Barbi Benton

At 74 years old, Barbi Benton has this physical status:

Barbi Benton (born Barbara Lynn Klein, 1950) is an American actress, comedian, and singer.

She is best known for her appearance in Playboy magazine as a four-season regular on Hee Haw's comedy series and for recording several modestly successful albums in the 1970s.

She moved from show business to raising her children in the 1980s.

Early life

Barbara Lynn Klein was born in New York City to a Jewish family. Her father was a gynecologist, and her mother worked as an investment advisor.

She grew up in Sacramento and attended Rio Americano High School, taking all sorts of lessons, from scuba diving to piano, and even did some "tearoom modeling" when in school. She enrolled in UCLA to become a veterinarian, but she had to decline that career option because she couldn't bear the sight of blood.

Personal life

On October 14, 1979, Benton married real estate developer George Gradow. Alexander and Ariana (born August 23, 1986) have two children. They divide their time between Aspen and Los Angeles.

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Career

She began modeling at the age of 16. She attended UCLA and then moved to Playboy to appear on their entertainment program Playboy After Dark, which was based on high school. She started off as an extra on the show, but after host Hugh Hefner fell in love with Benton, she was quickly promoted to co-host. Hefner asked the young co-ed for a date after recording two episodes. "I don't know, I've never dated anyone over 24 years ago," Hefner said as she approached him. "That's all right, neither have I." Hefner responded, "Neither have I." The two began a long friendship and placed Benton in the midst of the Playboy company. Barbara Klein was convinced by Hefner to change her name from Barbara Klein to Barbi Benton, who is more "marketable." Hugh Hefner was convinced by her mother, who lived in Holmby Hills, in 1974.

Benton (initially credited as Barbi Klein) appeared on Playboy's front page four times, including in July 1969, March 1970, May 1972, and December 1985, as well as in additional nude photo layouts in the December 1973 and 1975 issues. Despite being included in a number of photo essays, she was never named as Playmate of the Month. She landed a stint as a country singer and spent time on television's Hee Haw doing short comedy sketches, and then moved to a career as a country singer. She began acting and appeared in the West German comedy film The Naughty Cheerleader (1970), before being a regular repeater on a number of popular television shows, including The Bobby Vinton Show in 1976, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Benton lived with Hefner from 1969 to 1976, and is best known for locating the Playboy Mansion West, where Hefner lived until his death in 2017. Years later, when the television show The Girls Next Door visited Aspen, Colorado, she expressed indignation that the two children had remained friends.

Benton left Hee Haw after four seasons to work on a more Hollywood-oriented career. She appeared in the short-lived 1977 ABC comedy series Sugar Time! about an aspiring female rock band and others in films including the slasher Hospital Massacre (1982).

Benton was a natural performer, and as a recording artist, she had a lot of success. On Billboard's top-five hits, her album "Brass Buckles" (1975) was a top-five hit on Billboard's country singles chart. Benton has released eight albums, the last of which she produced in 1979. She also wrote the songs, performed them, and played piano. "Ain't That Just the Way" (1976), one of her best-known songs, was released. It was also a big hit in Sweden for five weeks in 1996, and was also a big hit for Lutricia McNeal, and it was first recorded by Dutch singer Patricia Paay under the name Poor Jeremy in 1977.

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