Barbara Eden Tragedy: Son Dies

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/27/2001 at 06:34 PM EDT

Matthew Ansara, 35, the only child of TV veterans Barbara Eden ("I Dream of Jeannie"), 66, and Michael Ansara ("Broken Arrow"), 79, was found dead in a car parked in a suburban L.A. service station on Monday night, a spokesman for Eden said. Ansara, a fitness trainer and actor, was discovered slumped over the steering wheel by an attendant at a Chevron station, according to publicist Gene Schwam, who said paramedics pronounced Ansara dead at 9:15 p.m. An L.A. County Coroner spokesman told Reuters that there was no trauma to Ansara's body and the cause of death is under investigation. Eden, who had been helping to prepare her son's Sept. 1 wedding to Leanna Green, according to Variety, was "devastated" and "in shock," said Schwam, adding that Ansara had no recent illness. "He was a body builder, he looked like a million bucks."