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Barbara Eden

Barbara Eden (born Barbara Jean Morehead on August 23, 1934 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. Eden graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco in 1949, and was elected Miss San Francisco, 1951. She became Barbara Jean Huffman when her mother remarried, and then changed from "Huffman" to "Eden" at the behest of her manager, who thought the name Huffman would not sell in Hollywood. Eden agreed to change her last name, but insisted on keeping her first name, stating that she could not answer to anything else. Eden made featured appearances on popular television shows such as I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, Perry Mason, Bachelor Father, Gunsmoke, The Johnny Carson Show (a 1955 primetime variety hour), and the series finale of Route 66. Eden made her film debut in Back from Eternity (1956), and the following year she starred in the television series How to Marry a Millionaire, playing the role Marilyn Monroe had played in the film version. Eden had a notable part in Flaming Star (1960), an Elvis Presley movie. The following year, she played in a supporting role as Lt. Cathy Connors in Irwin Allen's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, one of many successful science fiction outings by the so-called "Master of Disaster." She played supporting roles in films over the next few years, including The Brass Bottle and the notable, if odd, movie 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, both with Tony Randall. Then she was signed to play her most famous and widely-recognized role, the character of a genie in a bottle rescued by an astronaut in the long-running television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. On the Screen Gems-produced I Dream of Jeannie, Eden starred as a magical genie named Jeannie, set free from her bottle by astronaut Captain (later, Major) Anthony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman. The show proved to be a huge success (particularly later in syndication), running from 1965 until 1970, and during this time Eden was nominated twice for Golden Globe Awards. Eden later reprised her Jeannie role in two made-for-TV reunion movies (I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later in 1985 and I Still Dream of Jeannie in 1991), and TV commercials (AT&T, Lexus, Old Navy). Eden's first husband, actor Michael Ansara, made guest appearances on Jeannie as "The Blue Djinn." They had two children together, actor Matthew Ansara, who died on June 25, 2001 from a drug overdose, and a stillborn boy, who died in 1971. Ansara and Eden divorced in 1974. She was married to her second husband, Chicago Sun-Times executive Charles Fegert, from 1977 to 1983. She married her third and current husband, Los Angeles real estate developer Jon Truesdale Eicholtz, on January 5, 1991. She continued to appear regularly on television and starred in the feature film Harper Valley PTA based on the popular country song. This led to a namesake television series in 1981; in both the movie and the TV series, she played the show's heroine, Stella Johnson. In 1990, Eden had a recurring role in five episodes of the final season of Dallas, playing the character Lee Ann de la Vega, reuniting her with her I Dream of Jeannie co-star Hagman. In her final episode, the character says her maiden name was "Lee Ann Nelson," which was a production gag as "Nelson" was the surname of Hagman's character, and Eden's character's married name in I Dream of Jeannie. She also made appearances in the last few seasons of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch as the evil family matriarch, Aunt Irma. In March 2006, Barbara Eden reunited with her former I Dream Of Jeannie co-star Larry Hagman for a publicity tour in New York to promote the first season DVD of I Dream Of Jeannie. They appeared together on such shows as Good Morning America, The View, Martha, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, and Showbiz Tonight.

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