Barbara Eden did not expect to become Jeannie when the role that would define her career suddenly came her way. More than six decades later, she is still interested in surprising audiences.
The 94-year-old actress told Entertainment Weekly that she remains open to acting and already has an idea for the kind of character she would enjoy next. “I could be really mean,” Eden said, recalling how much fun she had playing Jeannie’s troublemaking twin on Dream of Jeannie.
That desire to play against type is especially fitting given how unlikely Eden once thought her most famous casting was. In a PEOPLE interview, she remembered watching the production test tall brunettes and beauty-pageant winners for the genie and assuming a short blonde like herself was not what producers wanted.
Eden turns 95 on Aug. 23, but she is not treating the milestone as an ending point. She performed onstage in Love Letters in 2025, remains interested in well-written roles and already has another public appearance scheduled for September.
Eden Asked if Producers Knew What She Looked Like
Eden said she never auditioned for I Dream of Jeannie. “They had every tall brunette, winner of many beauty contests, they were testing,” she told PEOPLE. “I thought, ‘Oh, it’s not for me.’”
Eden said that perception made sense to her because producers appeared to be searching for a particular physical type for the genie. “I’m a blonde, short blonde,” she recalled.
Then her agent sent her the script. Eden read it without initially realizing that she was not simply being asked for her opinion. When her agent asked what she thought, Eden told him she liked it. His response surprised her, the role had already been offered to her.
“He said, ‘You have the part,’” Eden recalled. “And I said, ‘Do they know what I look like?’” Eden later sat down for tea with series creator Sidney Sheldon, completing an unusually straightforward casting process for a role that would become inseparable from her career.
She went on to play Jeannie opposite Larry Hagman’s astronaut Tony Nelson from 1965 until the sitcom ended in 1970 after five seasons and 139 episodes.
Now She Wants the Chance to Be ‘Really Mean’
Eden told Entertainment Weekly that she is still willing to consider another acting role and does not seem particularly interested in repeating the sweet, cheerful persona audiences associate most strongly with her. “I could be really mean,” she said.
Eden also played Jeannie’s identical twin sister, another Jeannie who served as a mischievous, antagonistic counterpart to the blonde lead. The character, often referred to as Bad Jeannie, was brunette, wore green instead of Jeannie’s pink and repeatedly caused trouble for her sister.
“Bad Jeannie was bad, you know,” Eden recalled. Entertainment Weekly reports that the character appeared in nine episodes of the original series and returned in both follow-up television movies, I Dream of Jeannie… 15 Years Later in 1985 and I Still Dream of Jeannie in 1991.
Eden’s requirement for another acting job is otherwise simple. “If it’s well written, I’d probably do anything,” she said. “If it’s well written.”
Her Career Went Far Beyond Jeannie
Although Jeannie became Eden’s defining character, her career never remained confined to the bottle. Before and around the sitcom, she appeared in movies including Flaming Star with Elvis Presley, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, All Hands on Deck and The Yellow Canary.
After I Dream of Jeannie, she starred in Harper Valley PTA, played Aunt Irma on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and joined Dallas as LeeAnn De La Vega, giving her another opportunity to work opposite Hagman. “We were both playing characters who weren’t very nice. It was good,” Eden told Entertainment Weekly of their Dallas reunion.
She also praised Hagman’s ability to move well beyond the straight-man role he played opposite Jeannie, saying his enormous success as J.R. Ewing finally gave audiences a fuller picture of what he could do. More recently, Eden appeared in the 2019 family movie My Adventures with Santa as Mrs. Claus. Entertainment Weekly also reports that she returned to the stage for Love Letters in 2025.
Her Next Appearance Reconnects Her With an Early Costar
On Sept. 5, she is set to attend the Cinecon Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles for a screening of the 1961 musical comedy All Hands on Deck, in which she starred alongside Pat Boone. The official Cinecon announcement says Eden will receive the Cinecon Legacy Award honoring her career achievements, with Boone presenting the award after the screening.
The festival’s current schedule lists All Hands on Deck for 7:15 p.m. on Sept. 5, followed by an 8:50 p.m. Q&A with Eden and Boone. Cinecon 62 runs Sept. 3 through Sept. 7 at the Landmark Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles.