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1-9 of 9
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Writer
In a six-decade-plus career (she started out as a radio performer at age 14), there are very few facets of entertainment that lovely singer/actress Polly Bergen has not conquered or, at the very least, touched upon. A nightclub and Columbia recording artist of the 50s and 60s, she is just as well known for her film and Emmy-winning dramatic performances as she is for her wry comedic gifts. In the leaner times, she has maintained quite well with her various businesses. Truly one for the ages, Polly has, at age 70+, nabbed a Tony nomination for her gutsy "I'm Still Here" entertainer Carlotta in Stephen Sondheim's "Follies", and was still dishing out the barbs as she recently demonstrated as Felicity Huffman's earthy mom on Desperate Housewives (2004).
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee as Nellie Burgin on July 14, 1930, her family, which included father William, mother Lucy and sister Barbra, eventually moved to Los Angeles. By the time she was 14, Polly was singing professionally on radio and managed to scrape up singing gigs with smaller bands around and about the Southern California area. She attended Compton Junior College before Paramount mogul Hal B. Wallis caught sight of her and signed her up with his studio. Having made an isolated film debut (as Polly Burgin) a year earlier in the Monogram western Across the Rio Grande (1949), Wallis showcased her as a decorative love interest in the slapstick vehicles of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, the (then) hottest comedy team in Hollywood. But At War with the Army (1950), That's My Boy (1951) and The Stooge (1951) did little for Polly although she presented herself well. MGM and Universal had the idea to cast her in a more serious vein with co-starring roles in their dramas Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), Arena (1953) and Cry of the Hunted (1953), but again she was overlooked. Disasppointed, she decided to abandon her lucrative film contract and seek work elsewhere.
That "elsewhere" came in the form of 1950s TV. Focusing on her singing, she promoted her many albums for Columbia by guest-starring on all the top variety shows of the times. This culminated in her own variety program, The Polly Bergen Show (1957). The song "The Party's Over" became her traditional show-closer and signature tune. Polly also showed some marquee mettle on the cabaret and nightclub circuits, performing at many of the top hotels and showrooms throughout the country. She made her Broadway debut along with Harry Belafonte in "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" in 1953, and went on to appear in such stage shows as "Top Man" and "Champagne Complex". A delightfully engaging game show panelist to boot, she took a regular seat on the To Tell the Truth (1956) panel for five seasons.
Polly tended to display a looser, down-to-earth personality to induce laughs but she was also was formidable dramatic player and fashion plate quite capable of radiating great charm, poise and elegance. For her role as alcoholic torch singer Helen Morgan in the special TV showcase The Helen Morgan Story (1957) , she took home the Emmy award. Unfortunately for Polly, Ann Blyth took on the role of the tragic singer in the film version (with Gogi Grant providing the vocals), in what could have been a significant return to films for her.
Instead, Polly had to wait another five years for that to happen. As the wife of Gregory Peck and designated victim of revengeful psychopath Robert Mitchum in the taut movie thriller Cape Fear (1962), her film career reignited. Other opportunities came in the form of her distraught mental patient in The Caretakers (1963), which found her at odds with nurse Joan Crawford and doctor Robert Stack; the sparkling comedy Move Over, Darling (1963), which placed her in a comedy triangle with "other wife" Doris Day and husband James Garner; and as the first woman Chief Executive of the White House in the frothy comedy tidbit Kisses for My President (1964) opposite bemused "First Gentleman" Fred MacMurray. In what was to be a tinge of deja vu, Polly again saw her movie career dissipate after only a couple of vehicles. True to form, the indomitable Polly rebounded on TV.
A mild string of TV-movies came her way as she matured into the 1970s and 1980s, most notably the acclaimed miniseries The Winds of War (1983), which reunited her with Robert Mitchum, this time as his unhappy, alcoholic wife. This, along with her participation in the sequel, War and Remembrance (1988), earned Polly supporting Emmy nominations. In the years to come, she would find herself still in demand displaying her trademark comic grit in such shows as The Sopranos (1999), Commander in Chief (2005) and Desperate Housewives (2004).
Polly returned to singing in 1999 after nearly a three-decade absence (due to health and vocal issues). Quite huskier in tone, she went on to delight the New York musical stage with stand-out performances in "Follies" (2001), "Cabaret" (2002) and "Camille Claudel" (2007). Polly still made nightly appearances and had even put together singing concert tours on occasion.
Polly has authored three best-selling beauty books outside the acting arena and has demonstrated a marked level of acumen in the business world. Founding a mail-order cosmetics business in 1965, she sold it to Faberge eight years later. She also developed her own shoe and jewelry lines.
Married (1950-1955) to MGM actor Jerome Courtland during her first movie career peak, she later wed topflight agent/producer Freddie Fields in 1957, a union that lasted 18 years and produced two adopted children, Pamela and Peter. A third marriage in the 1980s also ended in divorce. An assertive voice when it comes to women's rights and issues, her memoir "Polly's Principles" came out in 1974.
Polly played a grandmother in her last film, the dramedy Struck by Lightning (2012), and died two years later on September 20, 2013, at the age of 84.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Peggy Prior was born on 22 March 1903 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was a writer, known for Square Shoulders (1929) and Geraldine (1929). She was married to Joseph Moncure March and Theodore von Eltz. She died on 27 November 1979 in Southbury, Connecticut, USA.- Set Decorator
- Actor
Richard Merrell was born on 6 July 1925 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was a set decorator and actor, known for Rachel, Rachel (1968), Rich Kids (1979) and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972). He was married to Jan Miner. He died on 13 September 1998 in Southbury, Connecticut, USA.- Kermit Miller was born on 5 October 1912 in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He died on 17 October 2003 in Southbury, Connecticut, USA.
- Richard Neilson, born on November 30, 1924 in London as Richard Nelson, under which name a few early credits exist, first came to fame as the apparent British Table Tennis Champion at age 14.
He later went on to acting in British Music Hall productions,
Later, he appeared on the British stage in a production of "The Little Foxes" in 1942, "the Time of Your Life" in 1946, Irwin Shaw's "The Assassin," at the Savoy.
Meanwhile, he began a film career in the British "film noir" production "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," which had trouble being shown in the US due to its depictions of violence. Richard played an American gangster "Rich."
By 1947 Richard had moved to the US, and appeared in "Four Hours to Kill,' and in 1949, billed as a "Canadian actor" and still occasionally as "Richard Nelson," he appeared in a production of "Tobacco Road."
In 1949 Richard was cast, uncredited, as the "Motor Pool Sergeant," a supporting role opposite Cary Grant, in "I was A Male War Bride."
Once in the US, Richard's career tended more to stage productions, and more specifically to Broadway and off-Broadway, and especially road productions of hit Broadway shows.
These included "Song Out of Sorrow," "Dream Girl," (1950), "Camelot," "Dial M for Murder," "Redhead," "canterbury Tales," with Ray Walston, "The Jockey Club Stakes" with Wilfrid Hyde White, the revival of "My Fair Lady" in New York, as "Colonel Pickering", with which he went on to star in a long-running and successful road show engagement into the 1960's.
Other credits include a stage production of "Hostile Witness" with Ray Milland, and a long-running production of "Equus," "The Elephant Man," "aren't We All," and "The King and I."
His most recent credits include the commentary following the re-release of "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" on DVD a few years ago.
Richard resides in Connecticut and celebrates his 90th Birthday this month. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Writer, musician and film producer whose greatest claim to fame is in being one of the country's greatest practical jokers. Four years out of Ohio State University, Abel perpetrated his first major hoax in 1959 as the mastermind of the "Society for Indecency to Naked Animals" in which he persuaded actor Buck Henry to portray the president of the Society and appear on Television recommending the diapering of farm animals for decency's sake. Other classic hoaxes by Abel involved him and his wife Jeanne lobbying for a nude postage stamp of Jane Fonda, promoting a fictional Sex Olympics, and convincing the press that General Idi Amin was getting married in a lavish wedding at New York's Plaza Hotel on the sly. Abel and his wife were constantly able to fool the public and the press alike.- Robert Lewis Taylor was born on 24 September 1912 in Carbondale, Illinois, USA. He was a writer, known for The Silken Affair (1956), Guns of Diablo (1964) and The Magical World of Disney (1954). He was married to Judith Martin. He died on 30 September 1998 in Southbury, Connecticut, USA.
- Shirley Dale was born on 2 September 1904 in Suva, Fiji. She was an actress, known for The Beggar Student (1931), The Hayseeds (1933) and Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951). She was married to John Moore. She died on 23 February 1988 in Southbury, Connecticut, USA.
- Marie Nordstrom was born on 12 April 1886 in Fort Apache, Arizona, USA. She was an actress, known for Hear Ye! Hear Ye! (1934) and Watch the Birdie (1935). She was married to Henry E. Dixey. She died on 2 January 1979 in Southbury, Connecticut, USA.