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

The actress, singer, and producer is best known for her role in “I Dream of Jeannie,” which premiered in 1965, even though she had been on our screens ten years earlier.

Generations of TV fans have watched I Dream of Jeannie, the popular 1960s sitcom about an astronaut who brings home a 2,000-year-old female genie.

Despite the absurdity of the premise, viewers tuned in and laughed because of Barbara Eden, the gorgeous and talented actress who played Jeannie.

Fans may find it difficult to believe, but Barbara is 91 years old!

Although she hasn’t been seen on television in her classic harem attire in a while, she’s still alive and well.

Barbara’s life, however, has not always been easy.

Barbara Eden was born in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States, in 1931. After her parents split, she moved to San Francisco and began studying singing at the Conservatory of Music.

As a kid in Golden Gate City, Barbara used to participate in small bands in neighborhood nightclubs. But she eventually decided to pursue acting as well.

“‘Barbara, you don’t sound like you mean a word you’re singing,’ my mother observed. “I believe you should study acting as well,” Eden recalled.

After concluding that acting was a suitable fit for her, she moved to Los Angeles and began playing on some of the best shows of the 1950s.

She first debuted on our screens in 1955 as a semi-regular guest on The Johnny Carson Show, but her role in the legendary fantasy sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie” rocketed her to prominence.

The Arizona native played Jeannie, a beguiling genie released from her bottle by astronaut and United States Air Force Captain Anthony “Tony” Nelson, played by Larry Hagman.

“We just… clicked. We had the same beat. “Whatever we were doing yielded the same truth,” Eden explained.

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

She performed the part for five years, including appearing in the show as Jeannie’s mother and her nasty sister. Eden’s harem attire, which at the time was a little risqué for television, contributed to Jeannie’s fame.

“Executives at NBC got very frightened,” she told Today in 2015, near the show’s 50th anniversary. “They became very strict about the navel.”