Editing Edgar Bergen (section)

==Death==
[[File:Candice Bergen.jpg|thumb|Bergen's daughter Candice Bergen and his wife, actress [[Frances Bergen]], at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990]]
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.]] He opened at [[Caesar's Palace Hotel]] Las Vegas on September 27, for a two-week "Farewell to Show Business" engagement. Three days later, on September 30, 1978, he died of kidney disease.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://yahoo.com/entertainment/blogs/celeb-news/candice-bergen-s-dad-cut-her-out-of-his-will-200446839.html |title=Candice Bergen's Dad Cut Her Out of His Will (But She's Got 'Murphy Brown' Money) |website=[[Yahoo!]] Entertainment |date=April 3, 2015 |access-date=March 2, 2023}}</ref> Bergen was interred with his parents (buried under their true surname of "Berggren") in [[Inglewood Park Cemetery]], [[Inglewood, California]].

In his will, according to Candice Bergen's memoir, ''A Fine Romance'', he left his daughter nothing but bequeathed his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, $10,000. "I'd chased my father's approval all my life, and here was proof I'd never get it," the actress wrote. "I was hurt, shocked, when I discovered he had left me out of his will." She further explained that her father had provided this inheritance for the dummy so that the funds could be managed, invested, and reinvested to provide for his future performances. 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." Throughout the book, she suggested that her father seemed to have a stronger kinship with Charlie than with her. The dummy "dominated" her childhood, she explained, and even had his own bedroom in their house. "Those were unique circumstances to grow up in," she wrote. "Sometimes I have to give myself credit for being a functional human being. I knew my father loved me, but with his Swedish reserve, it wasn't his nature to tell me."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/candice-bergen-reveals-her-ventriloquist-father-left-his-dummy-10-000-and-her-nothing-when-he-died-55555/ |title=Candice Bergen Reveals Her Ventriloquist Father Left His Dummy $10,000 and Her Nothing When He Died |date=April 7, 2015 |magazine=[[Closer (magazine)|Closer]]}}</ref>

A message in the [[closing credits]] dedicates ''[[The Muppet Movie]]'' (which featured Bergen and Charlie in their last screen appearance) to the memory and magic of Bergen. 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. In 1991, the United States Postal Service honored him with a 29-cent commemorative stamp.

On October 2, 2006, Bergen's widow, Frances Westerman Bergen, died at [[Cedars-Sinai Medical Center]] in [[Los Angeles]], aged 84, from undisclosed causes.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-oct-04-me-bergen4-story.html| title=Frances Bergen, 84; Actress' No. 1 Role Was as Wife and Mother to Stars| date=October 4, 2006| first=Dennis| last=McLellan| newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]| access-date=January 7, 2019}}</ref> Unlike her husband, she is buried in [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)]].