Harry Belafonte, Marni Nixon, Kelli O'Hara, and Gregory Harrison Celebrate Polly Bergen

The life of Emmy winner Polly Bergen was celebrated on March 26 with an afternoon tribute ceremony at the American Airlines Theatre hosted by one of her longtime friends, film critic Rex Reed.

Participants during the service included old costars including Harry Belafonte and Arlene Dahl; Kelli O'Hara, Erin Dilly, Judith Ivey, Gregory Harrison, and other cast members from the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies (in which Bergen played Carlotta and received a Tony nomination); and Michael Feinstein, Chris Matthews, and Christine Andreas, among others. Video tributes came from Mark Hamill (who starred with Bergen on Broadway in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks), John Waters (who directed her in the film Cry-Baby), and Glee's Chris Colfer.

Highlights of Bergen’s career include her Emmy Award-winning performance in 1958 as the alcoholic torch singer Helen Morgan on TV’s Playhouse 90 anthology series. She earned Emmy nominations for her roles in the acclaimed The Winds of War and War and Remembrance miniseries. Later in her career, she also appeared on The Sopranos, Commander in Chief, and Desperate Housewives, for which she earned another Emmy nomination.

Bergen's film credits include Kisses for My President with Fred MacMurray, Move Over Darling with Doris Day and James Garner, and the classic 1962 suspense thriller Cape Fear, with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. Thirty-nine years later, Bergen earned a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies. She also appeared on Broadway in the 1998 revival of Cabaret and the 2003 comedy Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.

She died of natural causes on September 20 at the age of 84.