Barbara Barrie, Oscar nominee and Tony winner, dies at 95
The actress known for roles in 'Breaking Away' and 'Company' died at her Manhattan home after a battle with terminal cancer.
By Sofia Ramirez ·
Actress Barbara Barrie died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 95 years old. Her daughter, Jane Harnick, told The New York Times that Barrie had terminal cancer and that her death was medically assisted.
Barrie earned an Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in the 1979 film Breaking Away. She played the mother of a young man obsessed with bicycle racing. The character was based in Bloomington, Indiana. Barrie asked the director, Peter Yates, to add a scene where she shows her passport to her son. She told him she wanted a connecting moment between the mother and child. That scene, where she encourages him to follow his dreams, became part of the final cut. She lost the Oscar to Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer.
Her stage career included a Tony Award nomination for the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Company. She played Sarah, the wife of a man with a drinking problem. The show received 14 Tony nominations in 1970. Barrie also performed in the first Broadway runs of Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite. More recently, she appeared in Joshua Harmon's 2017 play Significant Other.
Television audiences recognized her from the ABC sitcom Barney Miller, where she played the wife of the police captain. She also had a recurring role as a grandmother on the NBC series Suddenly Susan. In 1964, she won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival for One Potato, Two Potato. The film, directed by Larry Peerce, depicted an interracial marriage in a small Ohio town. It is considered the first U.S. movie to portray such a relationship.
Barrie was born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago on May 23, 1931. She moved to Texas at age 9 and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. She moved to New York to work with an actor boyfriend and took a job as a typist to pay rent. She made her Broadway debut in 1955 in The Wooden Dish. A recommendation from Katharine Hepburn helped her join the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut.
She was married to Jay Harnick from 1964 until his death in 2007. They met at an audition and were friends for 12 years before marrying. Harnick was the founder of TheatreworksUSA. Barrie survived by her son Aaron, a Broadway producer, and three grandchildren. She also wrote two novels and two books about her health struggles.
