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Adrienne Barbeau Biography - Yahoo! Movies

Pretty, buxom, brunette player of stage and screen who may be best known as Carol Trener, divorced daughter of Bea Arthur on "Maude" (CBS, 1972-78), Norman Lear's groundbreaking sitcom. While the role provided high visibility, Barbeau had little to do on the series. It, however, opened the door to a slew of TV-movies, specials, and guest spots beginning in the mid-1970s and continuing through the 90s. Barbeau has also had a modest feature career, generally in fairly savvy and thrifty genre fare.

Barbeau first gained notice on the Broadway stage in an early 1970s revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" and garnered a Tony nomination and Theater World Award for her performance as Rizzo in "Grease" (1971). The success of "Maude" led to such TV-movie credits as co-starring with Desi Arnaz, Jr. in the medical drama "Having Babies" (her TV-movie debut, 1976), and "Someone's Watching Me" (1978), a nifty thriller (the first of several collaborations) helmed by John Carpenter (whom she married in 1979 and later divorced), Barbeau gradually evolved from playing ingenues to mothers and worldly older woman in later TV movies including the western "Blood River" (1991) starring Rick Schroeder and written by Carpenter, and the remake of "Jailbreakers" (1994), part of Showtime's "Rebel Highway" series.

Barbeau has done her most enjoyable feature work in collaboration with Carpenter ("The Fog" 1980; "Escape From New York" 1981) and horror auteur George Romero ("Creepshow" 1982; "Two Evil Eyes" 1990). Whereas Carpenter envisioned her as a hard-boiled leading lady who comfortably packs a rod, Romero got much mileage from her campy turns playing hard-eyed harpies.

  • Also Credited As:

    Adrienne Jo Barbeau

  • Born:

    Adrienne Jo Barbeau on June 11, 1945 in Sacramento, California, USA

  • Job Titles:

    Actress

Family
  • Father: Joseph Barbeau. French-Canadian; worked for Mobil Oil
  • Mother: Arman Barbeau. Armenian-American
  • Sister: Jocelyn Jo Barbeau. Born in 1951
  • Son: John Cody Carpenter. Born May 7, 1984; father, John Carpenter
  • Son: Walker Steven Barbeau Van Zandt. Twin of William; born March 17, 1997; father, Billy Van Zandt
  • Son: William Dalton Barbeau Van Zandt. Twin of Walker; born March 17, 1997; father, Billy Van Zandt
Significant Others
  • Husband: John Carpenter. Known for the horror classic Halloween (1977); met on the set of his 1978 TV movie, Someone s Watching Me! ; married from 1979-1984
Education
  • Del Mar High School, San Jose, CA
Milestones
  • 1972 Made TV debut as the daughter of Bea Arthur s title character on the comedy series Maude (CBS)
  • 1972 Received a Tony Award nomination playing tough-girl Rizzo in the Broadway production of Grease
  • 1976 TV-movie debut, Having Babies
  • 1980 Made feature film debut in her then-husband, director John Carpenter s horror film, The Fog
  • 1981 Again teamed with then-husband John Carpenter for Escape from New York
  • 1981 Featured in the campy, slapstick comedy The Cannonball Run
  • 1982 Played Hal Holbrook s emotionally abusive wife in one of five short stories in the anthology horror movie Creepshow ; written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero
  • 1982 Starred in the horror film Swamp Thing ; written and directed by Wes Craven
  • 1986 Cast in a small role as Rodney Dangerfield s wife in the comedy Back to School
  • 1989 Starred in low-budget spoof Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death ; co-starred Bill Maher
  • 1992 Lent her voice to Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series (FOX)
  • 1998 Played Oswald s mother on the ABC comedy The Drew Carey Show
  • 1998 Released her debut album as a folk singer, the self-titled Adrienne Barbeau
  • 2002 Voiced the villieness Helga Von Guggen in the cartoon series Totally Spies!
  • 2003 Cast as Ruthie on the HBO series Carnivàle
  • 2006 Published autobiography There Are Worse Things I Could Do
  • 2006 Starred as Judy Garland in the Off-Broadway play The Property Known as Garland
  • 2008 Published first novel, Vampyres of Hollywood ; co-written by Michael Scott
  • 2008 Voiced Scooters Mom in the animated feature Fly Me to the Moon
  • Appeared Off-Broadway in Stag Movie
  • Made Broadway debut as Tevye s daughter, Hodel in a revival of Fiddler on the Roof
  • Moved to New York City and worked as a go-go dancer