Frances Bergen, a former model and actress who chose to sideline her career for family life (her husband was ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and her daughter is Candice Bergen), died on October 2 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. No cause of death was given. She was 84.

She was born Frances Westerman, in Birmingham, Alabama on September 14, 1922. She relocated to Los Angeles when she was just 10 years shortly after her father's death. Shortly after she graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1940, Frances, with her regal beauty, moved to New York where she became a top model, scoring her biggest coup as The Chesterfield Girl (Chesterfield cigarettes) in various magazines and billboards.

After she married Edgar Bergen in 1945 and gave birth to Candice the following year, Frances traded her show biz career for a few years of domestic life. Still, she itched to perform, and appeared in a few Hollywood "A" pictures: Titanic (1953), Her Twelve Men (1954), Interlude (1957); and some television shows: Yancy Derringer, The Millionaire, and The Dick Powell Show before giving birth to her son Kris in 1962. Once again she was out of the acting game.

After Edgar Bergen died in 1978, Frances returned to work to what was arguable the best period of her career. Hit movies like American Gigolo (1980), Rich and Famous (with her daughter Candice, 1981), The Sting II (1983), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) proved her versatility as a mature character actress. However, she received her best reviews for her work as the wise matriarch in Henry Jaglom's indie smash Eating (1990). Sadly, despite such glowing praise, Francis Bergan would only appear in one more film, the Whoppi Goldberg comedy, Made in America (1993) and a few appearances in her daughter's comedy series Murphy Brown. She is survived by daughter Candice; son, Kris; and granddaughter, Chloe.

by Michael T. Toole