Barbara Eden

Born Barbara Jean Moorhead, on August 23, 1934, in Tucson, Arizona. Eden was a cheerleader in high school and a pop singer as a teenager. She graduated in 1949 from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, California. Eden is most indelibly associated with her role as the genie in the bottle in the long-running TV sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, co-starring Larry Hagman. In I Dream of Jeannie, Major Anthony Nelson (Hagman) is a NASA astronaut who finds a decorative pink bottle on a desert island after he splashes down in the ocean. The bottle has a beautiful blond genie in it (Eden), who immediately assumes that Nelson is her master. He brings her home to live in Cocoa Beach, Florida. In each episode, the forbidden use of Jeannie's well-meaning mystical powers alters reality in some wacky way that must be carefully explained away by Nelson. No other person knows of Jeannie's existence except for Nelson's bumbling friend, Major Roger Healey. Together they conspire to keep her secret from everyone else, especially from Nelson's commanding officers at NASA. The sitcom gained a cult following, and Eden still appears from time to time in commercials and cameos that poke gentle fun at her former role.Before focusing on a TV career, Eden had parts in a series of unremarkable films in the 1950s and 1960s. Her first film role was in Back from Eternity (1956). In 1957, she starred on TV in How to Marry a Millionaire (1957) and after I Dream of Jeannie's successful five year run from 1965 to 1970, she starred in Harper Valley PTA (1981-82). She published her autobiography, Barbara Eden: My Story, in October 1986.In 1997, Columbia announced plans to produce a big-screen episode of I Dream of Jeannie. Eden was slated to make a cameo appearance as the new Jeannie's aunt. The film, originally scheduled for 1998, has not yet been produced. Eden married first husband Michael Ansara in 1958 and divorced him in 1972. The couple had a son, Matthew Michael Ansara, born August 29, 1965. She married Charles Donald Fegert on September 3, 1977, and divorced him in 1983. She married her current husband, Jon Eicholtz, in January 1991.

IMDb mini-biography by

GLLee90298@yahoo.com

Spouse

Jon Eicholtz	(5 January 1991 - present)
Charles Donald Fegert	(3 September 1977 - 1983) (divorced)
Michael Ansara	(January 1958 - 25 May 1974) (divorced)

Trivia

Eden was not allowed to show her belly button on "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965) because of NBC's "No Navel Edict."

Her parents divorced when she was 3 and her mother Alice later married Harrison Connor Huffman.

Although she was born Barbara Jean Moorhead, she took her stepfather's last name of Huffman when her mother Alice remarried.

Also played Jeannie's sister in "I Dream Of Jeannie".

Mother, Alice Huffman (b 13 August 1915).

Step-Father, Harrison Connor Huffman (b. 19 November 1907).

Son, Matthew Michael Ansara, (b. 29 August 1965).

Graduated in 1949 Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco.

Shortly after shooting began on the pilot episode for "I Dream of Jeannie" it was learned that Eden was pregnant. Director Gene Nelson invented a shot he playfully called the "ATB." ("Above the Baby") "Sometimes," he stated, "We'd have to follow Jeannie's arm across the room."

Eden's son Matthew (with first husband Michael Ansara) died of an accidental drug overdose. He was 35. His body was found in his car in a parking lot off a freeway in Los Angeles. [25 June 2001]

Barbara's last name was changed from "Huffman" to "Eden" by her first agent.

Measurements: 36-24-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Measurements: 36B/C-24-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)

Personal quotes

"I don't know what I am doing from one moment to the next. I like that not knowing because it's always a surprise. You don't know what's around the corner, you know what role am I going to play next and who am I going to be working with. It's like opening a present."

"I played the Marilyn role of 'Loca' in 'How To Marry A Millionaire', though I didn't consider myself as that kind of actress, I approached the role more as a character".

"Every new years, I resolve to have a better year than I had before"

"If gentlemen prefer blondes then I'm a blonde that prefers gentlemen."

"Out of all the actors I have worked with, I love working with Larry Hagman the most. We were very close and it was just a wonderful time"

"I've never stopped working. If you're active, you can appreciate what you did in the past, you don't feel like it's gone".

Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

This fresh-faced curvaceous, all-American former cheerleader made her film debut in a bit part in the plane-crash drama Back From Eternity (1956), and appeared in her first major TV role that same year on "West Point." Two years later she starred in the TV sitcom "How to Marry a Millionaire," but shortly thereafter returned to feature-film work (although she picked up many guest spots in episodic TV for several years thereafter). She was competent but largely decorative in such films as Flaming Star (1960), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), The Interns (1962), and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) before becoming a familiar face-and midriff-as the bottle-inhabiting blonde on the hit TV sitcom "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965-70). Subsequently, she has started a cottage industry of sorts, playing upbeat suburban housewives-and an occasional femme fatale-in innumerable TV movies. After starring in the feature-film comedy Harper Valley P.T.A (1978), she was tapped for a short-lived TV series spawned by the movie's impressive ratings when it was first broadcast on television. Still popping up frequently on TV, she also tours the country in revivals of major plays. 1985 and 1991 saw her reuniting with "Jeannie" costar Bill Daily (but not lead Larry Hagman) for reunion telefilms. Eden was married to actor Michael Ansara from 1958 to 1973.