Barbara Bourbon was born in California. Barbara spent the first sixteen years of her life on Indian reservations in the Pauma Valley north of San Diego. Following graduation from Fallbrook High School in Fallbrook, California, Bourbon went on to attend both San Marcus Jr. College and San Diego State University for one year each as well as attended Palomar College for two years as a drama major. After finishing college Barbara moved to Boston, Massachusetts for three years where she was a member of the Boston Repertory Company. Moreover, Bourbon played the lead in stage productions of such plays as "Of Mice and Men" and "Man of La Mancha." (She also has an uncredited walk-on in Le Parrain, 2ᵉ partie (1974).) Barbara acted in several adult films that were made in the 1970's; she's best known for playing the title character in Radley Metzger's erotic masterpiece The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1974). In the wake of her fleeting foray into adult cinema Bourbon went on to become a successful interior designer and property developer.