Actress Polly Bergen Dies at 84
Image by getty images
Polly Bergen, who won accolades as a film, television and stage actress as well as a singer, has died.
Bergen, who starred in the 1962 film “Cape Fear, died Saturday at her home in Southbury, Conn., from natural causes, publicist Judy Katz told media outlets. She was 84. Katz said she was surrounded by family and close friends.
Born Nellie Paulina Burgin, Bergen converted to Judaism in 1956 after marrying the Hollywood talent agent Freddie Fields. The couple adopted two children.
In “Cape Fear,” she played the wife of a lawyer (portrayed by Gregory Peck) who is stalked by a psychopath (Robert Mitchum).
She won an Emmy Award in 1957 for Best Single Performance playing the title role of “The Helen Morgan Story,” part of the anthology series “Playhouse 90.” She also performed on Broadway and sang on the radio and in nightclubs.
Later in her career, Bergen received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 2001 Broadway revival of “Follies.” She also appeared on the popular television dramas “Desperate Housewives” and “The Sopranos.”
Bergen succeeded on the business side: In the mid-1960s, she began selling a line of Polly Bergen Cosmetics that she later sold to Faberge.
She also published three advice books.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
