When Barbara Eden placed on her well-known genie costume and started granting needs, she turned liable for one of the crucial memorable and beloved TV characters of all time. From 1965 to 1970, Eden performed Jeannie on I Dream of Jeannie, alongside co-star Larry Hagman, who portrayed her astronaut love curiosity. The enduring character is what Eden is finest identified for—and she or he nonetheless promotes Jeannie in the present day with loads of merchandise in her on-line store—however it’s removed from her solely position. Her performing profession already spans a number of many years, and at 90 years outdated, she would not have any plans to retire. Learn on to be taught extra about Eden’s life in the present day, from the private to the skilled.
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Previous to I Dream of Jeannie, Eden had already appeared in lots of TV exhibits and films, together with one other starring position within the sequence The best way to Marry a Millionaire. After Jeannie, she did the present Harper Valley P.T.A., appeared in a number of episode of Dallas and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, and was in two I Dream of Jeannie films. She has additionally starred in a number of performs and musicals through the years. Her most up-to-date on-screen position was the 2019 film My Adventures with Santa. In 2021, she instructed Individuals in October 2021, “Generally one is pressured to decelerate, however I will do what I do till I can not.”
Eden has been married thrice: to Michael Ansara from 1958 to 1974, to Charles Fegert from 1977 to 1982, and to Jon Eicholtz from 1991 to in the present day. Eden welcomed a son, Matthew, with Ansara, and he tragically died of a heroin overdose in 2001. “I do not assume there’s something worse than to lose your youngster,” Eden instructed Individuals. “As a father or mother, I had quite a lot of guilt and anger, and following his loss of life I used to be at all times on the sting of tears. Although he was 35, he was nonetheless my child.”
Eden had beforehand misplaced her second son when she was eight months pregnant with him. “It was terrible. I turned numb,” she instructed Individuals. “You simply take care of every thing every single day. I went proper again to work and misplaced quite a lot of weight. I would come residence and have a look at my little boy who’s cute and assume, ‘I am so fortunate. I’ve this candy youngster. I’ve a husband who loves me. What’s improper with me?’ And no person instructed me what was improper with me. At the moment going to a psychiatrist, folks did not do it. You simply healed your self.”
Eden opened up about her life and profession in her 2011 memoir, Jeannie Out of the Bottle. She additionally co-wrote a youngsters’s guide impressed by I Dream of Jeannie titled Barbara and the Djinn, which was revealed in 2021 and is a couple of younger woman who finds a genie. “We want extra empathy, love and understanding on this world, particularly now,” Eden mentioned in a press launch concerning the guide. “My hope is that this little guide may help foster these traits within the youngsters who learn it.”
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Eden has been married to Eicholtz, an actual property developer, for over 30 years.
“I am actually fortunate,” Eden instructed Individuals of her life in the present day. “I’ve expensive mates. I’ve an exquisite household, a really supportive husband, a canine who’s cute, however a brat! Sure, I am very completely happy. I believe life, every thing, has to work itself out. There is a purpose for many issues, and I can not want for it.”
Eden has a web-based retailer during which she sells I Dream of Jeannie merchandise, a few of them autographed, together with Christmas ornaments, collectible figurines, DVDs, and extra.
In a 2015 interview with Studio 10, Eden was requested concerning the sequence and her character having such a long-lasting impression. “I believe as a result of it was a contented present,” she responded
She then instructed a narrative a couple of fan encounter. “One time I used to be sitting within the airport in San Francisco and a person came visiting to me and instructed me how a lot he loved the present—this was within the ’60s. He mentioned, ‘You do not know who I’m, however that group of males over there, we’re all psychologists and psychiatrists and we’re at Stanford College. And all of us go residence and watch the present, as a result of it balances us out,'” she defined with fun.
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