Adrienne Barbeau, best known for her role as Bea Arthur’s daughter in the iconic ’70s TV sitcom Maude, was spotted walking the streets of Los Angeles this week wearing a pair of red cowboy boots.
The 79-year-old actress has kept her usual short, blow-dried brown hair – and her figure.
Barbeau continues to maintain the body that turned heads during her time on Maude, a spin-off of All in the Family, and the cult classic horror films she was known for in the ’80s.
She was carrying a tan tote bag and a maroon carry-on and appeared to be returning from a trip.
In addition to her statement boots, the actress also wore a gray sweater with a playful variation of red chevron stripes and light-wash jeans as she walked to her red car.
Barbeau described catching the acting bug when she dropped out of Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, to join the San Jose Light Opera.
Adrienne Barbeau, 79, was spotted walking the streets of Los Angeles wearing a pair of red cowboy boots
Barbeau still sported her iconic short, faded brown hair. She was holding a tan tote bag and appeared to be back from travelling, holding a maroon carry-on
With her boots, she wore a gray sweater with a playful variation of red chevron stripes and light-wash jeans as she walked to her red car.
While performing as a dancer at various army bases to entertain troops throughout Southeast Asia, she made the decision in the mid-1960s to try to make it big in New York City.
Barbeau danced in a discotheque-style club as a go-go dancer working “for the mafia,” as she described in her autobiography There Are Worse Things I Could Do.
She next tried her hand on Broadway, starring in the 1968 play Fiddler On The Roof, first as part of the chorus and then as a replacement for the characters Hodel and Bielke.
Barbeau would become a sex symbol when she played the role of Cookie Kovac in the 1971 off-Broadway nudie musical Stag Movie, wandering around naked on stage.
It took 25 musicals before Barbeau finally found fame when she won the role of Rizzo in Grease, which earned her a Theater World Award and a Tony Award nomination in 1972.
When she landed the role of Carol Traynor in the TV comedy series Maude in 1972, she captured the hearts of America.
Barbeau got her big break as Bea Arthur’s daughter in the iconic 1970s TV sitcom Maude. She credited her comedy chops to Arthur
The actress kept the body that turned heads on Maude, a spin-off of All in the Family, alongside the iconic Bea Arthur
Adrienne Barbeau shows off her assets in a blue dress with sparkling black appliqués in the ABC television movie ‘The Great Houdini’
Barbeau wrote in her autobiography, “What I didn’t know is that when I said (my lines), I was usually walking down a flight of stairs and no one was even listening to me. They just watched my breasts leading the way.”
Barbeau described the on-set experience as “pure fun” and deeply respected Arthur for her warm personality and teamwork. Years later, she said her comedic skills were learned from the veteran comedian.
“There are still times when I hear Bea’s delivery coming out of my mouth,” the bombshell shared Closer to weekly in a 2019 interview.
In 1978, the actress released a cheesecake poster – photos of pin-up girls that increased in popularity after the 1940s. It featured Barbeau in the front wearing satin lace lingerie and updoed, messy hair that cemented her status as a sex symbol.
Barbeau met horror filmmaker John Carpenter on the set of his television film Someone’s Watching Me in 1978. They married a year later.
She would appear in his cult classics The Fog (1980) and Escape from New York (1981).
Barbeau met horror filmmaker John Carpenter on the set of his television film Someone’s Watching Me in 1978 and married a year later
Barbeau starred in her then-husband John Carpenter’s 1981 Escape from New York, which became a cult classic, alongside Kurt Russell (right), Harry Dean Stanton (center left) and Ernest Borgnine (left)
After proving herself to be a star of the horror genre, Barbeau starred in Creepshow (1982) and Swamp Thing (1982).
Carpenter and Barbeau had their son Cody, but separated soon after in 1984 and divorced the following year.
Barbeau would remarry producer, screenwriter and actor Billy Van Zandt, whom she met after being cast in his play Drop Dead! The couple would marry in 1982 and Barbeau gave birth to twins Walker Steven and William Dalton, a producer and multi-instrumentalist, in 1997 at the age of 52.
They would file for divorce in 2018.
Barbeau strutted around in a pink figure-hugging suit and also starred in the Burt Reynolds comedy The Cannonball Run (1981) as the driver of a two-door 1979 Lamborghini Countach coupe.
In the opening scene, Barbeau and Tara Buckman race down a highway while being chased by police, before being stopped and raising the ‘scissor doors’ – this was one of the first glimpses of this exotic sports car for Americans.
Barbeau’s 1979 cheesecake poster cemented her as a sex symbol. It was also on the cover of her autobiography – the book’s title played off her previous role as Rizzo in the Grease musical
From left to right: Barbeau, the girlfriend of her son William Asalia Yusupova, her son William Dalton and son Walker Steven – twins whom she gave birth to in 1997 at the age of 52
That same car would be added to the National Historic Vehicle Register in 2021.
After the 1980s, Barbeau attempted to become a television talk show host and a weekly book reviewer for KABC talk radio in Los Angeles.
She guest-starred on shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, appeared in television movies like The Burden of Proof (1982), and began delving into voice acting like Catwoman in Batman: The Animated Series and Gotham Girls.
Most recently she appeared in Argo (2012), reappeared on the theater stage as Berthe in Pepijn in 2015 and voiced Sally Jupiter in Watchman Chapters 1 and 2 in 2024.
Barbeau still lives in the Los Angeles area and often posts photos of her sons and dogs on her Instagram.