Bergen was raised inBeverly Hills, California, and attended theWestlake School for Girls.[3] As a child, she was irritated when described as "Charlie McCarthy's little sister" (a reference to her father's stardummy).[4] She began appearing on her father's radio program at a young age[5] and in 1958, at age 11, was a guest with her father onGroucho Marx's quiz showYou Bet Your Life, as Candy Bergen. She said she wanted to be a clothing designer when she grew up.
She later attended theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where she was electedHomecoming Queen and Miss University, but as Bergen later acknowledged, she did not take her education seriously. Bergen was a classmate of future PresidentDonald Trump, who asked her out, but according to him, she declined his invitation.[6] She later stated she did go on a date with him once, but was back home at 9 PM and that "it was really a dud."[7] After failing two courses in art and opera, she was asked to leave at the end of her sophomore year. She ultimately received an honorary doctorate from Penn in May 1992.[8]
Before taking up acting, Bergen was a fashion model and was featured onVogue covers. She received acting training atHB Studio[9] in New York City.
Bergen made her screen debut playing a university student in theensemble filmThe Group (1966), directed bySidney Lumet, who knew Bergen's family. The film delicately touched on the subject oflesbianism[10] and was a critical and financial success. Afterwards, Bergen left college to focus on her career. She played the role of Shirley Eckert, an assistant school teacher, inThe Sand Pebbles (1966) withSteve McQueen. The movie, made for20th Century Fox, was nominated for severalAcademy Awards and was a financial success.[11]
She guest-starred on an episode ofCoronet Blue, whose directorSam Wanamaker recommended her for the comedyThe Day the Fish Came Out (1967), which was directed byMichael Cacoyannis and distributed by Fox. The film was a box-office flop; nevertheless, Fox signed her to a long-term contract.[11]
In 1968, she played the leading female role inThe Magus, a British mystery film for Fox starringMichael Caine andAnthony 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 byHarold Robbins. Her salary was $200,000.[13] The film received negative reviews, and while it did respectably at the box office, it did not help her career.[14] Bergen called it a "movie out of the 1940s."[15]
Bergen playedElliott Gould's girlfriend inGetting 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."[15]
She also starred in the controversial WesternSoldier 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.[16] Bergen appeared withOliver Reed andGene Hackman inThe Hunting Party (1971), a violent Western which drew terrible reviews and flopped.
Bergen received some strong reviews for her supporting role inCarnal Knowledge (1971), directed byMike Nichols. She then had the lead role in the dramaT.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."[15]
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 withGene Hackman andJames Coburn,Bite the Bullet (1975). Both films were modest successes. In 1975, she replacedFaye Dunaway at the last minute to co-star withSean Connery inThe 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.
Beginning in the 1970s, Bergen became a frequentguest host ofSaturday Night Live. She was the first woman to host the show, and the first host to do a second show. She was also the first woman to join theFive-Timers Club when she hosted for the fifth time in 1990. In recent years, Bergen has made various cameos onSNL, often to help welcome new members into theFive-Timers Club, such asJonah Hill in 2018,John Mulaney in 2022, andEmma Stone in 2023. Bergen also guest-starred onThe Muppet Show in its first season, while her father Edgar would guest-star the following season.
In 1984, Bergen joined the Broadway cast ofHurlyburly.
She portrayed an editor ofVogue onSex 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 ofVogue magazine byAnna Wintour on September 1, 2025, replacing Wintour who has been in the role since 1988.[22]
In 1988, she took the lead role in the sitcomMurphy Brown, in which she played a tough television reporter. This provided her with the opportunity to show her little-seen comic talent. The series made frequent reference to politicians and political issues of the day; though it was primarily a conventional sitcom, the show tackled important issues. For example, Brown was a recoveringalcoholic who became a single mother and later battledbreast cancer.
In 1992,Vice PresidentDan 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."[23] 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 ofpotatoes 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."[24]
Bergen's run onMurphy Brown was extremely successful. The show ran for ten seasons; between 1989 and 1998, Bergen was nominated for anEmmy Award seven times and won five. After her fifth win, she declined future nominations for the role.[25]
Bergen at the 65th Annual Peabody Awards in New York City, 2006
After playing the role of Murphy Brown, Bergen was offered a chance to work as a real-life journalist. After the show ended in 1998, CBS approached her to cover stories for60 Minutes. She declined, saying she did not want to blur the lines between actor and journalist.
Subsequently, Bergen hostedExhale with Candice Bergen on theOxygen network.[26] From 1991 to 1998, Bergen appeared as the main spokesperson for theSprint long-distance phone company.
Bergen produced and starred in the TV movieMary & Tim (1996). She also appeared in films includingMiss Congeniality (2000), where she played veteran pageant host Kathy Morningside; portrayed the mayor of New York inSweet Home Alabama (2002); and appeared in theGwyneth Paltrow flight-attendant comedy,View from the Top (2003).
She had roles in the remake ofThe In-Laws (2003),Footsteps (2003), a thriller, and appeared in three episodes ofSex and the City and one episode in the sequel seriesAnd Just Like That... as Enid Frick,Carrie Bradshaw's editor atVogue.[27] Bergen also appeared as Frick in a cameo for the 2008 movie version ofSex and the City.
In January 2005, Bergen joined the cast of the television seriesBoston Legal as Shirley Schmidt, a founding partner in the law firm ofCrane, Poole & Schmidt. The series reunited her with herMiss Congeniality co-starWilliam Shatner. She played the role for five seasons. In 2006 and 2008, she received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
She has also made guest appearances on many other TV shows, includingSeinfeld (as herself playing Murphy Brown),Law & Order,Family Guy, andWill & Grace (playing herself). She has also featured in a long-running "Dime Lady" ad campaign for theSprint phone company.
Bergen could be seen inThe Women (2008) andBride 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 forwowOwow.com, a website for women to talk culture, politics and gossip. The website closed in 2010.
On January 24, 2018, it was announced that Bergen would be reprising her role as Murphy Brown. The reboot aired on CBS in fall 2018 for 13 episodes. On May 10, 2019, the reboot was canceled by CBS.[29]
In addition to acting, Bergen studied photography and worked as aphotojournalist.[30] She has written numerous articles and a play, as well as two memoirs,Knock Wood in 1984, andA Fine Romance in 2015.[31]
In 2016,[34] Bergen began painting,[35] with paint pens,[36] on handbags, with the business[37] overseen by her daughter, Chloé Malle,[38] and with the proceeds benefiting charity.[39][40][41][42]
Bergen's father died in 1978. In her memoirA 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.[45] She later said:
His death left a space for me [...] I was able much more to live according to my own expectations. I always felt my fame was ill-gotten, sort of borrowed from his, and that perhaps I tried to keep some kind of rein on it. Even when he was in retirement I felt I was poaching on his territory. He'd joke and say he was 'the father of Candice Bergen,' and that was only partially a joke. It was very hard on him.[46]
On September 27, 1980, she married French film directorLouis Malle. They had one child, a daughter namedChloe Françoise, in 1985. The couple were married until Malle's death fromcancer on Thanksgiving Day in 1995.[47]
In 2000 she married New York real estate magnate andphilanthropistMarshall Rose[48]. They remained married until his death from Parkinson's disease on February 15, 2025.[49]
^"So when I was born, it was only natural that I was known in the press not as Candice Bergen, but as "Charlie's sister."" (Bergen, "My Dad, Charlie and Me' in Jack Canfield,et al.,A Second Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul 1998:36
^"Bergen & McCarthy 55-12-25 Christmas (Guest Candice Bergen)", listed on Golden Age OTR's playlist on Live365.com
^Heron, Kim (November 20, 1988). "Candice Bergen Tries a Sitcom, Just for Laughs: Bucking Hollywood casting agents' tendency to see only her beauty, the actress feels comedy is her strong suit. Candice Bergen: TV Reporter".The New York Times. p. H33.
^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 realityNewman, Bruce. Los Angeles Times 26 Nov 1995: F1
^More Intriguing Guests, More Stimulating Conversation, and More Candice Bergen; "Exhale With Candice Bergen" Returns To Oxygen For Season TwoBusiness Editors. Business Wire; New York 10 Oct 2000: 1.
^"Candice Bergen's Casting Problem" Hepola, Sarah.New York Times 25 May 2003: 2.9
^Portantiere, Michael (2011). "Back into the light".The Sondheim Review.XVII (3). Sondheim Review, Inc.: 44.ISSN1076-450X.
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