Maude star Adrienne Barbeau, 79, still looks youthful 50 years after playing a sex kitten, see her now

Adrienne Barbeau was a sexy pinup in the 1976 TV movie The Great Houdini.

The brunette beauty from California also played Bea Arthur’s daughter in the iconic 70’s TV sitcom Maude which was a spinoff of All In The Family.

In 1980s she starred as one of the few females in Escape From New York with Kurt Russell. And she also worked with Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore and Burt Reynolds in 1981’s Cannonball Run. 

The 79-year-old actress proved on Thursday that she has maintained her good looks even as she approaches 80.

The movie star was seen attending a Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony for her ex husband, Halloween director John Carpenter, as he got his star.

The two Hollywood veterans were wed from 1979 until 1984.

Barbeau looked much younger than her years as she modeled a leopard-print jacket over a white shirt with black leather slacks. 

Adrienne Barbeau was a sexy pinup in the 1980s as she starred in films like Escape From New York with Kurt Russell. The brunette beauty from California also played Bea Arthur’s daughter in the iconic 70’s TV sitcom Maude which was a spinoff of All In The Family

And she also worked with Farrah Fawcett, Roger Moore and Burt Reynolds in 1981’s Cannonball Run

Barbeau got her start as a dancer at various army bases to entertain troops throughout Southeast Asia.

She then made the decision to try to make it big in New York City in the mid-1960s.

Barbeau danced at a discotheque-style club as a go-go dancer who worked ‘for the mob,’ as she described in her autobiography There Are Worse Things I Could Do.

She then tried her hand at Broadway, starring in the 1968 play Fiddler On The Roof, first as part of the chorus and then stepping up as a replacement for the characters Hodel and Bielke.

Barbeau would become a sex symbol when she starred as Cookie Kovac in the 1971 off-Broadway nudie musical Stag Movie, strutting around naked on stage.

It took 25 musicals for Barbeau to finally achieve acclaim when she won the role of Rizzo in Grease, which won her a Theatre World Award and a 1972 Tony Award nomination.

When she landed the role of Carol Traynor on the TV comedy series Maude in 1972, she won the hearts of America.

With Bea Arthur in 70’s TV sitcom Maude; she attributed her comedy chops to Arthur

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 were just watching my breasts precede me.’

Barbeau described the experience on set as ‘sheer fun’ and deeply respected Arthur for her warm personality and teamwork – saying years later that her comedy chops were learned from the veteran comedian.

‘There are still times when I hear Bea’s delivery coming out of my mouth,’ the bombshell told Closer Weekly in a 2019 interview.

In 1978, the actress released a cheesecake poster – photos of pin-up girls that grew in popularity post-1940s. It featured Barbeau front-facing with satin lace lingerie and pinned-up, messy hair which solidified 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-classic films The Fog (1980) and Escape from New York (1981).

The 79-year-old actress proved on Thursday that she has maintained her good looks even as she approaches 80. The  star attended a Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony for her ex husband, Halloween director John Carpenter. They were wed from 1979 until 1984

(L-R) Greg Nicotero, Kurt Russell, Carpenter, Keith David, Sandy King, Hugo Soto-Martinez, Jerry Neuman and Steve Nissen 

Barbeau met horror filmmaker Carpenter on the set of his television film Someone’s Watching Me in 1978 and married a year later; seen in 1980

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 (middle left) and Ernest Borgnine (left)

After proving herself to be a horror genre star, Barbeau acted in Creepshow (1982) and Swamp Thing (1982).

Carpenter and Barbeau had their son Cody but separated shortly after in 1984, divorcing the following year.

Barbeau would remarry producer, screenplay writer and actor Billy Van Zandt, who she met after she was cast in his play Drop Dead! The pair would marry in 1982 and Barbeau gave birth to twins Walker Steven and William Dalton, a producer and multi-instrumentalist, at age 52 in 1997.

They would file for divorce in 2018.

Flaunting around in a pink skin-tight suit, Barbeau 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 speed down a highway as they’re chased by police, before being pulled over and raising the ‘scissor doors’ up – this was one of the first glimpses of this exotic sports car for Americans.

From left to right: Barbeau, her son William’s girlfriend Asalia Yusupova, her son William Dalton and son Walker Steven – who are twins she gave birth to at the age of 52 in 1997

That same car would be added to the National Historic Vehicle Register in 2021.

After the 1980s, Barbeau tried her hand at becoming a television talk show host and a weekly book reviewer for KABC talk radio in Los Angeles.

She guest-starred in shows like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, appeared in made-for-television films such as The Burden of Proof (1982) and began dabbling in voice acting such as Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series and Gotham Girls.

Most recently, she appeared in Argo (2012), reappeared on the theater stage as Berthe in Pippin in 2015 and voiced Sally Jupiter in Watchman Chapters 1 and 2 in 2024.

Barbeau still resides in the Los Angeles area and often posts photos of her sons and dogs on her Instagram.