What is Barbara Eden Net Worth?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Barbara Eden is a revered American actress whose estimated net worth is around $10 million. She is most widely recognized for her enchanting lead performance in the classic sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.
Barbara studied theater in San Francisco while also making a name for herself in beauty pageants. She kicked off her career with a mix of TV parts and films until she secured the iconic genie role, which became her breakout moment.
After the popular series wrapped, she kept busy with guest appearances and continued to shine in Broadway productions. Eden has also lent her voice to animated projects, showcasing her versatility as a performer. In 2011 she celebrated her journey in the memoir Jeannie Out of the Bottle. Her contributions to Hollywood were honored in 1988 with a star on the Walk of Fame.
Early Life
Barbara Jean Morehead came into the world on August 23, 1931, in sunny Tucson, Arizona. When Barbara was still little, her parents went their separate ways, and she moved to San Francisco with her mother, Alice. Not long after, Alice married again and they welcomed a baby girl, Barbara’s lively half-sister.
Then, the family felt the harsh grip of the Great Depression and spent their days making the most of very little. To lift spirits, Alice would break into song, and those simple backyard concerts may have planted the very first seeds of a singing career in Barbara’s heart.
Barbara’s voice quickly caught the ear of the neighborhood. She started in the choir at their little church and soon had solos that wowed the congregation. By her early teens, the champ of after-school rehearsals was earning real money belting out jazz and pop numbers in the city’s lively nightclubs. Yet she was never a one-track star.
She had her sights on the footlights, joining the Actor’s Equity at just 16. To sharpen her craft, she took classes at the acting powerhouse, the Elizabeth Holloway School of Theatre, and squeezed in voice lessons at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
A diploma from high school arrived in 1949, after which she squeezed in a single year of theater study at City College of San Francisco. That same year, Barbara flipped her calendar to pageants, winning the title of Miss San Francisco in 1951 and earning her ticket to the Miss California Pageant.
Early Career
By 1955, Barbara made her debut on television, appearing on The Johnny Carson Show with style. Not long after, she lit up screens on several popular series, popping up in The West Point Story, Highway Patrol, Private Secretary, I Love Lucy, The Millionaire, Target: The Corruptors!, Perry Mason, Father Knows Best, The Andy Griffith Show, and Route 66.
Midway through her early career, she captured attention through a memorable arc on Burke’s Law, where she played four different characters in four standout episodes. The same year, 1957, she landed her breakout role in the cozy sitcom How to Marry a Millionaire, which helped her stand out even more.
Her big-movie break came after director Mark Robson caught her on stage with James Drury. Impressed, Robson requested a screen test at 20th Century Fox for the upcoming drama No Down Payment. The role didn’t stick, yet the studio put a contract on the table without hesitation.
A sprinkle of small but striking parts filled her early schedule until she graduated to a starring role in A Private’s Affair opposite Gary Crosby and Barry Coe. Hot on the heels of that, she shared the screen with Elvis Presley in the western Flaming Star, which came out in 1960 and topped the box office.
All through the early 1960s, Barbara kept proving her versatility, landing a fresh role in nearly every picture that came her way. Each part showcased a different side of her talent, solidifying her presence in an industry that clicks with fresh faces every year.
These included “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm,” and “Five Weeks in a Balloon.” In 1962, Barbara sealed a lead part in “Swingin’ Along,” sharing the screen with Tommy Noonan and Peter Marshall. The following year, she wrapped her 20th Century Fox deal with “The Yellow Canary.” After that, she moved into supporting roles, most notably in “The Brass Bottle.”
I Dream of Jeannie
In 1965, Barbara Eden landed the part she’s most remembered for in “I Dream of Jeannie.” The show was created to mirror the hit “Bewitched,” which wrapped in 1964. Sidney Sheldon wanted a follow-up, and Barbara won the role after many brunettes and pageant queens had tried and failed.
In this iconic series, she played a stunning genie discovered by an astronaut. For the next five years, Barbara focused almost entirely on this show, starring in 139 episodes. During that time, she also took on the role of the genie’s scheming brunette twin. The series signed off in 1970.
After Jeannie
Once the show wrapped, Barbara Eden stayed a heavyweight in the entertainment world. She speedily turned up in flicks like The Feminist and the Fuzz and A Howling in the Woods. By 1974, she starred as a woman expecting alien twins in The Stranger Within and popped up in the praised mystery, Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model? In the late ’80s, she headlined and co-produced the funny The Secret Life of Kathy McCormick.
The ’90s had Eden as a key star in the final season of the primetime smash Dallas. That same decade, she jumped back onto the stage, mainly in musicals, and quietly mastered voice acting. Her most famous gig in that realm is the animated preschool fave Shimmer and Shine. Barbara was still jetting around in 2013—she joined Bill Clinton, Elton John, and Fergie at the 21st Life Ball in Vienna and locked down a part in the drama One Song.
Memoir
In 2011, Barbara pulled the curtain back one last time with the memoir Jeannie Out of the Bottle. The book chronicles fifty-plus years of showbiz adventures as well as plentiful memories from her early childhood.
The book digs into some of the saddest moments in her life. You’ll read about the heartbreaking 2001 drug overdose of her son and how the pain of that loss shaped her. It also talks about her two marriages, showing how they ended and what they taught her about love, trust, and moving on.
