Barbi Benton (born Barbara Lynn Klein; January 28, 1950)[1][2] is an American retired model, actress, television personality, and singer. She appeared in Playboy magazine, as a regular on the comedy series Hee Haw, and recorded several moderately successful albums in the 1970s. After the birth of her first child in 1986, Benton retired from show business.
Benton was born Barbara Lynn Klein in New York City to a Jewish family.[3][4] Her father was a gynecologist and her mother worked as an investment counselor.[1]
Benton grew up in Sacramento and was childhood friends with journalist Joan Lunden.[5] Benton and future Warhol superstarJay Johnson were Junior high school sweethearts.[5] While attending Rio Americano High School she pursued many interests, including scuba diving and playing piano. She also did tearoom modeling of department store clothes while in school. She intended to study to be a veterinarian at UCLA, but decided against that career option after realizing she had an aversion to the sight of blood.[1]
At the age of 16, she began to model. Following high school, while attending UCLA, Benton took a job with Playboy to appear on their entertainment show Playboy After Dark at age 18. She began as an extra on the show, but after host Hugh Hefner fell in love with Benton, her role was quickly elevated to co-host. After recording two episodes, Hefner asked the young co-ed for a date. Upon being asked, she reportedly demurred to the then-42-year-old Hefner: "I don't know, I've never dated anyone over 24 before." To which Hefner replied, "That's all right, neither have I." The two began a relationship that lasted several years, and placed Benton in the center of the Playboy enterprise. Hefner persuaded her to change her name from Barbara Klein to the more "marketable" Barbi Benton. She is credited with persuading Hefner to buy the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills in 1974.
Benton (initially credited as Barbi Klein) appeared on the cover of Playboy four times: July 1969, March 1970, May 1972, and December 1985 and in additional nude photo layouts in the December 1973 and January 1975 issues. Though she was featured in a number of photo-essays, she was never a Playmate of the Month. She landed a spot on television's Hee Haw doing short comedy sketches, and often appeared as a dancer on some of the last series of the Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In shows, and subsequently enjoyed a career as a country singer. She also began acting, and appeared in the West German comedy film The Naughty Cheerleader (1970), before appearing as a featured repeat performer on a number of popular television series, including The Bobby Vinton Show in 1976, The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Benton lived with Hefner from 1969 until 1976 and is known for discovering the Playboy Mansion West, where Hefner resided until his death in 2017.[6] Years later, when the television series The Girls Next Door visited her in Aspen, Colorado, she expressed gratitude that the two had remained friends.
Benton left Hee Haw after four seasons to concentrate on a more Hollywood-oriented career. She also starred in the short-lived 1977 ABC-TV comedy series Sugar Time! about an aspiring female rock group and in films including the slasher Hospital Massacre (1982).
Benton achieved some success as a recording artist, hitting the country charts in the mid 1970s. After beginning her career on Playboy Records in 1974, her record "Brass Buckles" (1975) was a top-five hit on Billboard's country singles chart. Follow-up singles charted modestly through 1976. Her third album, Something New, was oriented more towards the pop market, and featured her only single that made the pop charts, "Staying Power" (which "bubbled under" at #108).
Her final country album Ain't That Just the Way (1978) was released only in Scandinavia; the title track was a number one hit in Sweden for five weeks. The same song was also a major hit for Lutricia McNeal in 1996, and was recorded by the Dutch singer Patricia Paay under the title Poor Jeremy in 1977.
Benton's final album, 1988's Kinetic Voyage was very different from her earlier work. This was a largely instrumental new age album for which Benton composed or co-composed all the songs, played piano and synths, and produced and arranged the work in collaboration with Jamil Szmadzinski.
Benton dated Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner from 1969 to 1976.[7] Hefner asked Benton to marry him four times, but he was unfaithful during their relationship.[7] When Benton pursued a singing career, their relationship deteriorated further as she spent more time on the road touring.[7]
She married real estate developer George Gradow on October 14, 1979.[1] They have two children, Alexander and Ariana. They divide their time between homes in Aspen and Los Angeles. Their Aspen home, known as ”The Copper Palace” was designed by architect Bart Prince[8] and featured on MTV's ’’Extreme Cribs’’.[9]
McCloud (1975), playing Shannon Forbes in episode "Park Avenue Pirates", performed "Brass Buckles" and "Ain't That Just The Way", in character, during the course of the episode
The Girls Next Door, as herself in "Fight Night" (2005), "Guess Who's Coming to Luncheon?" (2007), "Kickin' Aspen" (2008), and "The Wheel World" (2009)
The E! True Hollywood Story – Hugh Hefner: Girlfriends, Wives, and Centerfolds (2006), as herself.
Extreme Cribs: Episode 5 (2011), as herself
Million Dollar Rooms (2012, HGTV), featuring her "Copper Palace" mansion in Aspen, Colorado
I Love My Life (1982). This production of the hit 1978 Broadway musical comedy co-starred Barry Williams and was performed in January 1982 as part of the annual theatrical series at the La Mirada Civic Theatre in California. Benton received upbeat reviews for her performance as "Chloe."[11]
^Hinant, Cindy (Winter 2012). "Grids Next Door". Gnome. 1 (1): 48–53. The California Mansion, or Playboy Mansion West, is a Tudor Gothic mansion in Los Angeles found by then girlfriend, Barbi Benton.
