Polly Bergen Joining Desperate Housewives; Appears Tonight

Veteran actress Polly Bergen is joining "Desperate Housewives" next season in a recurring role as Lynette's (Felicity Huffman) mom. The character will be introduced during the Season 3 finale of the ABC comedy-drama tonight, May 20.

Bergen, who won an Emmy in 1958 for an episode of "Playhouse 90," played Geena Davis' mother in ABC's short-lived 2005 drama "Commander in Chief." Bergen was a regular panelist on the CBS television game show To Tell the Truth during its debut run. She played the character of Rhoda Henry in two ABC miniseries, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance. She appeared in the 2001 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies at the Belasco Theater and received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She also appeared on HBO's The Sopranos.

In 2006, Bergen was a semi-regular cast member of Commander-in-Chief as the President's mother. Her role in that series, about the first female President, is notable because Bergen herself once played a President, in the 1964 film Kisses for My President. One of her other recent appearances was on CBS's Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation Candles on Bay Street (2006), in which she played the assistant to a husband-and-wife team of veterinarians. Bergen also was in several television commercials for Pepsi Cola in the 1950's.