Adrienne Barbeau

Adrienne Barbeau
Adrienne Barbeau plays the recurring role of Oswald's mother, Kim Harvey, in six episodes of the series.
Personal Information
Gender:	Female
Birthname	Adrienne Jo Barbeau
Born:	(1945-06-11) June 11, 1945
Birthplace:	Sacramento, CA, U.S.
Occupation/ Career:	Actress, Voice actor
Years Active:	1972-present
Notable roles:	role as "Rizzo" in the musical Grease role as Carol Traynor on the CBS-TV series Maude
Website/URL:	http://www.abarbeau.com/
Character information
Appeared on:	The Drew Carey Show
Appears as:	Kim Harvey, Oswald's mother

Adrienne Barbeau (pronounced BAR-bo; born June 11, 1945) played the recurring role of Kim Harvey, Oswald's mother, in six episodes of The Drew Carey Show in Seasons 3 through 9.

About Adrienne

An actress and author. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970's, as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical, Grease, and as Carol Traynor, in the sitcom, Maude. In the early 1980's, Barbeau became a sex symbol and genre star, after starring in The Fog, which was followed by several other horror and science fiction films. During the 1990s, sheion films and shows such as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Valentine Magic on Love Island, and Battle of the Network Stars. In her autobiography she claimed: "I actually thought CBS asked me to be on Battle of the Network Stars because they thought I was athletic. My husband clued me in: who cared if I won the race, as long as I bounced when I ran?"

The popularity of Barbeau's 1978 cheesecake poster confirmed her status as a sex symbol. Barbeau's popularity stemmed partly from what critic Joe Bob Briggs referred to as the "two enormous talents on that woman", and her typecasting as a "tough broad". Despite her initial success, she said at the time that she thought of Hollywood as a "flesh market", and that she would rather appear in films that "explore the human condition" and "deal with issues"

Personal life

Adrienne was married to director John Carpenter from January 1, 1979, to 1984. The two met on the set of his 1978 TV movie, Someone's Watching Me!. The couple had a son, John Cody (born May 7, 1984) shortly before they separated. During their marriage, the couple remained "totally outside Hollywood's social circles".

Barbeau married actor/playwright/producer Billy Van Zandt, thirteen years her junior, on December 31, 1992. The two met in 1991 when Barbeau was cast in the west coast premiere of his play, Drop Dead! Billy is the half-brother of musician/actor Steven Van Zandt. She gave birth to twin boys, Walker Steven and William Dalton Van Zandt, on March 17, 1997, at age 51, jokingly claiming she was the only one on the maternity ward who was also a member of AARP.

Notes/trivia

• Casting Adrienne in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, may be a nod to her work on The Fog and Batman: The Animated Series.

Bibliography

Barbeau's autobiography There Are Worse Things I Could Do was published in 2006 by Carroll & Graf, rising to #11 on the Los Angeles Times best-sellers list. In July 2008, her first novel, Vampyres of Hollywood, was published by St Martin's Press. The novel was co-written by Michael Scott. The first sequel Love Bites was published in 2010, and the second, Make Me Dead was published in 2015.

1. There Are Worse Things I Could Do, by Adrienne Barbeau, 2006, Carroll & Graf publishers, New York City, ISBN 9780786716371, OCLC 65432367.
2. Vampyres of Hollywood, by Adrienne Barbeau, & Michael Scott, 2008, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, New York City, ISBN 9780312367220, OCLC 84822839.
3. Love Bites, by Adrienne Barbeau, 2010, Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, New York City. ISBN 9780312367282, OCLC 526077059.
4. Make Me Dead, by Adrienne Barbeau, 2015, booksBnimble Publishing, New Orleans, LA, ASIN B00ZD3K2S4.

External links

• Official website
• Adrienne Barbeau at the Internet Movie Database
• Adrienne Barbeau article at Wikipedia
• Adrienne Barbeau @ Twitter