Bergen began her career as a fashion model and appeared on the cover of Vogue before she made her screen debut in the film The Group (1966).

She made her Broadway debut in the 1984 play Hurlyburly and starred in the revivals of The Best Man (2012) and Love Letters (2014).

Her other film roles include Miss Congeniality (2000), Sweet Home Alabama (2002), The Women (2008), Bride Wars (2009), Book Club (2018) and Let Them All Talk (2020).

Candice Patricia Bergen was born May 9, 1946, at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles, California.

Bergen's paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants who anglicized their surname, which was originally Berggren ("mountain branch").

She played the role of Shirley Eckert, an assistant school teacher, in The Sand Pebbles (1966) with Steve McQueen.

[10] She guest-starred on an episode of Coronet Blue, whose director Sam Wanamaker recommended her for the comedy The Day the Fish Came Out (1967) directed by Michael Cacoyannis, distributed by Fox.

[9] In 1968, she played the leading female role in The Magus, a British mystery film for Fox starring Michael Caine and Anthony Quinn that was almost universally ridiculed and was another major flop.

"[14] Bergen played Elliott Gould's girlfriend in Getting Straight (1970), a counterculture movie which drew another spate of bad reviews but was commercially profitable.

[15] Bergen appeared with Oliver Reed and Gene Hackman in The Hunting Party (1971), a violent Western which drew terrible reviews and flopped.

Bergen received some strong reviews for her supporting role in Carnal Knowledge (1971), directed by Mike Nichols.

She returned with a supporting part in a British heist film, 11 Harrowhouse (1974), then did a Western with Gene Hackman and James Coburn, Bite the Bullet (1975).

In 1975, she replaced Faye Dunaway at the last minute to co-star with Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion (1976), as a strong-willed American widow kidnapped in the Moroccan desert.

In 1982, Bergen appeared in the Oscar-winning film Gandhi in which she portrayed documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

In recent years, Bergen has made various cameos on SNL, often to help welcome new members into the Five-Timers Club, such as Jonah Hill in 2018, John Mulaney in 2022, and Emma Stone in 2023.

On television, Bergen appeared as Morgan Le Fay in Arthur the King (1985) and in the miniseries Hollywood Wives (1985).

She was Burt Reynolds' romantic interest in Stick (1985), and for TV appeared in Murder: By Reason of Insanity [es] (1985) and Mayflower Madam (1987).

In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle criticized prime-time TV for showing the Murphy Brown character "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.

The show ran for ten seasons; between 1989 and 1998, Bergen was nominated for an Emmy Award seven times and won five.

[23] After playing the role of Murphy Brown, Bergen was offered a chance to work as a real-life journalist.

Bergen could be seen in The Women (2008) and Bride Wars (2009) as Marion St. Claire, New York's most sought-after wedding planner, who also serves as the narrator of the story.

She was in The Romantics (2010) and had an occasional role on House as Lisa Cuddy's mother, starting in Season 7, including the episodes "Larger Than Life" and "Family Practice".

Later performances included A Merry Friggin' Christmas (2014), Beautiful & Twisted (2015), Rules Don't Apply (2016),The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017), Home Again (2017) and Book Club (2018).

[41] In 1967, she participated in a Yippie prank when she, Abbie Hoffman, and others threw dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, leading to its temporary shutdown.

[45] She was married to New York real estate magnate and philanthropist Marshall Rose[46] from 2000 to his death on 15 February 2025 from Parkinson disease.