‘ALWAYS & FOREVER’
CAST BIOS
BARBARA EDEN (Mary Anderson) – Barbara Eden, everyone’s favorite ‘Jeannie,’ is one of America’s most endearing and enduring stars. Her NBC series, “I Dream of Jeannie,” has been airing globally for more than three decades and is currently seen on the TV Land cable network 14 times weekly and in syndication throughout the world.
In April, Eden went on the road, hosting productions of “Ballroom with a Twist,” the new ground-breaking show that stars rotating celebrity emcees and dancers from “Dancing with the Stars.” She also guest-starred in a recurring role on Lifetime’s popular “Army Wives” series and, just before that, essayed a guest star role on ABC’s “George Lopez.” She recently taped interviews with Sean Hannity on “Hannity” and with Bill O’Reilly on “The O’Reilly Factor,” both on Fox, on “Martha Stewart,” and with “Good Morning America” and “The View” on ABC.
Returning to the theater, Eden toured the country with Hal Linden, starring in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. Just before Love Letters, she played to SRO audiences for three seasons, headlining a continuing national tour of Neil Simon’s female version of The Odd Couple.
Eden, who has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was named by People Magazine as one of America’s Greatest Pop Culture Icons, and she was inducted into the California Broadcasters Association’s Hall of Fame, receiving the Life Achievement Award for on- air excellence through the years. At the national TV Land Awards show, Eden was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award for her work on “Jeannie.”
The subject of recent stories in The New York Times, TV Guide and Total Health Magazine, Eden also recently appeared on “The Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” “Larry King Live,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “Access Hollywood,” and “Hollywood Squares,” and was featured in an hour-long solo interview for Bravo’s 5-part documentary report, “The TV Revolution.”
As an accomplished actress and musical entertainer, Eden has starred in 20 feature films, five network television series, 22 top rated network television movies, and has headlined at many top hotel resorts and casinos in Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City and Las Vegas, as well as on concert stages and theaters across the country.
Her other activities have included a recurring starring role as the matriarchal Aunt Irma in the WB’s “Sabrina: The Teenage Witch,” the national release by Mattel of the official Barbie/Jeannie doll created in Eden’s image, an upcoming Jeannie comic book from Columbia TriStar, her TV commercials for Old Navy, AT&T and Lexus, a video ad for Entemann Doughnuts and heading her BarGene Productions company developing long-form TV movies. She has also been profiled on “A&E Biography” and on MSNBC’s “Legends & Headliners with Matt Lauer.”
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Always drawn to the magic of a live theater audience, Eden periodically stars on stage and has scored critically and at the box office in such hits as The Sound of Music, Same Time Next Year, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, an 11-city tour in Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers and recently in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, as Lorelei Lee, the character created by Carol Channing on Broadway and played on-screen by Marilyn Monroe in the 20th Century Fox film version.
While at Fox, Eden also starred in a number of films, including “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm,” “The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao” and “Flaming Star,” as Elvis Presley’s leading lady. She later joined Columbia Studios, where she starred in a number of films and then returned to television with what was to become her enormously successful “I Dream of Jeannie” series. She also hosted Nashville’s “Country Music Awards” special and her own Christmas special “Love is Barbara Eden.”
In 1979, Eden starred in the sleeper hit “Harper Valley PTA,” based on the Jeannie C. Reilly recording, which went on to gross more than $25 million and become that year’s most successful independent movie. A year later, network programming executives at NBC and Universal signed her to do a TV series based on “Harper Valley,” which became the highest rated new series of the 1980-81 season.
“Harper Valley” marked the beginning of a hugely successful 15-year association for Eden’s BarGene independent company with NBC, which included the two-hour TV movie “A Brand New Life,” created by “X-Files” writer-producer Chris Carter. The alliance also gave birth to “Visions of Murder” and “Visions of Murder II,” both featured on NBC’s Friday night Mystery Wheel. Her other NBC films include “Hell Hath No Fury,” “Your Mother Wears Combat Boots,” “The Secret Life of Kathy McCormick,” “The Stepford Children,” “Howling in the Woods,” “How to Break Up a Happy Divorce,” “I Still Dream of Jeannie” and “I Dream of Jeannie 15 Years Later.”
Eden works actively on behalf of numerous charities, including the American Cancer Society, the Wellness Community, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, The March of Dimes, the American Heart Association, Save the Children and Childhelp USA.
Born in Tucson, AZ, and raised in San Francisco, Eden has spent most of her life in California and currently resides with her architect/real estate developer husband Jon Eicholtz in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills with their beloved dog, Djinn-Djinn.
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RENA SOFER (Grace Holland) – Born in Arcadia, California, and raised in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by her Orthodox rabbi father, Rena Sofer caught the eye of a modeling scout while shopping in Greenwich Village when she was just 16. Although it took less than a month of going out on calls and auditioning to be convinced that modeling was not for her, it did whet her appetite for acting, and she went on to study the Meisner Technique and Method Acting.
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While still in her teens, she landed the role of ‘Rocky McKenzie’ on the ABC daytime drama “Loving.” Toward the end of her two-year run on the show, she was cast in Sidney Lumet's feature film “A Stranger Among Us,” starring Melanie Griffith. After that, Sofer packed up and drove West by herself and was soon cast in ABC's long-running “General Hospital.” The role of the brassy, Brooklyn-bred music promoter ‘Lois Cerullo’ catapulted Sofer to fame, capturing audiences’ hearts with her gutsy performance and earning her an Emmy® Award.
While still on “General Hospital,” Sofer starred in her first TV movie, the Lifetime Original Film “Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story.” She has since starred in such telefilms as USA Networks’ “The Stepsister” and ABC's “Nightmare Street.” Sofer also appeared in NBC’s remake of the classic Stephen King thriller, “Carrie.”
Sofer joined the cast of FOX’s “Melrose Place” in its final season, playing ‘Eve,’ a lounge singer and long-lost friend of Heather Locklear's character. She was also a series regular on the Sci-Fi Channel’s “The Chronicle” and ABC's “Oh, Grow Up,” the latter of which was created and executive-produced by Academy Award winner Alan Ball (“American Beauty,” “Six Feet Under”). She had a recurring role on NBC’s “Ed,” and she guest-starred on numerous series, such as NBC’s “Friends” and “Seinfeld” and ABC’s “Spin City,” “Ellen” and “Caroline in the City.”
She co-starred in Steven Bochco’s “Blind Justice” for ABC. She has recurred in two current primetime series, NBC's “Heroes” as the wife of Adrian Pasdar's character, and in FOX TV's “24” playing the wife of Paul McCrane's character. She also starred as ‘Susan,’ a beautiful go-getter with an uninhibited attitude towards life and romance on NBC’s comedy “Coupling.” Previously, she had a story arc on NBC's “Just Shoot Me.”
For the big screen, Sofer appeared in director Steven Soderbergh’s highly acclaimed “Traffic.” She also had a featured role opposite Edward Norton, Ben Stiller and Jenna Elfman in Disney’s romantic comedy “Keeping The Faith.” Recently, she filmed the independent feature “Rock Slyde” starring Patrick Warburton, and “The New Daughter” with Kevin Costner.
Sofer resides in Los Angeles with her daughters Rosabel and Avalon, her husband, director/producer Sanford Bookstaver and her father. In her free time, she enjoys activities that keep her fit. She likes to hike and rollerblade, and she is a yoga and Pilates enthusiast.
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DEAN MCDERMOTT (Michael Foster) – Dean McDermott is a veteran film and television actor who has had starring roles in such series as “1-800-Missing” and “Due South,” as well as the Kevin Costner directed film “Open Range.”
McDermott and his wife Tori Spelling were seen opening their own bed and breakfast in the hit Oxygen reality series, “Tori & Dean: Inn Love,” and most recently completed the third season of
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“Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.” They created the show and serve as executive producers alongside Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World of Wonder Productions.
McDermott has made numerous television guest appearances on such popular programming as “The Closer,” “NCIS,” “Without a Trace” and “Kojak,” alongside Ving Rhames. He had a recurring role in the long-running sci-fi series “Earth: Final Conflict.” McDermott also starred in the television movie “Mind Over Murder,” where he met his wife. McDermott was recently seen in the TV movie “The Housesitter,” reunited on camera with Spelling. He also served as executive producer on the project, which aired on Oxygen.
McDermott has received two Gemini Award nominations for his roles in “Lives of Girls and Women,” the TV movie based on the acclaimed Alice Monro novel of the same name, and the CBS mini-series “The Tournament.”
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MAX GAIL (Bill Anderson) - Born and raised in Michigan, Max Gail started his career as a private school teacher before switching over to acting. He began acting in the early 1970s, starring in the San Francisco and New York stage productions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Gail’s career took off when he landed the role of ‘Det. Stan Wojciejowicz’ in the Golden Globe and Emmy® Award winning sitcom “Barney Miller.” During the show’s eight-season run, Gail starred alongside Hal Linden and garnered two Primetime Emmy® nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series. From there, he was cast in the CBS series “Whiz Kids” as well as several TV movies, including “Letting Go” with John Ritter and “Our Shining Moment” for NBC.
His extensive television credits also include the TV movies “Ride with the Wind” for ABC and “Not in This Town” with Ed Begley Jr. Gail has also guest-starred in many hit series, including “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” for CBS and “Home Improvement” and “The Drew Carey Show” for ABC. More recently, Gail has appeared on the award-winning soap opera “Days of Our Lives” and co-starred in the ABC series “Sons and Daughters.” He has also guest starred in such highly acclaimed series as HBO’s “Entourage” and Showtime’s “Dexter,” as well as “Cold Case” and “NCIS” for CBS. He has also played a recurring role in the CBS comedy “Gary Unmarried.”
Gail has not limited himself to television, and since beginning his acting career, he has accumulated numerous film credits. He played ‘King’ in the Sundance Film Festival drama nominee “Heartbreakers” and alongside Chuck Norris in “Forest Warrior.” He also starred in the features “Sodbusters,” “Good Luck,” starring Gregory Hines, “Bloodlines” and “The Tillamook Treasure,” which won Best Children’s/Family Film at three different film festivals.
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In his spare time, Gail pursues his music career, playing the piano, writing, singing and performing. He has even recorded an album of original songs. Gail is an advocate of the potential the Internet provides for social and environmental good, and he is an active community member through his not-for-profit website, www.LAP.org.
Gail currently lives in Southern California and runs Full Circle Productions, which has been responsible for documentaries on topics including Agent Orange, Native Americans, and nuclear issues.
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