“In many of the world’s poorest countries, and under very difficult conditions, The Smile Train is bringing new smiles – and new hope – to thousands of children that have no place else to turn.”

Candice Bergen

Actor

Smile Train and WonderWork Supporter

Candice Bergen is a saint.

I met her in 1997 thanks to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw who told her about our new Smile Train idea and encouraged her to meet with us. At the time Candice was probably the most popular actress in America thanks to her extremely successful Murphy Brown TV show.

But she was going through a difficult time because she just recently lost her husband, the famous French film director Louis Malle.

We met at her apartment on Central Park South in New York City on a cold, rainy day in November. Candice was pretty stiff and reserved. You could tell she was very intelligent and thoughtful.

As we told her about Smile Train and our ambitious goals to eradicate the problem of unrepaired clefts, she was carefully sizing us up and deciding whether she wanted to lend her support to us. When I left her home, I had a sinking feeling that we didn’t really connect with her. So, I was overjoyed when Tom Brokaw called me to say she really liked this and wanted to help us.

And boy did she help us for the next 20 years.

She would host our donor events, shoot PSAs for us, come to big donor pitches. We even tested a direct mail letter under her name. Every time we put her name and photo on a donor event invitation it would sell out very quickly.

Everyone loved her.

When she came to our donor events she would always insist on mingling with our donors and she went out of her way to make them feel appreciated. When she spoke, people listened. She was very sharp, very funny and a wonderful person to have promoting our charity.

Over the years we really got to know her, and she really got to know us. Her daughter Chloe who was a student at Brown University spent a summer working with one of our top surgeons in India. And Candice herself visited some of our partner hospitals in Ethiopia and met hundreds of our patients and their families as well as our surgeons and nurses.

On top of all of this she sent us very generous donations continuously over 20 years which we really appreciated. A lot of celebrities will lend their name and a headshot but never donate a penny. Not Candice Bergen. Her generosity helped pay for a lot of surgeries.

Of the dozens and dozens of celebrities that we worked with over the years Candice was one of my favorites. One of the reasons I loved her so much was because of her incredible sense of humor and the fact that she loved insulting me.

During our 100,000 surgeries celebration and Smile Train, when more than 1,800 donors showed up from more than 40 states (including Alaska), I was escorting Candice around so she could meet as many donors is possible. She needed an escort to keep her moving our donors would mob her.

At one point I turned around and was completely surprised at who I bumped into. I said, “Candice, I’d like you to meet my wife, Cricket.” Candice paused as she sized up my wife who was all dressed up and looked stunning. And then with her biting wit she lowered the boom on me,

“Brian, this is YOUR wife?”

We all get a good laugh out of that one.

We were lucky and always grateful to have such a big star as Candice Bergen on our team.