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Adrienne Jo Barbeau (born June 11, 1945) is an American television, film, and musical theater actress. She came to prominence through her roles in the sitcom Maude and in several early 1980s horror and science fiction films.

Biography

Early life

Barbeau was born in Sacramento, California to a French-Canadian father and an Armenian-American mother. In her autobiography, Barbeau says that she first caught the showbiz bug while entertaining troops at army bases throughout South East Asia touring with the San Jose Civic Light Opera..

Career

In the late 1960s, Barbeau moved to New York City and worked as a go-go dancer, as well as appearing Off-Broadway in a "nudie musical" called Stag Movie, before making her Broadway debut in Fiddler on the Roof, playing Tevye's daughter, Hodel. She has since starred in over 25 musicals and plays, among them Women Behind Bars, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Grease, as tough-girl Rizzo, for which she received a Theater Guild award and a 1972 Tony Award nomination.

During the 1970s, Barbeau had a thriving career on television, first appearing as the daughter of Bea Arthur's character on the series, Maude, which ran from 1972 to 1978. In her autobiography There Are Worse Things I Could Do she remarked "What I didn't know is that when I said [my lines], I was usually walking down a flight of stairs and no one was even listening to me. They were just watching my breasts precede me." She was also cast in numerous made-for-television films and guest appearances on cleavage-propelled shows show as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Valentine Magic on Love Island and Battle of the Network Stars. In her autobiography she claimed "I actually thought CBS asked me to be on Battle of the Network Stars because they thought I was athletic. My husband clued me in: Who cared if I won the race, as long as I bounced when I ran?.

The popularity of Barbeau's 1978 cheesecake poster confirmed her status as a sex symbol. While reviewers have sometimes criticized her acting ability, Barbeau's popularity stemmed partly from what critic Joe Bob Briggs referred to as the "two enormous talents on that woman". and her typecasting as a "tough broad". Barbeau refused offers to appear topless in Playboy, although she has appeared nude in High Society (July 1980), in Off Broadway plays and in films. Despite her initial success, she said at the time that she thought of Hollywood as a "flesh market", and that she would rather appear in films that "explore the human condition" and "deal with issues".

Barbeau was then cast by her then-husband, director John Carpenter, in his 1980 horror film, The Fog, which was her first theatrical film appearance. The film was released in on February 1, 1980 and was a theatrical success, grossing over $21 million in the United States, and establishing Barbeau as a genre film star. She subsequently appeared in a number of early 1980s horror and science fiction films, a number of which have now become cult classics, including Creepshow and Swamp Thing featuring a titillating scene of her wading through the titular swamp. She also appeared in the high-grossing comedy, The Cannonball Run (1981). Throughout the remainder of the 1980s, Barbeau mostly starred in low-budget, direct-to-video films, like the spoof Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death co-starring Bill Maher. In 1986, she starred in Tomes & Talismans, a library skills series presented as a serialized science fiction story.

Recent career

Barbeau's work ethic continues to lead her to expose her talents in new fields ranging from a one-woman Off-Broadway show, to hosting a talk show, to releasing an album of folk songs. In the 1990s, Barbeau mostly appeared in made-for-television films, as well as played Oswald's mother on The Drew Carey Show and voiced Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series and Gotham Girls. She also worked as a television talk show host and a weekly book reviewer for KABC talk radio in Los Angeles. In 1999, she guest starred in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges".

In 1998, Barbeau released her debut album as a folk singer, Adrienne Barbeau. From 2003 to 2005, Barbeau starred on the HBO series Carnivale. From March 2006 to May 2006, she starred as Judy Garland in the off-Broadway play The Property Known as Garland, written by her husband Billy Van Zandt.

Personal life

Barbeau was married to director John Carpenter from January 1, 1979 to 1984; the two met on the set of his 1978 television movie, Someone's Watching Me! and Barbeau later appeared in his films, The Fog and Escape from New York. The couple have a son, John Cody (born May 7, 1984). During their marriage, the couple remained "totally outside Hollywood's social circles".

Barbeau married her current husband, Billy Van Zandt, in 1994. She gave birth to twins, Walker Steven and William Dalton, on March 11, 1997 at the age of 52.

Selected filmography

Pop culture references

• Captain Murphy, a character from the animated television series Sealab 2021, has an obsession with Barbeau, and mentions her in several episodes. In the episode "I Robot, Really," he has himself transformed into a "Barbeaubot" with "D-Cups of Justice."

References and external links

Interviews

• Playbill interview (March 10, 2006)
• Publishers Weekly.com interview (February 27, 2006)
• Zap2It interview (October 10, 2003)
• Post Gazette interview (June 16, 2002)
• HorrorWeb interview
• Roger Ebert interview (February 3, 1980)
• Adrienne Barbeau interview by Daniel Robert Epstein
• Carnivale interview and There Are Worse Things I Could Do book review at Dread Central

Further reading

• Adrienne Barbeau website

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