Peggy King, Singer and ‘George Gobel Show’ Regular, Dies at 96

Peggy King, the singer and actress who became a familiar presence on 1950s television through “The George Gobel Show,” died Sunday at 96. Her publicist, Alan Eicher, confirmed her death to Variety, which reported that she had been living with Alzheimer’s disease at Saunders House Assisted Living in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

King appeared regularly on Gobel’s show from 1954 to 1957, becoming known by the nickname he gave her, “Pretty Perky Peggy King.” The billing remained associated with her throughout a career that extended beyond television into recordings, movies and live performances.

Her national success followed years of musical work rather than an immediate television breakthrough. According to the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s archival biography, King sang on Cleveland radio and performed with a hotel band before touring with orchestras led by Charlie Spivak, Ray Anthony and Ralph Flanagan.

Born Feb. 16, 1930, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, King graduated from Ravenna High School in 1947. Her early television exposure came on Mel Tormé’s CBS show, while a tomato sauce commercial helped bring her singing to the attention of Columbia Records executive Mitch Miller, the Broadcast Pioneers biography says.

The move from commercial jingles to a recording contract and a recurring television role gave King several outlets for her voice. She received a 1955 Emmy nomination for best female singer, performed at that year’s Academy Awards and later co-hosted the 1958 Emmys. Those appearances placed her across some of the entertainment industry’s most prominent broadcasts.

Her television work also included appearances with Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Perry Como, as well as on “American Bandstand.” She took dramatic roles in “Maverick” and “Dragnet,” moving between musical entertainment and scripted programs rather than remaining exclusively a variety-show singer.

King’s screen career included a cameo in Vincente Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful” after she signed an MGM contract in 1952. She subsequently appeared in “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy” and played a flight attendant in the 1957 thriller “Zero Hour!” Her film work accompanied, rather than displaced, her television and recording careers.

Her performing life continued well beyond the decade that established her reputation. The Los Angeles Times’ Hollywood Star Walk profile documented her return to performing in the 1980s with the Philadelphia Pops Orchestra and her recordings of standards. That later work extended a career rooted in band singing and broadcast entertainment into concert and album settings.

Recognition followed in Philadelphia, where the Broadcast Pioneers inducted her into its Hall of Fame in November 2010. She also received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Together, those honors reflected both her national television visibility and her enduring connection to the Philadelphia area.

King is survived by her daughter, Suzy Rudofker, and son-in-law, Dwain Goforth, according to Variety. The report identified “Songs a la King,” released in 2016, as her final released recording, leaving a later-career counterpart to the television appearances that first made her widely known.