Actress Finds Second Role on HTG Big Screen
Sometimes a long career in the real world doesn’t translate to HTG Hollywood. Take, for example, the acting life of 63-year-old entertainer Adrienne Barbeau. In HTG the actress has only appeared in one project, a supporting role in 2007’s Club Siberia: Last Call. But in the real world, Barbeau has been working steadily since the 70’s. Some of those roles are in cult-worthy films, television shows and even plays.
Barbeau’s big break came with an award-winning performance as Rizzo in the original Broadway production of Grease. For six seasons she turned even conservative heads in the left-leaning spin-off of All in the Family, Maude, starring Bea Arthur in a role long before the Golden Girls. (She once commented that the males on the set would not be paying attention to her lines when she “bounced” down the staircase.) After Maude finished its run, Barbeau found herself in a number of supporting roles, gaining the respect of fans. She eventually found herself in the original John Carpenter film The Fog. (At one time the actress was married to Carpenter.) Another Carpenter movie came later, with Barbeau playing Maggie in Escape From New York.
As the 80’s continued, Barbeau found the female lead in the Wes Craven adaptation of DC Comic’s Swamp Thing. George Romero used her as a shrill wife in the horror anthology Creepshow. Soon after Barbeau was Rodney Dangerfield’s wife (and soon-to-be-ex wife) in Back to School. Then it was back with Romero in Two Evil Eyes. When Batman: The Animated Series arrived in the 90’s, Barbeau lent her sultry voice as Catwoman.
Numerous small roles followed. Toward the end of the century Barbeau had a reoccuring role in one of this EIC’s favorite sitcoms, The Drew Carey Show. The actress had the part of Oswald Harvey’s mother, the object of mother lust for Drew and Lewis. A primary role in HBO’s Carnivale came after, then several supporting roles on TV and the big screen.
To be honest, if you pay homage to the women of sci-fi, horror and cult acting — Amanda Tapping, Jamie Lee Curtis, Gillian Anderson and such, it’s only fair to include Adrienne Barbeau in that list.
Finally Barbeau has found more work on HTG, this time in new HTG resident Kaven’s action/adventure called Crimson Eyes. According to the original pitch for the movie: “In an alternate universe, slavery has been continued to present day. It starts off in the past, with the film beginning with two parents who have recently given birth to a baby boy in their new home. Suddenly the door is kicked open, and a hooded person shoots and kills both the parents. They run off as the baby is left, alone. Now, all grown up, he seeks vengeance for his parents death.” Barbeau will have a supporting role as a woman named Mother Knight. No word has been given yet on the nature of the film’s characters. Hopefully we’ll see Barbeau in more roles in HTG. (The EIC of Happening has a suspicion that there’s an award out there somewhere that would be perfect for her.)
Crimson Eyes is scheduled for an April release through Lake Hope Features.
*Yes, I realize that’s an older pic of Barbeau above. But that’s the way I like to remember her. 
