Peggy King, a singer and television personality who became a fixture of 1950s small-screen variety, died Sunday at 96. Her publicist, Alan Eicher, said she died at an assisted living facility after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reported.
King was best known as a regular on The George Gobel Show from 1954 to 1957, where the host gave her a nickname, "Pretty Perky Peggy King," that followed her for the rest of her career.
A fixture of 1950s television
Her 1955 Emmy recognition for best female singer is described differently by the two trades: Variety calls it a nomination, while The Hollywood Reporter says she won. Either way, she was at the center of television's biggest nights, singing "Count Your Blessings" at the 1955 Academy Awards and co-hosting the Emmys in 1958.
She turned up across the era's variety landscape, from American Bandstand and The Steve Allen Show to The Perry Como Show, The Jack Benny Program and Bob Hope's shows, and took dramatic turns on Maverick and Dragnet. She also starred opposite Tab Hunter in the TV musical Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates.
Records, films and the song that got away
An MGM contract in 1952 brought a singing cameo in Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful, where she performed "Don't Blame Me," and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy followed. At Columbia Records, where Mitch Miller put her under a long-term contract, she made two best-selling albums, Wish Upon a Star and Girl Meets Boy. For 1955-56, both Billboard and DownBeat picked her as the year's best new singer.
Then there was the song she never got to record. Composer Arthur Hamilton wrote "Cry Me a River" for King, but Miller would not allow her to record it. She sang it on stage for years afterward.
Born Feb. 16, 1930, King graduated from Ravenna High School, sang on radio and worked with the bands of Charlie Spivak, Ray Anthony and Ralph Flanagan. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame among its first group of honorees in 1960 and entered the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2010. Her final album, Songs a la King, came out in 2016, and she kept performing as late as 2014.
She is survived by her daughter, Suzy Rudofker, and son-in-law, Dwain Goforth.
Reporting sources: Variety, “Peggy King, ‘George Gobel Show’ Actress and Singer of the ’50s, Dies at 96” · The Hollywood Reporter, “Peggy King, Singer and ‘George Gobel Show’ Star of Television’s Golden Age, Dies at 96”.