NEW YORK (AP) - Emmy-winning actress and singer Polly Bergen, who played the terrorized wife in the original "Cape Fear" and the first woman president in "Kisses for My President," has died. She was 84.
Publicist Judy Katz says Bergen died Saturday at her home in Southbury, Connecticut, surrounded by family and close friends. She had battled emphysema and other ailments in the late 1990s, a result of 50 years of smoking.
A brunette beauty with a warm, sultry singing voice, Bergen made albums, played leading roles in films, stage musicals and TV dramas. She also hosted her own variety series, was a popular game show panelist, and founded a thriving beauty products company. More recently, she played Felicity Huffman's mother on "Desperate Housewives" and the past mistress of Tony Soprano's late father on "The Sopranos."
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Biographical material in this story was written by The Associated Press' late Hollywood correspondent Bob Thomas.
