Adrienne Barbeau

Adrienne Jo Barbeau was born on June 11, 1945, in Sacramento, California, to Armene (née Nalbandian) and Joseph Barbeau, a public relations executive for Mobil Oil. Her mother was of Armenian descent, while her father's ancestry was French Canadian, Irish, and German. Barbeau grew up with a sister, Jocelyn, and a half brother on her father's side, Robert Barbeau, who remained in the Sacramento area. She attended Del Mar High School in San Jose, California, graduating in 1963, after which she enrolled at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California. She left college at age 19 to join a USO Tour with the San Jose Light Opera, entertaining military personnel at army bases across Southeast Asia. In her autobiography, she credited that experience with first igniting her interest in show business.

After relocating to New York City in the late 1960s, Barbeau worked as a go-go dancer before breaking into theater. Her Broadway debut came in the chorus of Fiddler on the Roof, where she later took on the role of Hodel, one of Tevye's daughters; Bette Midler played her character's sister Tzeitel. She departed the production in 1971 to take the leading role of Cookie Kovac in the off-Broadway musical Stag Movie. Barbeau went on to appear in more than 25 musicals and plays, among them Women Behind Bars and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Her Broadway career spanned from 1964 to 2014 and included credits in Grease, Pippin, and Fiddler on the Roof.

Barbeau rose to prominence on Broadway as the original Betty Rizzo in Grease, the role for which she received a Theatre World Award in 1972 and a Tony Award nomination for her portrayal of the tough-girl character. She subsequently starred as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Bea Arthur's title character, on the CBS sitcom Maude, which ran from 1972 to 1978. In a 2018 interview, Barbeau reflected on Arthur as exceptionally giving and professional, noting that her years on Maude represented her introduction to television and that the cast became her family for six years. Barbeau and Arthur reunited on camera during a 2007 taping of The View, and Barbeau maintained that the two remained close until Arthur's death on April 25, 2009.

During the 1970s, Barbeau also made guest appearances on television programs including The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Battle of the Network Stars. A 1978 cheesecake poster contributed to her public profile as a sex symbol, and critic Joe Bob Briggs became associated with commentary on her physical presence in genre films.

Her transition into film began with The Fog (1980), directed by her then-husband John Carpenter, which grossed over $21 million in the United States and established her as a genre film star. She followed that with Escape from New York (1981), also directed by Carpenter, as well as Creepshow (1982) and Swamp Thing (1982). Outside the horror and science fiction genres, she appeared in the Burt Reynolds comedy The Cannonball Run (1981), played the wife of Rodney Dangerfield's character in Back to School (1986), and starred in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989).

In the 1990s, Barbeau appeared in made-for-television films including Scott Turow's The Burden of Proof (1992) and played Oswald's mother on The Drew Carey Show. She gained a new audience among animation fans by voicing Catwoman in Batman: The Animated Series and Gotham Girls, part of the DC Animated Universe. She also served as a television talk show host and a weekly book reviewer for KABC talk radio in Los Angeles. In 1998, she released a self-titled debut album as a folk singer. The following year, she guest starred in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" as Romulan Senator Kimara Cretak. She also voiced the villainess Helga Von Guggen in seasons 1, 2, and 4 of the animated series Totally Spies.

From 2003 to 2005, Barbeau starred as Ruthie on the HBO series Carnivàle. In the spring of 2006, she played Judy Garland in the off-Broadway production The Property Known as Garland. In 2007, she filmed a cameo in Rob Zombie's Halloween, though her scene was cut from the theatrical release and included only in the DVD version. In 2009, she was cast in The Dog Who Saved Christmas, voiced a character in the animated feature Fly Me to the Moon, appeared in the film Reach for Me, and guest starred in the fourth season premiere of Showtime's Dexter. Barbeau is also the author of an autobiography, There Are Worse Things I Could Do.