The American actress Polly Bergen has died at the age of 84.

Her career spanned more than six decades. In more recent years she played the mother of Felicity Huffman's character, Lynette in the hit TV series Desperate Housewives.

Her publicist says she passed away peacefully yesterday morning at her home in Connecticut.

She was surrounded by her family, longtime manager and friends.

The Tennessee native first appeared on screen in the 1949 Western "Across the Rio Grande." She had notable roles in the films "Cape Fear" in 1962 and "The Caretakers" the following year.

She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for work in the CBS anthology series "Playhouse 90."

She was nominated three more times, including for roles in two miniseries: "Winds of War" in 1983 and "War and Remembrance" in 1988-1989, both on ABC.