The host of a 1950s television variety hour handed his young singer a nickname so sticky that it followed her onto every stage she sang on afterward.
Alzheimer’s disease claimed Peggy King, the singer and actress whose face turned up again and again on 1950s television variety shows, on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. She died at the age of 96 at the Saunders House Assisted Living facility in Wynnewood, Pa.
Her publicist, Alan Eicher, confirmed her death.
“The George Gobel Show” carried her as a regular from 1954 to 1957, and the host, humorist George Gobel, dubbed her “Pretty Perky Peggy King,” a billing that trailed her for the rest of her career. The exposure turned her into one of the era’s most visible young vocalists almost overnight.
She drew an Emmy Award nomination for best female singer in 1955, the same year she sang “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep),” from the 1954 film “White Christmas,” at the 1955 Academy Awards. She co-hosted the Emmy Awards show in 1958.
The Song Mitch Miller Buried
Mitch Miller signed her to a long-term Columbia Records contract, and she delivered two best-selling albums for the label, “Wish Upon a Star” and “Girl Meets Boy,” along with a string of hit singles.
Composer Arthur Hamilton wrote “Cry Me a River” with her in mind, yet Miller blocked any recording of it. For years she performed the song onstage regardless. Billboard named her the best new singer for 1955-56, and DownBeat gave her the same distinction.
Television Kept Her Busier Than Hollywood
A talent contract with MGM in 1952 came first, in fact, and it led to a singing cameo in director Vincente Minnelli’s “The Bad and the Beautiful,” where she performed “Don’t Blame Me” on the soundtrack album. She appeared in the 1955 horror-comedy “Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy” and played a stewardess in the 1957 thriller “Zero Hour!” alongside stars Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell.
Television kept her busier. She sang on “American Bandstand,” “The Steve Allen Show,” “The Perry Como Show,” “The Jack Benny Program,” “The Garry Moore Show,” “What’s My Line?,” “The Kraft Music Hall with Milton Berle,” Bob Hope’s “Chevy Show” and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” and she took dramatic turns on “Maverick” and “Dragnet.”
She starred with actor Tab Hunter in the television musical “Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates” and headlined a TV musical version of “Jack and the Beanstalk” with Joel Grey, Celeste Holm and Cyril Ritchard. She was a regular on “The Mel Tormé Show” for CBS, and her jingle for Hunt’s Tomato Sauce became a hit of its own.
From Cleveland Radio to Hollywood Boulevard
King was born Feb. 16, 1930, in Greensburg, Pa., to Floyd Henry King and Margaret Finan, and graduated from Ravenna High School in Ohio. Radio in Cleveland gave her early singing work, and the bands of Charlie Spivak, Ray Anthony and Ralph Flanagan employed her before the cameras found her. She was married three times.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame gave her a star on Feb. 8, 1960, placing her among the first group of celebrities honored there. The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia later inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2010.
Still Singing in Her 80s
She never really stopped working, performing regularly in the Philadelphia area, New York and Los Angeles as late as 2014 and singing for audiences well into her 80s. Her last released recording was the album “Songs a la King,” in 2016.
Her bright voice had been a weekly fixture in American living rooms during television’s golden age. She is survived by her daughter, Suzy Rudofker, and her son-in-law, Dwain Goforth. Her husband, Philadelphia clothier Sam Rudofker, died in 1994, and her son, Jonathan, died in 2000.
A private musical celebration of her life, dubbed “Peggapalooza,” is planned for a later date. Her family has suggested donations to the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale, or Main Line Health HomeCare and Hospice.
