The “I Dream of Jeannie” actress appeared with Presley in the 1960 Western movie “Flaming Star.”

Barbara Eden says Elvis was used by Hollywood execs for money: ‘They didn’t think about his career’

The "I Dream of Jeannie" actress appeared with Presley in the 1960 Western movie "Flaming Star."

By Rance Collins

July 3, 2026 7:00 p.m. ET

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Barbara Eden and Elvis Presley in 'Flaming Star'. Credit:

- Barbara Eden feels that Elvis Presley's talent was underutilized by Hollywood executives.

- Eden starred alongside Presley in the 1960 Western *Flaming Star.*

- The movie, a straight drama, was among Presley's least successful but has grown in reputation over the years.

Barbara Eden may be best known as the titular character in the classic sitcom *I Dream of Jeannie*, but her impressive resume also includes starring roles alongside entertainment legends such as Paul Newman, Fred Astaire, and the King himself, Elvis Presley.

In 1960, Eden costarred with Presley in one of the most unique of his 31 narrative features. After he returned from his service in the U.S. Army, Presley was swiftly rushed into the musical comedy *G.I. Blues*, which included 11 songs and a best-selling soundtrack. His follow-up would go in the opposite direction: a straight dramatic Western with only two songs, one of which plays over the opening credits and the other figuring organically into the plot.

Guess which movie made more money?

Barbara Eden in 2026.

Paul Archuleta/Getty

The contrast in box office returns was clear, and for the next decade Presley would get few other opportunities to break out of the musical genre. That Western, *Flaming Star*, has him playing a half-white, half-Native American man attempting to maintain peace as cultures clash in West Texas — a decided departure from a singing G.I. wooing a nightclub performer on a Ferris wheel.

Eden is his love interest in *Flaming Star*, and she was impressed with his skill on set. She tells ** that had Presley been given the opportunity, he could have achieved greater success on screen.

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"He was good. He was good in that movie," Eden says during an interview at Project Angel Food's Lead With Love telethon. "I think all they did was use him to get the money. They didn't think about his career or how talented [he was] — my God. He was wonderful, and he was wonderful singing."

In 2024, Eden expanded on what it was like working with Presley to ABC7's *On the Red Carpet*. "He was such a lovely, sweet gentleman," she said. "When I'd come on the set, he'd get me a chair. Actors don't do that."

She said in an interview with PEOPLE last year, "I remember how good he was. He was a fine actor. This was a part that required good acting, and he did it, boy," and added, "I just think people didn't recognize or appreciate what a fine actor he was, and a lovely, lovely man."

Elvis Presley and Barbara Eden in 'Flaming Star'.

Years after *Flaming Star* was released, Eden recalls to EW how she caught up with Presley while both were performing on the Las Vegas Strip.

"[While] doing *Jeannie*, in between [episodes], I'd go up to Vegas and headline, and one of the times he was down the street," she explains. "And my husband at the time said, 'You have to go down and see [Elvis]."

Eden says she told then-husband Michael Ansara, "I don't know how I can get out. I have two shows." She says she was also worried about developing the notorious "Vegas throat," which refers to a "chronically hoarse-sounding voice, like that gravel you get," according to Dr. Sharon Frank in a piece for the *Las Vegas Sun* in 2001.

"You worry about that… but then I did [go]," Eden continues. "I went to the hotel in between my shows. Oh my God… you walked in, and there was the thrumming of those guitars, and it was just — gives me goosebumps, even now, to talk about it."

See Barbara Eden strike her iconic 'I Dream of Jeannie' pose at 94

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As for *Flaming Star*, while audiences at the time didn't seem to enjoy seeing Presley without the copious song-and-dance routines, critics were kinder. *The New York Times*' A.H. Weiler called the movie "an unpretentious but sturdy Western that takes the time, the place and the people seriously," and said Presley "sits a horse well and is properly brave and stoic."

In a reflection piece for the *NYT* in 2014, J. Hoberman noted that "although the movie is explicitly concerned with the conflict between white settlers and Native Americans, its coded casting, as well as the moment at which it was released, bespeak an even larger historical issue" and was "arguably the best movie Elvis Presley ever made."

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is also a fan, having called the movie "a truly great fifties western, and maybe the most brutally violent American western of its era."

Andy Warhol's 'Double Elvis' on display at London's National Portrait Gallery in 2007.

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty

Perhaps *Flaming Star*'s greatest cultural contribution, however, would be its use as a silkscreen by Andy Warhol in one of his most famous artworks.

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