Barbara Eden

Barbara married TV actor Michael Ansara in 1958. The couple divorced in the year 1974. Barbara and Michael had a child together named Mathew. Mathew got addicted to drugs since a really young age, and died at the age of 35 due to an overdose.

In 1977, Barbara got married to Charles Donald Fegert, a Chicago Sun Times Executive. The marriage ended in 1983.

She next got married to Jon Trusdale Eicholtz in 1991, this relationship continues to survive.

Barbara Eden was born on 23 August 1931 to Alice Mary and Hubert Henry Morehead, in Tucson, Arizona. She was originally named Barbara Jean Morehead. Eden was three years old when her parents divorced. She later moved along with her mother to San Francisco, where she grew up.

Due to ‘The Great Depression’, Barbara had a humble upbringing, since her family couldn’t afford many luxuries. Barbara’s mother would entertain her by singing songs, which later became an inspiration for Barbara to act in films.

Eden graduated from the Abraham Lincoln High School in 1949. During her school days, Eden had been a cheerleader. She was also a pop singer in her teenage years.

Unlike most other actors who get carried away by the glamour of cinema and a few inspirational scenes, Barbara took up acting classes since she felt it would improve her singing skills.

Barbara learnt her lesson in theatre from City College, San Francisco for a year. During the early 1950’s she participated in two beauty pageants, where she was crowned ‘Miss San Francisco’ in one of them.

Barbara got her first acting assignment in the form of the 1956 film ‘Back From Eternity’. She had played a ‘blink and miss’ role of a blonde college role.

In 1957, she bagged a role in the series ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’, which was a television adaptation of a movie by the same name.

Barbara also appeared in popular television shows such as ‘I Love Lucy’, ‘Perry Mason’, ‘Gunsmoke’, and ‘Route 66’ and a dozen other forgettable roles through the late 50’s and early 1960s.

In 1960, Barbara starred in a movie called ‘Flamingo Star’ where she shared screen space with the legendary singer Elvis Presley. Eden played Presley’s love interest in this movie.

Barbara’s life changed completely when she was approached by legendary writer Sidney Sheldon to star in his sitcom ‘I Dream of Jeannie’. This series had a successful run for five years, from 1965 to 1970, and is considered to be a cult classic.

Though Barbara has worked in numerous projects over the years, she is still recognized for her role as the Jeannie in the 1965 classic television series ‘I Dream of Jeannie’.

The hugely successful show was revived in 1985 as ‘I Dream of Jeannie, Fifteen Years Later’, where Eden reprised a role. It was claimed that Hollywood giant ‘Columbia Pictures’ wanted to make a movie based on this hit television series, back in 1997. Eden was rumoured to play the new Jeannie’s aunt in this movie. However, no such project has still seen the light of the day.