POLLY BERGEN DEAD

Polly_stry

“CAPE FEAR” star, EMMY winner POLLY BERGEN dead from emphysema at age 84.

Bergen died at her home in Southbury, Connecticut her rep said.

The sultry brunette recorded LPs and starred in films, onstage and hosted her own variety series, was a frequent game show panelist and launched her own line of beauty products that thrived until the stock market crash of the late 1980s.

Polly was already an established singer when  teamed with  Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin in their first flick, At War With the Army. She also appeared with the comedy team in two more hits, That's My Boy and The Stooge. In 1953, she made her B’way debut with Harry Belafonte in the John Murray Anderson's Almanac. And toplined her own musical variety show on NBC The Polly Bergen Show in 1957 signing off with her theme, The Party's Over.

Polly also hit the game show circuit as a regular on To Tell the Truth.

In 1958 Polly won her Emmy for playing tragic singer Helen Morgan on Playhouse 90.

Polly costarred in the 1962 suspense classic Cape Fear,as the wife of lawyer Gregory Peck who’s terrorized by psycho ex-con Robert Mitchum.

Bergen also starred as the first female president in the comedy hit Kisses for My President (1964) with Fred MacMurray as First Gentleman.  

Bergen published the first of her three books The Polly Bergen Book of Beauty, Fashion and Charm in 1962. The success of those books prompted her to launch her own cosmetics company, which made her a multi-millionaire.

Younger fans may recognize Polly from playing Felicity Huffman's mother on Desperate Housewives and as one of the mistresses of Tony Soprano's late father on The Sopranos.

Among her other films was Move Over, Darling (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner, and John Waters' 1990 Cry-Baby, with Johnny Depp.

Au revoir, Polly.