Edgar John Bergen (né Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, vaudevillian and radio performer.

Bergen was born in Chicago, one of five children and the younger of two sons of Swedish immigrants Nilla Svensdotter (née Osberg) and Johan Henriksson Berggren.

After his father died, when Edgar was 16, he went out to work as an apprentice accountant, a furnace stoker, a player-piano operator, and a projectionist in a silent-movie house.

Edgar so impressed the famous ventriloquist Harry Lester that he gave the teenager almost daily lessons for three months in the fundamentals of ventriloquism.

In the fall of 1919, Edgar paid Chicago woodcarver Theodore Mack $36 to sculpt a likeness of a rascally red-headed Irish newspaper boy he knew.

He had created the body himself, using a nine-inch length of broomstick for the backbone, and rubber bands and cords to control the lower jaw mechanism of the mouth.

He and Charlie were seen at a New York party by Elsa Maxwell for Noël Coward, who recommended them for an engagement at the famous Rainbow Room.

Their initial appearance (December 17, 1936) was so successful that the following year they were given regular cast roles as part of The Chase and Sanborn Hour.

For the radio program, Bergen developed other characters, notably the slow-witted Mortimer Snerd and the man-hungry Effie Klinker.

The star remained Charlie, who was always presented as a highly precocious child (albeit in top hat, cape, and monocle)—a debonair, girl-crazy, child-about-town.

Bergen's popularity as a ventriloquist on radio, where the trick of "throwing his voice" was not visible, suggests his appeal was primarily the personality he applied to his characters.

[citation needed] Ray Noble was the musical director and composer, and teenage singer Anita Gordon provided the songs on his show.

However, because more people were watching television on Sunday nights than listened to radio (and advertisers preferred to sponsor TV shows by then), the series finally ended on July 1, 1956.

He established the syndicated comic strip Mortimer and Charlie, which ran in newspapers from July 10, 1939, to May 1940,[8] illustrated first by Ben Batsford[9] and then by Carl Buettner.

[12] Bergen and his alter ego Charlie McCarthy were given top billing in several films, including the Technicolor extravaganza The Goldwyn Follies (1938), opposite the Ritz Brothers.

[citation needed] As an actor alone, Bergen portrayed the timid suitor of the sister Trina in I Remember Mama (1948), and appeared in Captain China (1949), The Hanged Man (1964) and Don't Make Waves (1967).

Bergen died shortly after filming his Muppet Movie scene, which was also his final public appearance, and was subsequently dedicated to him.

On Christmas Day that same year, Bergen and McCarthy appeared as guests on Walt Disney's first television show, One Hour in Wonderland.

In 1954, Bergen was a co-host on a memorable TV musical special, General Foods 25th Anniversary Show: A Salute to Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Bergen hosted the ABC-TV variety Hour THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE in the 1960's---when daughter Candice walked onstage,Charlie Mc Carthy cracked--"Just my tough luck she has to be my sister!"

During the run of The Waltons—which took place throughout the 1930s and 1940s—the voices of Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were sporadically heard from the Waltons' radio, as family members regularly tuned in for that program.

In 1941, Bergen met 18-year-old Frances Westerman, a young fashion model who had graduated from Los Angeles High School the prior year.

In mid-September 1978, Bergen announced his retirement and sent his monocled, top-hatted partner, Charlie McCarthy, to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

She said her father wrote in his will: "I make this provision for sentimental reasons, which to me are vital due to the association with Charlie McCarthy, who has been my constant companion and who has taken on the character of a real person and from whom I have never been separated even for a day."

In 1990, Bergen was elected to the Radio Hall of Fame, the same year that The Charlie McCarthy Show was selected as an honored program.