Barbara Eden Birthday – August 23
Posted by GoreMaster Special Effects on August 23, 2009
Eden made featured appearances on television shows such as The Johnny Carson Show (as “Barbara Morehead” and “Barbara Huffman”), The West Point Story, Highway Patrol, Private Secretary, I Love Lucy, The Millionaire, Target: The Corruptors!, Crossroads, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, December Bride, Bachelor Father, San Francisco Beat, Father Knows Best, Adventures in Paradise, The Andy Griffith Show, Cain’s Hundred, Saints and Sinners, The Virginian, Slattery’s People, The Rogues, and the series finale of Route 66 playing the role of Margo. She guest starred in four episodes of Burke’s Law playing different roles each time. She was an uncredited extra in the movie The Tarnished Angels with Rock Hudson.
Her theatrical film debut came in Back from Eternity (1956). From 1957-1959, she starred in the television series How to Marry a Millionaire, playing the role of “Loco Jones”, the character portrayed in the film by Marilyn Monroe. The show ran in syndication through National Telefilm Associates, which attempted to launch a 
fourth network at the time, in partnership with 20th Century Fox studios. Eden’s co-stars were Merry Anders, and Lori Nelson. After 39 episodes, Nelson quit the show. Eden as Loco and Merry Anders as Mike McCall continued with the series from the 40th episode to the final 52nd segment.
Discovery in the Hollywood sense came when she starred in a play with James Drury. Film director Mark Robson, who later directed her in the movie From The Terrace, had come to the play and wanted her for 20th Century Fox studios. Her screen test was the Joanne Woodward role in No Down Payment. Though she did not get the role, the studio gave her a contract. Eden did a screen test for the role of Betty Anderson in 1956 for the movie Peyton Place, though Terry Moore got the role. She had minor roles in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Wayward Girl and then became a leading lady in films and starred opposite Gary Crosby in A Private’s Affair and had a notable part in Flaming Star (1960), with Elvis Presley.
The following year, she played in a supporting role as Lt. Cathy Connors in Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, with Frankie Avalon playing the trumpet while she danced in one of 
many successful science fiction outings by the so called “Master of Disaster.” She starred in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm a George Pal-directed Cinerama film for MGM, and another Irwin Allen production for 20th Century Fox Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962). Eden was also the female lead in the 1962 20th Century Fox comedy Swingin’ Along, starring the comedy team of Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall. She did a screen test with Andy Williams for the 20th Century Fox movie State Fair, but didn’t get the role.
Her last film for 20th Century Fox was The Yellow Canary (1963). She left Fox studios (due to budget cuts) and began guest-starring in shows such as Saints And Sinners and also doing films for MGM, Universal, and Columbia. She played supporting roles over the next few years, including The Brass Bottle, and the notable, if odd, movie 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, both with Tony Randall. In The New Interns, she co-starred with Michael Callan. She starred in the beach movie Ride The Wild Surf playing the role of Augie with Fabian.
Then she signed to become “Jeannie,” a genie in a bottle rescued by an astronaut in the television sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. She played this role for five years and 139 episodes. Eden also played Jeannie’s sister in nine episodes and Jeannie’s mother in two.
After that, Eden did an unaired pilot, The Barbara Eden Show, and another pilot, The Toy Game. She also began starring in and sometimes producing a string of successful made-for-TV movies, making at least one a year for one of the networks and they all were top-rated. Her first TV movie was called The Feminist And The Fuzz. Although best known for comedy, most were dramas, as when she starred with her “Jeannie” co-star Larry Hagman in A Howling in the Woods (1971). She starred in The Woman Hunter (1972) with Robert Vaughn, an earlier co-star from Gunsmoke. In The Stranger Within (1974), Eden plays unwitting housewife Ann Collins,
Brothers Grimm DVD
who becomes one of many earthling women that are extraterrestrially impregnated. Like the mother-to-be in Rosemary’s Baby, Ann develops unusual prenatal cravings (in this case, coffee grounds instead of blood-rare meat). The screenplay was written by Richard Matheson and directed by Lee Philips.
Eden played Liz Stonestreet, a former policewoman now private detective investigating the disappearance of a missing heiress in a critically acclaimed TV movie Stonestreet: Who Killed The Centerfold Model? (1977). She played Lee Rawlins, a woman who worked at a department store, in the ABC TV movie The Girls in The Office (1979) and starred in and co-produced with her own production company the NBC TV movie romantic comedy The Secret Life Of Kathy McCormick (1988) about a woman who works in a supermarket.
In addition, she starred in and produced the romantic comedy TV movie Opposites Attract (1990) co-starring John Forsythe, their first joint screen appearance since her guest-starring role in a 1957 episode of his Bachelor Father TV series.
Eden starred in I Dream of Jeannie as Jeannie, a genie set free from her bottle by astronaut Captain (later Major) Anthony Nelson, played by Larry Hagman. Barbara was initially passed over for the role as she was blonde and of small stature, but Sidney Sheldon called on her when he was unable to find a suitable brunette to play the part. I Dream of Jeannie was a mild success in the ratings, and it ran from 1965 until 1970, and during this time Eden was nominated twice for Golden Globe Awards. She 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 in the last scene of the theatrical movie A Very Brady Sequel. She also has played Jeannie in many TV commercials (AT&T, Lexus, Old Navy). I Dream of Jeannie has gone on to become one of the most successful series in international syndication earning Barbara Eden many fans over the world.
Trivia:
She 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” (1965).
Mother, Alice Huffman (b. 13 August 1915). Barbara and her mother were very close. After her mother developed lung cancer, Barbara took care of her until she died on November 12, 1986.
Step-father, Harrison Connor Huffman (b. 19 November 1907)
Son, Matthew 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” (1965), it was learned that she 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”.
Her son Matthew Ansara (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: 36B/C-24-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
She was inducted into the California Broadcasting Hall Of Fame in a special ceremony July 18, 2003
Her husband, Jon Eicholtz, celebrates his birthday on August 3
She did a screen test in May, 1960 for State Fair (1962).
After “I Dream of Jeannie” (1965) she had a nightclub act for a while. She was actually a talented singer, and she performed various kinds of songs in her act.
She’s directly descended from American founding father Benjamin Franklin.
Her grandfather, Charles Benjamin Franklin, was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania in 1870.
Has a younger sister, Alison Scanlon, who is 12 years younger.
Barbara and her husband, Jon Eicholtz, were married in 1991 in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral, where Barbara attended as a child.
As a child, she had to wear glasses, an eye patch and pigtails. Because of this, she became very shy. To help overcome her shyness, her mother had Barbara get singing lessons.
Miss San Francisco of 1951.
Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lucille Ball became her mentor and wanted to put Barbara under contract, Barbara signed with 20th Century Fox, instead.
Although she was born Barbara Jean Moorhead she began using the name Barbara Jean Huffman in 1945 and then became Barbara Eden in 1956.
When her son Matthew Ansara was 19 months old she brought him on stage and sang to him while co-hosting The Mike Douglas Show.
Owns a chocolate Labradoodle named Djinn-Djinn (The dog is named after Jeannie’s dog on “I Dream of Jeannie”).
Portrayed by Paris Hilton on “American Dreams” (2002).
