Frances Bergen (née Westerman; September 14, 1922 – October 2, 2006) was an American actress and fashion model. She was the wife of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and the mother of actress Candice Bergen and film and television editor Kris Bergen.
Contents
Early life
Bergen was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was in her early teens. In 1932, her father died of tuberculosis, when Frances was ten years old. Shortly after, her mother moved the family to Los Angeles. She graduated from Los Angeles High School.
Career
Bergen worked for an exclusive store in Los Angeles as a top fashion model before she moved to New York City. There she used the name Frances Wescott while she modeled for the John Robert Powers agency.
As an actress, Bergen had supporting or minor roles in a number of films. She made her debut in Titanic (1953), retaining the Wescott stage name, after which she appeared in Robert Z. Leonard's Her Twelve Men (1954), and Douglas Sirk's Interlude (1957). During the 1958-1959 television season, Frances became the recurring love interest on the western show Yancy Derringer as Madame Francine, the strong willed but beautiful owner of a members-only gambling house in New Orleans set in 1868.
