{"id":894766,"date":"2026-10-26T02:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T02:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/894766\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T02:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T02:12:09","slug":"peggy-king-dead-actress-and-singer-was-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/894766\/","title":{"rendered":"Peggy King Dead: Actress and Singer Was 96"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPeggy King<\/a>, a 1950s television and recording star, died Sunday following a battle with Alzheimer\u2019s at the Saunders House Assisted Living facility in Wynnewood, Pa. She was 96.<\/p>\n

\n\tKing\u2019s publicist, Alan Eicher, confirmed her death. <\/p>\n

\n\tKing was a regular on the \u201cGeorge Gobel Show\u201d from 1954-57. Gobel dubbed her \u201cPretty Perky Peggy King,\u201d a nickname that stuck for the rest of her career. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for best female singer in 1955. She performed \u201cCount Your Blessings\u201d at the 1955 Academy Awards and co-hosted the Emmys in 1958.<\/p>\n

\n\tKing appeared on shows including Bob Hope\u2019s \u201cChevy Show,\u201d \u201cAmerican Bandstand,\u201d \u201cThe Steve Allen Show,\u201d \u201cThe Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle,\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s My Line?,\u201d \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,\u201d \u201cThe Perry Como Show,\u201d \u201cThe Garry Moore Show\u201d and \u201cThe Jack Benny Program.\u201d Her dramatic credits include roles on \u201cMaverick\u201d and \u201cDragnet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1952, she signed to an MGM contract, which led to a cameo in Vincente Minnelli\u2019s \u201cThe Bad and the Beautiful,\u201d in which she sang on the soundtrack album. She also appeared in \u201cAbbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMitch Miller signed her to a long-term contract with Columbia Records, where she made two best-selling albums. She had a string of hit singles, and composer Arthur Hamilton wrote \u201cCry Me a River\u201d for her but Miller would not let her record the song.<\/p>\n

\n\tKing starred with Tab Hunter in the television musical \u201cHans Brinker or the Silver Skates.\u201d She also starred in a TV musical version of \u201cJack and the Beanstalk\u201d with Joel Grey, Celeste Holm and Cyril Ritchard. She played a stewardess in the 1957 thriller \u201cZero Hour!\u201d with Dana Andrews and Linda Danell.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2010 and was among the first celebrities honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. King\u2019s last released recording was the album \u201cSongs a la King,\u201d released in 2016. She performed regularly in the Philadelphia area, New York and Los Angeles as late as 2014.<\/p>\n

\n\tKing was born Feb. 16, 1930, to Floyd Henry King and Margaret Finan in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Ravenna High School and sang on radio in Cleveland. She was a regular on \u201cThe Mel Torme Show\u201d for CBS and had a successful commercial jingle for Hunt\u2019s Tomato Sauce.<\/p>\n

\n\tKing is survived by her daughter, Suzy Rudofker, and son-in-law, Dwain Goforth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peggy King, a 1950s television and recording star, died Sunday following a battle with Alzheimer\u2019s at the Saunders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,375189],"class_list":["post-894766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-peggy-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}