EMMY-WINNING actress and singer Polly Bergen, who played the terrorised wife in the original Cape Fear film and the first woman president in Kisses for My President, has died.
She was 84.
Publicist Judy Katz said Ms Bergen died on Saturday at her home in Southbury, Connecticut. She had battled emphysema and other ailments since the late 1990s, a result of smoking.
A brunette with a warm, sultry singing voice, she made albums and played leading roles in films, stage musicals and TV dramas. She also hosted her own variety series, was a popular game show panellist, and founded a thriving beauty products company.
More recently, she played Felicity Huffman's mother on Desperate Housewives and the past mistress of Tony Soprano's late father on The Sopranos.
She began her career singing on radio as a teenager and later said: "All I ever wanted to be was a star."
In a statement, Ms Katz said: "It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of legendary actress and long-time friend and client, Polly Bergen.
"She died peacefully at her home surrounded by her family, long-time personal manager, Jan McCormack and close friends."
Bergen, who was divorced, is survived by her three children and her three grandchildren.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article