Candice Bergen

Born: May 9 1946

Where: Beverly Hills, California, USA

The elegant star of the 1960s and 70s came to prominence playing the lesbian member of The Group, her film debut.

But it will be TV work - particularly Murphy Brown, the curmudgeonly recovering alcoholic and competitive single mum - that she will be remembered for.

Once said not to be able to handle comedy by the Hollywood powers-that-be, she went on to win a record five Emmy Awards for her work on the show.

After her feature debut, Bergen was much in demand as a leading lady and her follow-up, The Sand Pebbles, found her cast opposite Steve McQueen.

She was Elliot Gould's leading lady in the counter-culture Getting Straight and the white woman willingly living among Native Americans whom Peter Strauss is ordered to "save" in Soldier Blue.

She was romanced by Art Garfunkel in Mike Nichols' intense Carnal Knowledge in 1971 but her performance was overshadowed by Ann-Margret.

A role that married her career as an actress with her alternative vocation as a photographer in Richard Attenborough's epic Gandhi.

She gave one of her best dramatic performances in John Milius' The Wind and the Lion in which she was an American woman kidnapped by a Moroccan sheik (Sean Connery).

Her breakthrough as a name to be reckoned with was Starting Over, where she excelled as Burt Reynolds' ex-wife, a woman with the desire to be a singer who simply cannot carry a note.

The film demonstrated her full comedic and dramatic range and earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress.

But surprisingly, offers did not pour in and she moved to the stage, making her Broadway debut replacing Sigourney Weaver in David Rabe's satire of Hollywood, Hurlyburly.

TV work, including the lauded Murphy Brown (which presidentiah hopeful Dan Quayle criticised for a baby out of wedlock) and a role in Sex & The City.

On the big screen, Bergen didn't re-emerged until Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock in 2000.

This set the acting ball rolling again and Bergen quickly took roles in several more high profile films - Sweet Home Alabama and the Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle A View from the Top.

Recent work has included a remake of The In-Laws, playing Michael Douglas's divorced wife.