Woman (In Horror) Crush Wednesday: Adrienne Barbeau

Greetings my Little Monsters. I see you have returned to find out which wonderful woman of the horror genre is in the spotlight today. As you have already seen, this week’s Woman Crush is the immensely talented Adrienne Barbeau.
Adrienne is a California girl, born and raised in the city of Sacramento. Her career began when she started touring with the San Jose Civic Light Opera in 1963. It was when she went on tour through Southeast Asia with a musical comedy revue, to provide entertainment for military personnel, that Adrienne truly fell in love with acting. She moved to New York in the late 60’s to further pursue her dream of acting. And as many actors and actresses must do, she took a job that would pay the bills while auditioning for roles. One job she held while living in New York, was as a go-go dancer for a particular infamous organization. I won’t give their name, but I’ll provide you all with a little hint – the name rhymes with “THE MOB”.
Adrienne’s portrayal of Tevye’s daughter Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof would mark her Broadway debut. From there she would go on to star in over two dozen plays. And for her portrayal of Rizzo, the bad-ass leader of the Pink Ladies, in the ORIGINAL Broadway production of Grease, Adrienne won the Theater World Award and was also nominated for a Tony.
Adrienne also made the rounds on television in the 70’s, appearing in many made for TV movies and series. She even competed in the first and third edition of Battle of the Network Stars. Her most notable television role was as Carol Traynor, the daughter of Maude Findlay (played by the late Bea Arthur), in the classic television series, Maude.
In 1980 Adrienne got the role that would enter her into the annals of Women in Horror. Her portrayal of Stevie Wayne in John Carpenter’s horror classic, The Fog, made her look as if she was an old hand at acting in the horror genre. Over the next decade she showed her versatility appearing in films across the genres of horror, sci-fi, action, drama and comedy in films such as: Escape from New York, Cannonball Run, Swamp Thing, Creepshow, The Time Traveler, Back to School, Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death and Two Evil Eyes.

 
Over the past 25 years Adrienne’s passion for acting hasn’t any sign being diminished as she has been a steady worker adding close to 100 additional TV and film credits to her resume. Ms. Barbeau even earned some of those credits by way if some pretty extensive voice work. She had uncredited voice roles in The Thing, Demolition Man and Judge Dredd. Her most recognized voice work has been in Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures and Gotham Girls, where she voiced many characters, most notably, Selina Kyle aka Catwoman. She has also provided voice talent for video games that include: Descent 3, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, God of War III, Halo 4, Hitman: Absolution, God of War: Ascension and Mad Max. Adrienne has also added many more stage credits to her resume over that time. How many more I am not certain. 2017 is also looking like a very productive year, as Adrienne is involved in seven projects at the moment, including Death House and Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen.
Aside from acting on stage, television and the big screen, Ms. Barbeau also has four books to her credit so far and has also recorded an album as a vocalist. In 2006 her best-selling memoir, entitled There Are Worse Things I Could Do was published.  Adrienne has also written Vampyres of Hollywood (2008, with Michael Scott), Love Bites (2010) and Make Me Dead (2015), which are a series of comedic and romantic vampire novels.  Her novel Love Bites is currently in development to be adapted into a film, and Adrienne will be appearing in the film, as will another of our Women of Horror, Felissa Rose. The film is currently is set to be released some time in 2018. As for her music, Adrienne released her self tiled album, Adrienne Barbeau, in 1998.
The icing on the cake for a woman with such a full life and career as Adrienne, is that she is also the proud mother of three sons. She had her first son, Cody, in May of 1984, with her first husband, director John Carpenter. Her next two sons were twin boys, Walker and William, whom she had with her current husband, Billy Van Zandt, in March of 1997.
Unlike previous Women of Horror, I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Barbeau. But she is definitely high up on my list of legends from the horror genre, I would love to meet.
So my Little Monsters, I hope that I was able to illustrate that Adrienne in not just a beautiful and buxom brunette, but also and incredibly versatile and talented woman. As always there is more to be found out about Ms. Barbeau than I nave shared here. To find out more please visit Adrienne’s  official web site, her official IMDb page, or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
Some may call Adrienne “The Scream Queen”and others may call her “The Queen of Horror”, but I want to call her Billy. Hell, she said everyone does…well, at least until “Fluffy” the creature from the crate mauled her to death in Creepshow. OK, enough of that. Well until next time, my Little Monsters, I bid you farewell by saying “So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye”.