Polly Bergen

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American singer, actress, TV performer and businesswoman, always an overachiever. She went to 45 schools in 28 states before she was 18. At 15 she was already singing in Las Vegas, claiming to be 22 and passing her mom off as her sister. In 1948, she signed a movie contract at $600 a week. Four years later, she signed with MGM as a starlet in B flicks. A Broadway debut followed on 10 December 1953. In 1954, she hosted a TV variety series, "Blue Angel." The next year, she played in Vegas. She sang hillbilly, light opera and pop. On 18 December 1956, Bergen began as a wacky panelist on "To Tell the Truth," a TV series that won her an Emmy in 1957. Her first major film role came in 1962 in "Cape Fear." She scored an Emmy as best actress for her TV role in "The Helen Morgan Story," 1957. Her second Emmy was 26 years later, for "Winds of War." Bergen was married just after high school to actor Jerome Courtland; the marriage lasted from 1949-1955. She married her agent, Freddie Fields, on 13 February 1956; they had three kids and divorced after 17 years together. In 1957 and 1959, they adopted kids. In 1962, she began psychoanalysis. She said that her mind was always racing. She was chronically early and an unashamed perfectionist. As a kid, she was expected to bring home straight A's so she grew up trying to do everything perfectly. As a businesswoman, she founded Polly Bergen Co., a successful home-based cosmetic business that she later sold to Faberge. She was the author of "Polly's Principles," 1974 and "The Polly Bergen Book of Beauty, Fashion and Charm," 1977. She made a third marriage, to Jeffrey Endervelt, in 1982. With $2 million of her money and $1 million of his, they founded Polly Bergen's shoes, handbags, jewelry and production company. Bergen died of natural causes on 20 September 2014, at her home in Southbury, Connecticut. She had been diagnosed with emphysema and other ailments in the late 1990s that she attributed to 50 years of smoking. Link to Wikipedia biography