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Barbara Eden

Barbara EdenAKA Barbara Jean Moorhead

Born: 23-Aug-1934
Birthplace: Tucson, AZ

Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: I Dream of Jeannie

Barbara Eden was a genie in a lamp in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, with Larry Hagman as her "master" and later husband, the astronaut who freed her from her bottle. The series was amusing and Eden was adorable, but her minimal costume left her navel exposed, and that was considered so racy, network executives insisted that her belly button be filled in with putty.

Eden was a high school cheerleader and won the Miss San Francisco beauty pageant at 17. She was 19 when she first appeared on network TV, with a bit part on Ann Sothern's long-running sitcom Private Secretary. Through the mid-1950s she appeared on TV shows from Highway Patrol to I Love Lucy, and in 1957 she was given her own sitcom, How to Marry A Millionaire, based on the hit film, with Eden in Betty Grable's role.

On the big screen, her best-remembered roles are from the cheesy sci-fi Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and George Pal's delightful 7 Faces of Dr. Lao with Tony Randall. A few years before I Dream of Jeannie, she co-starred (with Randall again) in The Brass Bottle, a comedy with a magic lamp premise, but the genie was Burl Ives.

After Jeannie, she starred on stage as The Unsinkable Molly Brown. In an amusing 1971 TV movie, The Feminist and the Fuzz, where the titular feminist (Eden) and a policeman (David Hartman, later host of Good Morning America) were forced to share an apartment. She later starred in a short-lived TV series, Harper Valley PTA, based on the novelty pop hit about a mother called to account for wearing "dresses way too high" and "drinking and a-runnin' 'round with men".

Eden's son, part-time actor Matthew Ansara, suffered from chronic depression and died of a heroin overdose in 2001. Eden made numerous appearances on assorted talk shows in a celebrity anti-drug scold.

Father: Harrison Connor Huffman (stepfather, phone company executive, b. 1907)
Mother: Alice Mary Franklin Moorhead Huffman (jeweler, b. 1915)
Boyfriend: Robert Vaughn (actor, dated late 1950s)
Boyfriend: Barry Coe (actor, b. 1934, dated late 1950s)
Husband: Michael Ansara (actor, b. 1922, dated 1957-58, m. 17-Jan-1958, div. 1972)
Son: Matthew Ansara (actor, b. 29-Aug-1965, d. 25-Jun-2001 heroin overdose)
Husband: Charles Donald Fegert (reporter, dated 1974-77, m. 3-Sep-1977, div. 1983)
Husband: Jon Eicholtz (real estate magnate, m. 5-Jan-1991)

    High School: Abraham Lincoln High School, San Francisco, CA (1949)
    University: City College of San Francisco

    Beauty Contest Miss San Francisco (1951)
    Hollywood Walk of Fame 7003 Hollywood Blvd
    Rhinoplasty

    TELEVISION
    How To Marry a Millionaire Loco Jones (1957-59)
    I Dream of Jeannie Jeannie (1965-70)
    Harper Valley P.T.A. Stella Johnson (1981-82)
    A Brand New Life Barbara McCray Gibbons (1989)
    Dallas LeeAnn De La Vega (1990-91)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Loco Love (17-Mar-2003)
    Dead Man's Island (5-Mar-1996)
    I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later (20-Oct-1985)
    Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984)
    Return of the Rebels (17-Oct-1981)
    Harper Valley P.T.A. (2-Aug-1978)
    The Amazing Dobermans (24-Nov-1976)
    The Stranger Within (1-Oct-1974)
    The Woman Hunter (19-Sep-1972)
    A Howling in the Woods (5-Nov-1971)
    Ride the Wild Surf (5-Aug-1964) · Augie Poole
    The New Interns (1-Jun-1964)
    The Brass Bottle (20-May-1964)
    7 Faces of Dr. Lao (18-Mar-1964) · Angela Benedict
    Quick, Let's Get Married (1964)
    The Yellow Canary (15-May-1963)
    Five Weeks in a Balloon (22-Aug-1962)
    The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (7-Aug-1962) · Greta Heinrich
    Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (12-Jul-1961)
    All Hands on Deck (30-Mar-1961) · Sally Hobson
    Swingin' Along (Jan-1961)
    Flaming Star (20-Dec-1960)
    From the Terrace (15-Jul-1960) · Clemmie
    A Private's Affair (14-Aug-1959)

Official Website:
http://www.barbaraeden.com/

Author of books:
Jeannie Out of the Bottle (2011, memoir)


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