kenya and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethopia, and for Playboy, an account of her four-week trip to Red China, entitled “Can a Cultural Worker from Beverly Hills Find Happiness in the People’s Republic of China?” She also wrote the cover story on Charlie Chaplin’s return to the United States for Life magazine. Her articles on her first film, The Group, the mayhem of roller derbies, a social history of Bel Air, profiles of Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, Oscar Levant, Paul Newman and Lee Marvin, and the presidential primaries in 1968 have appeared in Esquire, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Ladies Home Journal.

Bergen made her Broadway debut starring as “Darlene” in the critically acclaimed Hurly Burly, directed by longtime friend Mike Nichols, which also starred William Hurt, Judith Ivey, and Ron Silver. In addition to Murphy Brown, Bergen’s other television credits include three television movies for CBS— Mayflower Madam, Murder: By Reason Of Insanity, and Mary & Tim about a May/December relationship. She was also seen in the highly-rated ABC mini-series Hollywood Wives, based on the best selling novel by Jackie Collins.

Bergen’s autobiography, Knock Wood, which she worked on for five years, was released in April 1984 to critical acclaim and enjoyed several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.