Barbara Eden

 ( Official Website ) 

The Great Depression affected the family deeply. As they were unable to afford many luxuries, Alice entertained her children with singing. Eden remembers having a "very musical family." Interview with Barbara Eden PBS

Eden's first public performance was with the church choir, where she sang solos. As a teenager, she sang in local bands led by Howard Fredericks and Freddy Martin. At 16, she studied singing with voice teacher Paulina Giovanini at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and acting with the Elizabeth Holloway School of Theater. She graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco in 1949 and studied theater for one year at City College of San Francisco. As Barbara Huffman, she was crowned Miss San Francisco in 1951; she also entered the Miss California pageant.

Eden had minor roles in Bailout at 43,000, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and The Wayward Girl, all in 1957, then became a leading lady in films, starring in A Private's Affair. She had a co-starring role in Flaming Star (1960) with Elvis Presley. In 1961, she played in a supporting role as Lt. Cathy Connors in Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. She starred in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, a Cinerama film directed by George Pal for MGM, and another Irwin Allen production for 20th Century Fox, Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962). She was the female lead in the 1962 Fox comedy Swingin' Along, starring Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall, in their final joint screen appearance. She did a screen test with Andy Williams for the 20th Century Fox movie State Fair, but did not get the role. published November 19, 2009

Her last film for 20th Century Fox was The Yellow Canary (1963). She left Fox and began guest-starring in television shows and acting in films for MGM, Universal, and Columbia. She played supporting roles over the next few years, including The Brass Bottle and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

Eden played this role for five years and 139 episodes.

After Jeannie, Eden starred in an unaired pilot, The Barbara Eden Show, and another pilot, The Toy Game. Her first TV movie was called The Feminist and the Fuzz (1971). Although she is best known for comedy, most of these films were dramas, as when she starred opposite her Jeannie co-star Larry Hagman in A Howling in the Woods (1971). In The Stranger Within (1974), Eden played housewife Ann Collins, a woman impregnated by extraterrestrials. Later, Eden played a policewoman-turned-private detective investigating the disappearance of a missing heiress, in the critically acclaimed TV movie (1977). She starred in and co-produced, with her own production company (MI-Bar Productions), the NBC-TV romantic comedy movie The Secret Life of Kathy McCormick (1988). She also starred in and produced the romantic comedy TV movie Opposites Attract (1990), co-starring John Forsythe.

In 1990, Eden played a recurring role as a billionairess seeking revenge against J.R. Ewing in five episodes of the final season of Dallas, as the captivating character LeeAnn de la Vega, reuniting her with Hagman. In her final episode, the character admits that her maiden name is Nelson (a production gag, as "Nelson" was the surname of Hagman's character and Eden's character's married name in I Dream of Jeannie). In 1991, she starred in the stage play Same Time, Next Year with Wayne Rogers, and reprised her role of Jeannie in a television movie-of-the-week. In 1993, she starred in an 11-city national tour of the play Last of the Red Hot Lovers with Don Knotts.

From 2000 to 2004, she starred in the national touring production of the play playing the role of Florence Unger opposite Rita MacKenzie as Olive Madison. In March 2006, Eden reunited with her former co-star Larry Hagman for a publicity tour in New York City to promote the first-season DVD of I Dream of Jeannie. They appeared together on Good Morning America, The View, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, Martha, and Showbiz Tonight, among other shows.

In March 2006, Hagman and Eden again reunited, this time onstage in New York for Love Letters at the College of Staten Island, and at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. This was Eden's first return visit to the academy since appearing in the 1956 Ziv Television Programs, The West Point Story.Murray, Kathleen Wereszynski. "'Love Letters' reunites actors Eden, Hagman star in Gurney play," Poughkeepsie Journal, March 24, 2006. Eden also starred in Love Letters opposite Hal Linden the same year and had a guest-starring role on the Lifetime series Army Wives. She starred in the TV movie Always and Forever on the Hallmark Channel in October 2009.

In May 2013, Eden appeared with former US President Bill Clinton, Elton John, and Fergie at the opening ceremony of the 21st Life Ball in Vienna, where Eden wore her familiar Jeannie harem costume. She was next cast in the movie One Song, filmed the same year. She has also done voice work for the animated children's television series Shimmer and Shine.

Jeannie Out of the Bottle chronicles her personal life and Hollywood career of more than 50 years and includes intimate details about her early childhood, her rise to popularity in her teens and early 20s, her co-stars over the years, and her work leading to I Dream of Jeannie. It also covers her marriages to Michael Ansara (1958–1974), Charles Fegert (1977–1982), and Jon Eicholtz (1991–present), and her "emotional breakdown" following the 2001 death of her son Matthew Ansara (1965–2001) from a drug overdose.

In June 2021, while talking about her children's book Barbara and the Djinn, Eden revealed that she and her husband Jon Eicholtz had recovered from COVID-19. In 2023, she celebrated her 92nd birthday and said, "My life is very centered around my family, my house, my husband, my dog Bentley and my friends."