Barbara Rhoades (born March 23, 1946) is an American actress, known primarily for her comedy and mystery roles, especially as lady bandit Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushings in The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968). She had a recurring role on Soap, as Maggie Chandler, Jodie Dallas' future wife.

Biography

Born in 1946 in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she was raised, Rhoades began acting in the late 1960s, playing guest roles on, among other television series, It Takes a Thief, Ironside (3 episodes, including "Dora", as actress who is paid to fake an attempted rape), Mannix, McMillan and Wife, Columbo, Kojak, Alias Smith and Jones, Love, American Style, The Odd Couple, The Six Million Dollar Man, Maude, Trapper John, M.D., and Murder, She Wrote. She was a regular cast member of the 1977 situation comedy Busting Loose, portraying Melody Feebeck.

In 1989, she was cast as Jessica Gardner on Generations. On television into the 2000s, she appeared on a 2003 episode of Law & Order.

A tall (5-foot-10), voluptuous redhead, Rhoades appeared in a number of 1970s films. They include There Was a Crooked Man... (1970), opposite Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda, and Up the Sandbox (1972) starring Barbra Streisand. She played a police officer, "No Balls" Hadley, in 1977's The Choirboys and a Vegas hooker who picks up Art Carney along the road during his Oscar-winning performance in Harry and Tonto (1974). She also had a role in Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl (1977) and 1973's Scream Blacula, Scream. In 2007, she appeared in First Born with Elisabeth Shue.

She joined the American soap opera One Life to Live in 2011, playing the recurring role of Irene Manning, childhood best friend of Victoria Lord (Erika Slezak).

Best films