Peggy King, ‘George Gobel Show’ Actress and Singer of the ’50s, Dies at 96 — SkimNews
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- Peggy King died Sunday at 96 at Saunders House Assisted Living in Wynnewood, Pa., following a battle with Alzheimer’s; her publicist Alan Eicher confirmed the death.
- George Gobel Show made King a regular from 1954 to 1957, and Gobel dubbed her “Pretty Perky Peggy King,” a nickname that stuck for the rest of her career; she earned a 1955 Emmy nomination for best female singer, performed “Count Your Blessings” at the 1955 Academy Awards and co-hosted the Emmys in 1958.
- MGM signed King to a contract in 1952, leading to her cameo in Vincente Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful” and vocals on its soundtrack album; she also appeared in “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.”
- Mitch Miller signed King to a long-term Columbia Records contract that yielded two best-selling albums and a string of hit singles, but blocked composer Arthur Hamilton’s “Cry Me a River,” written for her, from being recorded by her.
- Tab Hunter starred opposite King in the television musical “Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates”; she later joined Joel Grey, Celeste Holm and Cyril Ritchard in a TV “Jack and the Beanstalk” and played a stewardess opposite Dana Andrews and Linda Danell in the 1957 thriller “Zero Hour!”
- Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame inducted King in 2010, and she was among the first celebrities honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; her last released album, “Songs a la King,” arrived in 2016, and she performed regularly in the Philadelphia area, New York and Los Angeles as late as 2014.
- Hunt’s Tomato Sauce was the brand behind King’s successful commercial jingle, after she sang on radio in Cleveland and held a regular slot on “The Mel Torme Show” for CBS; she is survived by her daughter Suzy Rudofker and son-in-law Dwain Goforth.
Why it matters: Her death leaves her daughter Suzy Rudofker and son-in-law Dwain Goforth without the artist whose longevity — live shows through 2014 and the 2016 album “Songs a la King” — stretched a 1954-57 Gobel-era career across six decades. Her 2010 Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame induction had already placed her among television’s documented pioneers.
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