If you were watching television in the late eighties and nineties, you’ll remember Murphy Brown: sharp-tongued, fearless, forever firing assistants and never once backing down from an argument. The woman behind her, Candice Bergen, turned 80 this year, and it turns out she has a little of Murphy’s defiance in real life too, especially when it comes to the dinner table.
A Hollywood childhood like no other
Bergen’s story began in about as unusual a household as you could imagine. Her father was Edgar Bergen, the famous ventriloquist, and his wooden sidekick Charlie McCarthy was such a fixture in the family that young Candice often joked she had grown up with a dummy for a brother. Her mother, Frances, was a model, and Candice followed in those footsteps first, landing on the cover of Vogue before she was out of her teens.
Acting soon took over. She made her film debut in The Group in 1966, then built a solid run of seventies films including Carnal Knowledge, The Wind and the Lion and Starting Over, which earned her an Oscar nomination. Many viewers also remember her as the photographer Margaret Bourke-White in Gandhi, a role that brought a BAFTA nomination.
The role that made her a household name
Then came 1988 and Murphy Brown. Bergen played a recovering alcoholic news anchor with a razor wit and no patience for fools, and audiences loved her for it. The show ran for ten years, and Bergen collected five Emmys and two Golden Globes along the way. After her fifth Emmy win she famously asked not to be put forward again, so that other actresses would get a look in, which tells you plenty about her.
The series even made political headlines in 1992, when Murphy decided to raise a baby on her own and the storyline became a talking point in a real-life American election campaign. Few sitcoms can claim that.
She later found a whole new generation of fans as the formidable lawyer Shirley Schmidt in Boston Legal, and returned to Murphy for a revival in 2018.
“I live to eat”
These days, Bergen is just as quotable off screen. In her second memoir, A Fine Romance, published in 2015, she wrote with disarming honesty about her relationship with food. She admitted to putting on around 30 pounds over the years, and rather than apologising, she embraced it. Her summary of her philosophy was refreshingly blunt: “I live to eat.”
She described herself as someone who simply enjoys a good meal, carbs and all, and who has no interest in the constant dieting she sees among many women her age. While others fret over every calorie at dinner parties, she tucks in and pays the raised eyebrows no mind. Her view is that too many women spend their later years chasing the body they had at 30, and miss out on enjoying the life they have now.
It’s an attitude that has struck a chord with plenty of readers, particularly those who grew up watching her and are now facing the same pressures she writes about.
Love, loss and family
Behind the laughter, Bergen has known real heartbreak. She married the French film director Louis Malle in 1980, and together they had a daughter, Chloe. Malle died of cancer in 1995, and Bergen has spoken movingly about that loss over the years.
She found happiness again with New York property developer Marshall Rose, whom she married in 2000. And in recent years a new role has taken centre stage: grandmother. Chloe’s son Arthur arrived in 2020, followed by a daughter, Alice, in 2022, and Bergen has been open about how much joy they have brought her.
Still going strong
At 80, Candice Bergen remains exactly what she has always been: witty, candid, and entirely herself. From Vogue covers to a newsroom sitcom that made history, she has spent six decades refusing to be anyone else’s idea of who she should be. If that means an extra helping of pudding, so be it.
