The Tennessee native was already singing professionally in her teens when famed motion picture producer Hal Wallis signed her to a contract at Paramount studios and placed her in "At War With the Army" (1950), a Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis vehicle. Bergen went on to co-star in two other Martin and Lewis films, "That's My Boy" (1951) and "The Stooge" (1952). Eventually, the actress moved to MGM and Universal where she was cast in dramatic roles, such as the wife in the original "Cape Fear" (1962) and as the anguished mental patient in "The Caretakers" (1963), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 1964, she played the first US female chief executive in "Kisses for My President", that featured Fred MacMurray as the confused "first gent". Bergen brought class to John Waters' "Cry-Baby' (1990), as the etiquette-obsessed grandmother who nevertheless allows her proper granddaughter to follow her heart with hood Johnny Depp. Bergen made an appearance as Southern matron Miss Mabry in Tim Reid's "Once Upon a Time . . . When We Were Colored" (1995).

TV has been a more consistent medium for Bergen's talents as a singer, actress and 'personality'. She sang on "The Alan Young Show", "The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse" and her own variety show in the 50s, and served as a panelist on "To Tell The Truth". She was a frequent guest on other star's variety shows and specials and hosted her own special for CBS in 1960. Her sign-off signature song was "The Party's Over". Bergen made her dramatic debut in an episode of "Schlitz Playhouse" in 1952, and won an Emmy for her performance as Helen Morgan in a 1957 episode of "Playhouse 90". (She subsequently recorded an album of Morgan songs as well). In the 70s, she moved into TV-movies, beginning with "Death Cruise" (ABC, 1974). She was matriarch Vera Keppler in "Harold Robbins' '79 Park Avenue'" (NBC, 1977) and in addition to her delicious Emmy-nominated turns as Rhoda Henry, Bergen produced and starred in "Leave of Absence," a 1994 NBC movie. In 1991, she tried sitcoms playing Doris Campbell, the grandmother, in "Baby Talk" for ABC. After appeating a few otherwise undistinguished telepics, the actress made a bravura return to the small screen in 2004 on two key episodes of the HBO series "The Sopranos," playing Fran Felstein, the long-time lover of Tony Soprano's mobster father Johnny. Bergen's turn was a sheer delight, demonstrating her considerable comedic timing, dramatic range and enduring sex appeal. She next joined the cast of ABC's "Commander in Chief" (2005 - ), playing the mother of of the first female U.S. President (Geena Davis).

Her film and TV career has limited Bergen's legitimate stage appearances. She made her Broadway debut alongside Harry Belafonte in "John Murray Anderson's Almanac" in 1953, and subsequently starred in "Champagne Complex" (1953) and "First Impressions" (1959). Bergen appeared in A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters" on Broadway and in San Francisco in 1990. She has also performed in cabarets, such as the Persian Room in NYC, and in Las Vegas showrooms. Bergen is the author of three best-selling books on beauty and style, and has recorded more than a dozen albums, most of them for Columbia Records. A renowned business executive, Bergen founded a mail-order cosmetics business in 1965, which she sold to Faberge in 1973. She also headed her own shoe business as well as the Culinary Co., Inc.