Peggy King Biography

Fast Facts

• Was named Best New Singer by Billboard magazine and Down Beat magazine in 1956
• Was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2010
• Got a recording contract with Columbia Records after the success of her series of commercial jingles for Hunt's tomato sauce
• Started out as a singer for bands led by Charlie Spivak, Ralph Flanagan, and Ray Anthony
• Signed with MGM in 1952 and had a singing role in the film "The Bad and the Beautiful․"
• Best known as a jazz and pop singer and television personality who sang the Oscar-nominated song "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)․"
• Restarted her singing career in 2013 when she joined the All-Star Jazz Trio in Philadelphia
• Appeared as "pretty perky Peggy King" on "The George Gobel Show" in the mid-1950s
• Made guest appearances on TV shows like "Maverick," "Dragnet," "American Bandstand," and "What's My Line?"
• Played the stewardess Janet Turner in the 1957 thriller "Zero Hour!," which would later become the inspiration for the disaster spoof "Airplane!"