Barbara Eden, 91, is still going strong more than 50 years after “I Dream of Jeannie”

Barbara Eden has been performing for an incredible seven decades and, at 91, shows no signs of slowing down.

The actress, singer, and producer was best known for her appearance in “I Dream of Jeannie,” which aired in 1965. She had been on our screens for ten years before landing her most renowned role.

I Dream of Jeannie, the famous 1960s sitcom about an astronaut who brings home a 2,000-year-old female genie, has been viewed by generations of TV viewers.

While the idea may appear ridiculous, fans tuned in and laughed because of the skilled and gorgeous actress who played Jeannie, Barbara Eden.

Barbara is now 91 years old, which fans may find difficult to comprehend.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that she hasn’t worn her renowned harem outfit on TV in a long time, she’s still going strong and keeping active.

Yet Barbara’s life hasn’t always been easy…

Barbara Eden was born in 1931 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. After her parents’ divorce, she relocated to San Francisco, and there she began her career studying voice at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Music.

As a youngster, Barbara sang in local bands in bars in Golden Gate City. She eventually chose to pursue acting as well.

“Barbara, you don’t sound like you mean a word you’re singing,” my mother observed. “I think you should study acting as well,” Eden told Closer Weekly.

Acting proved to be a terrific match for her, and she quickly relocated to Los Angeles and began starring on some of the biggest shows of the 1950s.

She initially appeared on television in 1955 as a semi-regular on The Johnny Carson Show, but it was her part in the popular fantasy comedy “I Dream of Jeannie” that made her a household celebrity.

The Arizona native, Larry Hagman, played Jeannie, a seductive genie that astronaut and United States Air Force Captain Anthony “Tony” Nelson let loose from her bottle.

“We just clicked.” We had the same beat. “Everything we were doing yielded the same reality,” Eden told Closer Weekly.

“I really liked him. You have to work hard to like some actors… and you file it away in another box in your mind. But I never had to do it with Larry. He was always present.”

She played the part for five years. During that time, she also played Jeannie’s mean sister and weak mother on the show. Eden’s harem costume, which was deemed a little provocative for TV at the time, was another feature that made Jeannie famous.

“NBC executives were quite scared,” she told Today in 2015, approaching the show’s 50th anniversary. “They got really rigorous about the navel.”

As her friend and fellow journalist Mike Connolly began teasing her about the problem, Eden claimed it was another much older interview with the Hollywood Reporter that helped propagate that mythology.

“It spread like wildfire when Mike walked in and started taunting me about my belly button.” “We had fun with it, and I would tease him back, but I had no clue it would turn into something.”

Eden’s famous outfit also cemented her status as a TV sex symbol for many people, including high-profile fans such as Elvis Presley and John F. Kennedy, who texted her his phone number.

“I threw away the piece of paper, but I wish I still had it,” the actress said in her book, Jeannie Out of the Bottle, published in 2011.

Eden has acted in over 50 films and is still working at the age of 91.

 

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Her most recent film was My Adventures with Santa, in which she portrayed Mrs. Claus, and she also appeared as Melissa Gardner in the stage version of “Love Letters” the same year.

“I’m feeling youthful!” Barbara informed Page 6 that she felt fortunate to have chosen the career she did. “I feel terrible for folks like my poor father, who had to work every day at a job he despised. I enjoy what I do. “I’m still working.”

 

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Barbara said she went to the gym, took spin classes, and lifted weights until a few years ago. Currently, a trainer visits her home to assist her with resistance training, and the two of them stroll about.

“I have a lot of pals,” stated the TV great. “I’m a pretty social person.”

She’s even scheduled to appear in March 2022.

“If I’m around, I’ll be there; I really enjoy it,” she joked.

 

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Barbara likes creating children’s books and co-wrote Barbara and the Djinn, which is about a little girl named Barbara who encounters a “charming and wizardly genie” who takes her on adventures similar to her own renowned ones.

She believes that her books would remind youngsters of the joys of reading because, as she puts it, “Today all they do is gaze at telephones!”

Barbara dismisses the notion that “I Dream of Jeannie” may appear antiquated to today’s viewers.

“Come on, this is a classic concept,” she pointed out. What about “One Thousand and One Nights”? This is a fantastic dream.”

“Well, let’s be honest, she was in the driver’s seat.” “She was not in any way servile.”

 

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Barbara Eden has had an incredible life, made possible by her inspiring attitude and drive. She truly demonstrates that age is only a number.

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