Barbara Niven

Barbara Lee Niven (née Bucholz; born February 26, 1953 ) is an American actress, writer, and producer, best known for her performances in Hallmark and Lifetime movies, and for television roles in Pensacola: Wings of Gold, One Life to Live, Cedar Cove, and Chesapeake Shores.

Barbara Lee Bucholz was born in 1953 in Portland, Oregon, to parents George and Edie Bucholz.

She has two sisters, Shelley and Kim, and attended David Douglas High School.

She has stated that she knew when she was five that she wanted to be an actress.

She grew up hunting and fishing and was a senior in high school before she got involved in acting.

After high school, she attended college for six months, worked as export coordinator for a foundry, a general contractor, sold commercial real estate, and modelled.

She married at twenty-one and had a business with her husband.

Niven became a mother at twenty-six.

After a divorce, and with no child support, she found a place to live with roommates to help with expenses.

Her ten-year high school reunion committee mailed a questionnaire, with the final inquiry being, "have you achieved everything in your life that you thought you would by now?"

The realization that she had not started acting made Niven declare to herself that she was "going to be an actor" and "going to be in show business somehow."

Acknowledging a penchant for being on camera and knowing that she enjoyed writing, she decided to look for a job in news reporting.

Niven went to see the news director at KGW in Portland and asked to make sample stories for him to critique.

She promised to ‘pay it forward’ if she had a successful career.

He agreed and provided a typical script.

She was later hired as an intern, and her story about the White House Easter Egg Roll made the network news.

She spent hours reading from the theater section of Powell's Books and memorized a monologue from Neil Simon's Chapter Two.

In the early 1980s, there was a nationwide search to replace the character Tina Lord on One Life to Live.

One audition was held in Seattle.

Niven drove in freezing rain from Portland, taped the monologue, and drove back home without telling anyone what she had done.

She was one of several people chosen to go to New York for a screen test.

In New York she was told by Mari Lyn Henry, then ABC casting director, that she did not have star quality and her voice would only lead to victims' roles.

She went back to Portland determined to work on her voice and her craft.

She got a retired Radio Man to be her voice coach.

She was cast in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s 1986 Promise, which filmed in Oregon.

She received her SAG card on this movie.

When her daughter was ten, she packed their belongings into a truck and trailer and moved to Los Angeles.

For twelve years, she attended the master classes of Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

Between 1986 and 1993 she was billed as Barbara Lee Alexander, and as Barbara Lee Niven for the film Lone Tiger (1994).see Filmography She is known for her roles on soap operas The Bold and the Beautiful as Brenda Dickerson, and in One Life to Live as Liz Coleman Reynolds.

She served for three years on the National Board of Directors for the Screen Actors Guild.

From March 20 - September 8, 1989, she was hostess and announcer, with host Michael Burger, for the syndicated game show, Straight to the Heart.

Niven starred on the syndicated drama series Pensacola: Wings of Gold (1998-2000).

Niven also has appeared in guest roles on numerous television series, including ER, Cold Case, Las Vegas, NCIS, Charmed, Eli Stone, and Parks and Recreation.

Additionally, she had multiple roles on Silk Stalkings, and a recurring role on Pacific Palisades.

She played Marilyn Monroe in the HBO film The Rat Pack (1998) and has appeared in many films such as Under Lock and Key (1995), Forest Warrior (1996), Foxfire (1996), Breast Men (1997), The Drone Virus (2004), Chasing Ghosts (2005), Redline (2007), and Summer's Blood (2009).

In 2000, served as a celebrity blue-team contestant for St. Thomas on Search Party.

Niven has also appeared in over a dozen Lifetime movies, including Stranger in My Bed (2005), The Perfect Neighbor (2005), Double Cross (2006), Murder in My House (2006), The Rival (2006), A Valentine Carol (2007), Black Widow (2008), Dead at 17 (2008), Accused at 17 (2009), Heat Wave (2009), My Mother's Secret (2012), Home Invasion (2012), The Wife He Met Online (2012), and Disney Channel's Tiger Cruise (2004).

Niven had the leading role in the independent film A Perfect Ending (2012).

She is also a motivational speaker, media trainer and animal rights activist, and a National Ambassador for American Humane.

She had the leading role in A Perfect Ending (2012) and co-starred with Kat Dennings and Ray Wise in the horror comedy Suburban Gothic (2014).