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. 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.
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.

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