Death, Divorce, & Disease! Secrets & Scandals Of 'Murphy Brown' Cast Revealed!
Feb. 25 2019, Updated 11:40 a.m. ET
You can't keep Murphy Brown down! Candice Bergen and her former co-stars are coming back in a reboot of the TV show that made her news anchor character famous. The new series debuts Thursday, September 27, on CBS. But a lot of time has passed since Murphy Brown created controversy and ruled the ratings from 1988 to 1998. The cast members have faced death, divorce, disease, and other trouble. Scroll though RadarOnline.com's gallery for more.
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More to love of Murphy? Blonde beauty Bergen was once on top of the TV world as the single mom investigative reporter Murphy. But three years ago, Bergen, now 72, admitted to a weighty problem in her memoir, A Fine Romance. "I am fat. In the past 15 years… I have put on 30 pounds," she wrote. In her 2015 tome, Bergen also candidly confided, "I am a champion eater. I crave cookies."
Robert Pastorelli, who played Murphy's housepainter Eldin on Murphy Brown for seven seasons, died of a narcotics overdose in 2004 at age 49. His passing followed the mysterious death of his baby mama, Charemon Jonovich. In 1999, Jonovich blew her brains out with a handgun. Pastorelli testified that she had suddenly shot and killed herself after they had argued. Her fatal shooting was ruled an accident. But five years later, after Pastorelli had been warned that authorities were planning on questioning him further about Jonovich's death, he wound up dead of an overdose.
Bergen, who also starred on Boston Legal, revealed more than a decade ago that she's had some facial touch-ups. She's said in the past, "I have had some Botox and some plumping up done, but I am trying to avoid the actual 'lift.' " You be the judge!
Fans will see Bergen's perky co-star Faith Ford, 54, back on the Murphy Brown reboot as reporter Corky Sherwood. The actress suffers from Grave's disease, a condition involving an overactive thyroid.
Grant Shaud is 57 and single! The actor who portrays producer Miles Silverberg is back on TV and surprisingly, he's never been married. Years ago, he lived with his Murphy co-star and galpal Jane Leeves -- and the funnyman also romanced actress Christa Miller. But the relationships didn't last.
Charles Kimbrough's wife, actress Beth Howland, who played Vera on the sitcom Alice, died in 2015 of lung cancer. Her death was kept secret for almost six months afterwards. Very private widower Kimbrough, now 82, reprises his role of news anchor Jim Dial on the new Murphy Brown.
Bergen is famous for once having lived in the famed Los Angeles Cielo Drive house where the Manson family killed actress Sharon Tate and four other victims in August 1969. Just six months before, Bergen had lived there with her record producer boyfriend Terry Melcher, who had turned down Charles Manson's requests to help him get a recording contract.
Pretty blonde actress Ford went through a painful divorce from Robert Nottingham, her husband from 1989 until 1996. She's had a happy marriage to personal trainer Campion Murphy (yes, Murphy) since 1998. But childless Ford, now 54, said while she had wanted to have kids with Murphy, she endured "a lot of fertility issues."
Hunky Jake McDorman grabbed the plum part of Bergen's grown son, Avery on the 2018 Murphy Brown. But sorry, gals, he's taken. The 32-year-old actor's girlfriend is former America's Next Top Model star Analeigh Tipton, 29.
In 2006, Bergen suffered a stroke while she was acting on the show Boston Legal. But the actress didn't 'fess up to the health problem until six years later! "I don't want my health to be a liability," she said in 2012. Bergen recovered well from the ordeal, but said, "my memory is just … It's not quite the same."
Bergen was devastated when her director husband Louis Malle, the father of her only child, daughter Chloe, died in 1995 of cancer. She married second husband, wealthy tycoon Marshall Rose, in 2000.
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